Propagation study and performance evaluation of a fixed access WiMAX system

This paper aims at performing a more detailed coverage and performance analysis of wireless metropolitan area networks based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is the basis of WiMAX technology. A coverage study and performance evaluation of fixed access WiMAX system in an urban and suburban environment with the help of a software simulation tool is presented. All the required parameters are given to the program focusing only in suitable propagation models such as COST231-HATA and SUI-C. The highest performance modulation (64-QAM) and coding schemes provide the worst coverage, whereas increasing the channel bandwidth BW leads to a coverage reduction. Very promising results were also extracted, when utilizing multiple antennas. It is also found that in a 4×2 system the average received power at the limits of each cell is enhanced about 6.1 dB in comparison with the SISO case.