Standardization Process of WiMax

A consortium with the name WiMax Forum is at the forefront of standardizing the wimax technology. The wimax forum is an industry-led, non-profit corporation formed to promote and certify compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products with support for the industry-wide acceptance of the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN wireless MAN standards.

The WiMax Forum

The Forum was established in 2003 and has two levels of membership, principal and regular, principal members consist of System manufacturers, Companies that make broadband wireless systems, PHY semiconductors, MAC semiconductors or PHY/MAC semiconductors, the regular members consists of Service providers, Antenna vendors RF semiconductor vendors and others. Approximately 350+ companies are members of the forum including Intel corporations, AT&T and several major players in the wireless industry.

The wimax forum is positioning itself to deliver value to all the stakeholders in the industry, faster and cheaper access that is more widely available for end-users, fewer product variations and higher volumes for component vendor and equipment interoperability across vendors for network operators.The wimax forum has put in place mechanism in line with the basic principles of standardisation, which are voluntary,open,consensus,public,general purpose for the public and compatibility(between generations).