Proposal for the methodology of planning and evaluation of the economic viability for fixed WiMAX systems

Fixed WiMAX is leading broadband wireless technology which provides broadband access to Internet for multiple users by using one or more base stations. As it is relatively new technology, there is very limited number of papers and published literature on this subject which are dealing with planning issues and giving a precise evaluation of economic feasibility for implementing WiMAX on specific area. Papers in question are dealing mostly with coverage planning or traffic planning. This approach does not give the possibility to answer a question regarding the economic feasibility of implementing the system itself, because it concerns planning the network in order to plan coverage or to respond to traffic demands. In this paper we give a proposition for the methodology that considers all relevant parameters, and provides a proposition for the network architecture in the way that both user demands are fulfilled: demands for the coverage on specific areas as well as the traffic demands. Methodology that is presented in this paper has been applied for the planning of a specific network in the chosen area in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it provided estimation for the investment necessary for the system, as well as the evaluation of revenue possibly generated by the users if proposed services are used. This provides evaluation of the economic feasibility of implementation for fixed WiMAX network in specific area.