WiMax for the marines?
Capts. Robert Guice and Ramon Munoz argued in their master’s thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., last year that long-range WiMax technology that hundreds of companies worldwide are developing could, with some modifications, meet all the broadband data-networking requirements of the multibillion-dollar JTRS program.
WiMax vendors said they could license their broadband radio software to DOD, allowing the military to take advantage of a technology that Intel chief executive officer Craig Barrett predicted this January would be available in laptop computers for an added cost of $100 to $200.
Guice and Munoz said that in some cases, WiMax, also known as IEEE 802.16, can perform better for battlefield users than the planned JTRS Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW).
Guice and Munoz said WiMax can transmit in a ground environment up to 30 miles, while the WNW standard would cover only a 6.2-mile range. WiMax also provides data rates up to 120 megabits/sec vs. WNW’s 5 megabits/sec.