Measurements and evaluation of the network performance of a fixed WiMAX system in a suburban environment

Fixed WiMAX can be a solution for delivering broadband wireless access, because of its low deployment costs and its offered bandwidth. But it is of great importance that this technology can offer the same network performance as its competitors. We therefore propose in this paper the results of extensive measurements of the network performance (i.e., throughput, latency, and jitter) of an 802.16-based system during a field trial, and investigate the influence of different base station and WiMAX modem heights. We also analyze the correlation of these network performance characteristics with distance and carrier-to-interference-noise ratio (CINR). It is shown that the latter can be used for developing reliable and accurate semi-empirical models of these network performance characteristics. These models can then be used to estimate throughput, latency, and jitter by means of CINR measurements