Re: Wimax

[Patrick Ziegler <patrick.ziegler@fh-kl.de>]

Dan Williams schrieb:
> On Tue, 2007-11-13 at 12:51 +0100, Patrick Ziegler wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> is there any support for Wimax network cards in the kernel yet ?
>>     
>
> No, unless those cards work like broadband cellular cards and just
> present a USB serial interface to the kernel.  I haven't been able to
> get a hold of WiMAX parts yet (preferably 802.16e-2005 mobile wimax
> parts like the Airspan MiMAX USB) not that I've tried extremely hard.
>   
I don't believe that the cards act like a broadband cellular cards. I 
had a Wimax PCMCIA card for a short time in my Hand and it didn't act as 
a serial device. In the near future I will get a Wimax ExpressCard 
(Zyxel MAX-706) with which I can make more and intensive tests.
>   
>> is this the right mailing list for this topic ?
>>     
>
> Probably for now, yes.
>
>   
>> is someone working on a Wimax integration ?
>>     
>
> I've been thinking about WiMAX for quite a while, but only recently have
> real cards started to appear.  My fear is that with WiMAX, Linux will be
> where it was with 802.11 3 years ago.  No hardware support, no vendor
> support, nothing.
>
> The problem with WiMAX is that many operators have _licensed_ spectrum
> for WiMAX.  The software stack is more complicated, and vendors may put
> more and more software on the host rather than in firmware.  However,
> since software stack will deal with things like QoS in licensed spectrum
> and whatnot, vendors may close the stack and do things like binary blobs
> linked to the kernel module, or things like the old IPW regulatory
> daemon.  Not sure how to avoid that.
>   
Oh this vision sounds not good.

Patrick