Wireless Internet over LMDS: Architecture and experimental implementation

LMDS is currently a promising emerging technology in broadband fixed wirele ss communications. Cellular structure, high data rates, and flexibility mak e it perfect for multimedia, digital television, and interactive services. These high-bandwidth multimedia services received most of the research atte ntion until lately. Until recently there has been a clear gap when consider ing UDP/TCP/IP and other data services over LMDS. In this article we examin e the ramifications of using standard TCP/IP data communication over a two- layer LMDS system. We argue that the former emphasis only on multimedia and ATM-based communication over LMDS was a mistake. The most exciting prospec t for LMDS should be in the role of enabling Internet and data services tog ether with multimedia. We introduce a basic architecture for two-layer IP-L MDS based on a trial network built between 1996 and 2000.