3rd Mobile WiMAX Plugfest

The idea of Plugfests (group tests) is one of several venues used by numerous technology consortiums. The venue is a means for providing vendors the opportunity to address potential ambiguities and improve the testing scenarios and capabilities in a technology standard.

This WiMAX Plugfest is a seven days long event hosted by ETSI and AT4 wireless, carried out to primarily validate and verify the interoperability of a vendor's equipment with other vendor's equipment. A vendor is considered to be interoperable once they have demonstrated that their hardware is able to send and receive packets of data and signaling with two other vendors involving base and mobile stations for a selected certification profile. Before the Plugfest venue takes place, participating vendors must agree on a set of RF/PHY characteristics within a given certification profile. In all instances, a minimum of 3 vendors for IEEE 802.16e-2005 must be available to conduct interoperability testing in a certification profile. Ideally, a minimum of 5 to 6 vendors to execute the planning of a WiMAX Plugfest are required.

The key objectives and benefits of a Plugfest are:

• Identify differing standards interpretations
• Identify interoperability problems
Encourage open and unambiguous technical discussions
• Prepare a vendor to submit their products for formal certification testing
• Continuously improve the quality of interoperability testing to ensure a viable WiMAX Certification process.

146 Participants in the following categories

Participating Vendors:
Airspan Networks Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, Amicus Wireless Technology, ApaceWave Technologies, Aperto Networks, Beceem Communications, Fujitsu, Intel Corporation, Intel Innovation Tecnologies, GCT Semiconductor, Motorola Inc, Navini Networks, NEC Europe Ltd., Nortel Networks, Picochip Designs Ltd., Postdata, Redline Communications, Runcom Technologies Ltd., Samsung Electronics Corp., Sanyo Electrics Corp., Sequans Communications, SOMA Networks, Wavesat Inc., XRONet Corporation and ZTE Corporation.

Participating Test Tool Vendors:
Aeroflex, Agilent Technologies, Anritsu Corporation, AT4 Wireless, Azimuth Systems, Electrobit, Rohde & Schwarz, Sanjole.

Hosts and collaborators:
AT4 Wireless, the WiMAX Forum & ETSI.