Broad adoption of WiMAX networks and the fulfillment of the WiMAX "vision" greatly depend on the proliferation of WiMAX chipsets into battery operated mobile devices, including handsets, ultra mobile PCs and a variety of consumer electronic devices. One gating factor had been the power consumption of the WiMAX subsystem which puts a drain on batteries. The WiMAX chipset ecosystem has made great strides in this area. But have they met the "low power bar" necessary for wide adoption of WiMAX into mobile devices? Trendsmedia, the organizers of the WiMAX World 2008 show, which took place in Chicago, USA on September 30 through October 2nd 2008 wanted to find out. WiMAX20/20, a leading WiMAX consultancy was recruited to organize the WiMAX Live - Low Power CPE Chipset Shootout. A first in the WiMAX industry, this session gave an opportunity to WiMAX chipset vendors to show live measurements of their low power solutions and explain how they are meeting the low power challenge. Among the merchant chipset vendors that were invited to the shootout were Altair, Beceem, Comsys, GCT, Intel, NextWave, Runcom, Sequans, and WaveSAT.
In order to establish a low power performance bar, the latest and most popular 3G handheld devices were surveyed to determine the battery life performance of these devices. Both EVDO and HSDPA based products were reviewed including the Palm Treo, Apple 3G iPhone, and the RIM Blackberry. A review of specifications concluded that "Talk Time" for these devices ranged between 4 hours and 6 hours. Similarly, Internet usage time averaged between 5 hours and 6 hours. WiMAX20/20 established two performance bars as follows:
