Standards in the 802.16 family, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), describe wireless broadband over distances longer than a local wireless network. The signal uses microwave bands, and the work was framed as a metropolitan access standard.
A base station was meant to serve many homes and offices across a neighborhood or a wider city area. That is a different job from a short-range local wireless network, which only has to reach devices in one room, home, or small office. WiMAX is the name used for products and networks built to this family.
What the Standard Was Meant to Do
The standard’s job was shared broadband access at metropolitan scale.
- Coverage. Reach past a single building so one radio site can serve a surrounding area.
- Many subscribers. Homes, offices, and other endpoints share the base station rather than each needing a private local network.
- Microwave radio. The access link is a microwave signal, not a wire run to every location.
- Common behavior. Equipment from different makers was expected to interoperate on the same network.
How a Link Is Arranged
A deployment splits the work between the site that transmits and the sites that receive.
- Base station. The radio that covers the service area and schedules access for the subscribers it can hear.
- Subscriber station. The radio at a home, office, or other endpoint that joins that coverage.
- Path onward. Traffic that arrives over the air continues onto a wider network behind the base station.
Longer Range and a Local Network
One job carries broadband farther than a local network. The other connects devices that are already close together.
| Comparison | Longer-Range Wireless Broadband | Short-Range Local Wireless Network |
| Distance | Farther than one room or building, across a neighborhood or a city area | A room, a home, or a small office |
| Who it serves | Many subscribers sharing a base station | Devices near a single access point |
| Medium | Microwave radio bands | A local wireless link |
| Purpose | Metropolitan broadband access | A private network in one place |