Broadband wireless access

This article reviews the technologies and potential markets, applications, and architectures for broadband wireless access. The emergence of wireless communications for cellular systems is presented, together with its projected future evolution to mobile wideband systems. The field of broadband access systems, services, and network architectures is also covered, and then systems for broadband wireless communications for indoor local area networks and outdoor public fixed access networks are discussed. Broadband wireless access systems are emerging as a new and growing area of telecommunications, since the ability to provide access without extensive installation of copper or fiber infrastructures make wireless technology well suited for broadband services. Finally, some of the key enabling technologies, such as adaptive antennas and video compression, and the future architectural directions of broadband wireless networks are presented.