In today’s environment of ever increasing requirements for operators to provide cost-effective and commercially viable broadband services, WiMAX has become a technology of choice.
Only a few WiMAX vendors have been offering beamforming-enabled equipment, with solutions based on 4- and 8-antenna array systems. Such solutions provide vast improvement in terms of coverage and capacity compared to previous generations of WiMAX equipment.
The objective of this white paper is to determine which WiMAX solutions are the most commercially attractive to telecoms operators, by quantifying the total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with beamforming-capable WiMAX systems compared with those solutions that are not capable of supporting this technology.
We have developed a total cost of ownership (TCO) model which proves that, over a five-year period, operators in developed and developing countries could approximately halve their TCO if they choose to deploy 8-antenna beamforming systems instead of the more traditional 2-antenna systems with no beamforming capabilities.
An 8-antenna beamforming system offers significantly greater coverage (225%) and capacity (47%) than 2-antenna non-beamforming systems. The combination of greater coverage and capacity typically results in the former requiring 69% fewer sites. The more capable 8-antenna beamforming radios are more expensive than their 2-antenna non-beamforming radio counterparts.
However, operational expenditure (opex) is the dominating cost item over a five-year period (accounting for 60–70% of the total costs associated with each site). Consequently, the reduction in site count for the 8-antenna systems completely overwhelms the higher costs of the radios, resulting in a roughly 63% TCO reduction for the access network over the five-year period.
Figure 1 below illustrates the relative access network TCO for the developed country case study (it does not include any other part of the network).
Figure 1: Relative access network TCO for 2-, 4- and 8-antenna systems for developed countries [Source: Analysys Mason]
The overall network TCO is obtained by adding other capex and opex components (such as core network capex and opex, sales and marketing, general and administrative (G&A) costs). The five-year TCO for operating an 8-antenna WiMAX system with beamforming capabilities is 55% less than operating a 2-antenna non-beamforming system, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Total five-year TCO for the developed country case study [Source: Analysys Mason]
There are additional benefits associated with 8-antenna beamforming systems:
- overall, they are more reliable with fewer dropped transmissions at the boundaries between cells, offering the marketing advantage of better, more reliable service
- moreover, 8-antenna systems require the deployment of fewer sites, thus giving operators more flexibility when building out their network in any area where zoning or environmental regulations make sites scarce or resources hard to secure
- in addition to the cost advantages, the use of fewer sites facilitate a faster network rollout, advancing revenues and shortening of the return-on-investment period.
Download the white paper on 'Total cost of ownership (TCO) of beamforming-enabled WiMAX systems' (2MB).