High Speed Wireless Broadband Network in Malaysia

The intention of this final year project is to study about the high speed wireless broadband network in Malaysia. This project consists of two major parts; which are investigating of problems of service in wireless broadband network and improvement and enhancement in wireless broadband network in Malaysia. For each part, is further divided into the making of comparison between wireless broadband providers in Malaysia. The research part requires the study about the improvement and enhancement about the wireless broadband technology in Malaysia and the latest technology that can be implement in Malaysia.

In this project, for the comparison part, focused on famous and big company of wireless broadband provider such as Celcom ,DiGi,Telekom Malaysia and P1WiMAX in their technology and problems occur. Apart from this, we will know the best technology in wireless broadband. The project of the development of wireless technology throughout Malaysia should be view not only from the provider side but also from the user point of view. Furthermore, user wants the best for them and the main aspect in enhancing the wireless technology in Malaysia.

This final year project gave exposure in about all the technology been used in implementing the wireless technology. Any related or useful knowledge gained during formal study was able to be applied during the completion of this project. Furthermore, this project also gave valuable experience throughout the research in searching for the information.

This project is very useful and meaningful as high speed wireless broadband has a very wide range of user. The technology is usually use to connect people everywhere and one of the key of information. The advantages in using wireless broadband over fixed line cable of these systems are wireless technology not using any cable so it is wireless and portable. It also has premier performance depending on the technology being used.

• MOTIVATION:

The author has been motivated to write this report for various reasons.Scientific research in the wireless multimedia communication field is growing fast.Futhermore,the design of different technologies in wireless broadband technology offering different performance will make the author eager to find out the best for both users and providers.

The impressive evolution of mobile networks and the potential of wireless multimedia communication pose many questions to operators,manufacturers and scientists working in the field.The future scenario is open to several alternatives such as thoughts,proposals and activities of the near future could provide the answer to open points and dictate the better and improved trends of wireless world.Because of this,the author is very enthusiasm to participate in the research to the Malaysia in enhancing and developing the wireless technology.

Nowadays, the usage of Internet is become essential in human’s life. Internet can help us in doing many tasks in our daily life. One can say that life mean nothing without Internet market. However the browsing activity will occur some problems such as the coverage, speed and other limitation. This phenomenon has inspired the author to research the high speed wireless technology that will bring benefit to the user. This research will help both provider and user in bringing wireless technology to the further stage.

• OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:

The main objective of this project is to study and research about the high speed wireless broadband network and to compare the main wireless broadband providers in Malaysia. The research will reveal the best provider and technology for the customer to choose. Therefore, in order to achieve the target, the objectives listed below should be met.

Firstly is to analyze on each technology that been use to come out with the best technique to make this wireless technology better. Secondly, is to study the improvement and enhancement in wireless broadband network in Malaysia and finally, the most crucial part of the project is to make comparisons between main wireless broadband network provider in Malaysia by considering in many aspect such as their technology, problems and services.

• PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

In this project, a detail research about wireless broadband in Malaysia had been studied. For the improvement and enhancement in wireless broadband part, the main goal is to improve and enhance the technology of the wireless.

The requirement for this research is the wireless broadband technology must require both provider and user satisfaction. Both providers and users want to improve coverage, call quality, lower the cost, traffic management and the services.

All of this can be achieve by using better technology such as HSDPA,iBurst™,WiMAX and others so that the final product will be easy to install, best quality, affordable and portable

The main wireless in Malaysia are DiGi,P1WiMAX,Celcom and Maxis. This provider use different technology for “last mile”. So, comparison has been proceed between those technologies so find their pro and cons.

This report and project is intended for use by graduate students approaching research activities in the wireless communications area and by professional engineers and project managers involve in wireless design,aiming for better and at consolidating their future vision of the wireless multimedia world.

Current mobile and wireless system and architectural concepts must evolve in order to cope with complex connectivity requirements and also users’ need. Scientific research in this truly multidisciplinary field is growing fast. This project will discover and reveal about the new technologies,new architectural concepts and new challenges that are emerging.

• PROJECT ARRANGEMENT

This project comprises of two major parts which are compare and research part. For the comparison part, it can be further separated into the customer side and the provider side.In order to satisfy both sides,survey been made and interview been proceed.The information achieved from the company will be private and confidential similar to the personal information of the customer .This is true data from both side without any hesitate from them.

This project was handled by two persons. The persons who are involved in this project are the author and partner; The author is responsible in improvement and enhancement in wireless broadband network in Malaysia while Nur Kamila Mohd Kamil is responsible in investigating of problems of service in wireless broadband network.Both of us will focus on comparison between the main wireless provider is Malaysia.

• THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT:

• Initial Stage:

Initially, a complete and comprehensive literature review is done to gain as many information as possible, to ensure a thorough understanding before any planning or generating of ideas is done to generally start the project. The entire literature review consists of a variety of information obtained from the Internet, books, journals that have information about wireless broadband.

• Development Stage:

In this development stage, the entire information gathered in the first stage is investigating all the information collected at the first stage.At this stage also we have done comparing the wired cable and also wireless broadband by interviewing Telekom Berhad.We distributing survey to know customer point of view.To collect more information,we also interview other broadband provider.

• Final Stage

In this final stage, the process for this project becomes more complicated and specific. It is because this final stage deals with compiling and analyzing the data and information collected at the initial and development stage.

However, collecting data is still proceed in this stage as there are a lot of information and wireless broadband is getting wider and the technology are getting better day by day. That is why this stage is very important in learning how to adapt the technologies that never stop growing, which is invaluable to any engineering student.

• CHAPTER OVERVIEW:

This report has been conceived to cover several traditionally separated chapters,there by offering the complete guide to approach issues related to the wireless multimedia communication network improvement and enhancement.

Chapter 1 covers the objectives that the author wants to achieve to ensure the success of this project and the overall ideas related to the project are explained in detail.

Chapter 2 covers literature review on the improving and enhancing the wireless broadband and background of the major technologies that been studied in completing this project. This chapter contains a brief overview of all the theory that was collected throughout the researched.

Chapter 3 covers methodology involved in this project. The method to obtain all those result described.

Chapter 4 contains result from the analyzing all the data collected in this project through research, interview and survey. This result is described base on the theory researched before.

Chapter 5 contains the conclusion for the entire project and its achievements.Recommendations for future improvement is also stated in this chapter.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW:

In this chapter 2,the report will provides the readers with all those technologies adopted in current wireless communication systems and the author also presents some proposed the latest technologies that already implement abroad to be done in Malaysia.This chapter will be devided into 2 parts; improvement part and enhancement part.Chapter 2 also explained about the Malaysia’s government plan in developing broadband technology and also overview about the main wireless broadband providers in Malaysia.

INTRODUCTION TO BROADBAND:

Any type of transmission technique that carries some data channels over a common wire refers to broadband.DSLservice, combines separate voice and data channels over a single telephone line, is one of the case of broadband technology. Broadband constitutes any form of high-speed Internet access using this transmission technique in home networking. Voice fills the low end of the frequency spectrum and data fills the high end in DSL.

General broadband Internet technologies are both DSL and cable modem. Devices that support both DSL and cable are broadband routersand broadbandmodems.Fiber (FTTH)and fixed wireless are other types of home broadband. Can bear the network bandwidth at least 256Kbpsfor connections in one direction is a general guideline to meet the criteria as a broadband Internet service.

The term broadband generally refers to high-speed Internet access that faster than the typical dial-up access and that is always on. Broadband is dissimilar from dail-up where broadband service supplies higher-speed of data transmission. The transmission “pipeline” will allows extra content to be carried through it. On the other hand, broadband offers access to the highest quality Internet services such as streaming media, VoIP (Internet phone), gaming, and interactive services. Many of these current and newly-developing services require the transition of large amounts of data that may not be technically practical with dial-up service. Therefore, broadband service may be ever more necessary to access the full range of services and opportunities that the Internet can offer. Broadband is always on so there is no need to reconnect to network after logging off. For this reason it does not block phone lines. Broadband has less delay in transmission of content.

(http://www.broadband.gov/about_broadband.html).

• Broadband in Malaysia:

Malaysian broadband users are growing in numbers every day.According to an AC Nielsen survey in 2009,Malaysians ranked third in the global ranking of the Digital media consumers,who spend over 20 hours a week watching streamed or downloaded content from the Internet.It is undeniable that there is a growing need from Malaysians for a better broadband service.The reason why broadband has become a necessity is because moving to tne web-o-sphere is inevitable for any corporate entity today.The broadband and Internet opens up a host of business opportunities,options and solutions allowing market expansion and growth.Broadband enable Malaysian to communicate.They can communicate via e-mail as well as other social networking sites and the Internet sometimes functions as student’s virtual classroom and for student’s course work.

Broadband service is an important need of companies.They could suffer losses as slow services would hinder the online experience.As Malaysian are already in the IT world, Malaysian don’t just need a broadband service,but need one that is better.As Malaysia is develops,the usage of the internet becomes even more vital as Malaysia has a high number of users,Internet service providers should cater the best for the users.Broadband service is a necessity for the corporate world as well as personal use.Internet is the integral part of the modern world.It is time for Malaysian to enjoy something that they need less hassle as technologies have allowed room for improvement in the Internet service. (daripade malay mail paper).

• Malaysia National Broadband Initiative (NBI).

The National Broadband Initiative is the government’s initiative to provide broadband service to the whole country and highspeed broadband with high economic activities.The target is to connect 50 percent of Malaysian households to broadband by 2010.This measurement on household will futher be enhanced by considering other elements that would better reflect the use of broadband by the citizen such as taking into account cellular mobile penetration,PC ownership,use of internet in Community Broadband Centres,office and school.Under the NBI,highspeed broadband service will be 10Mbs and below.The era of slow Internet (dail-up) connection will be over and of course broadband will transfer people’s lives.

The aim is to narrow the gap between the “haves” in urban areas,and “have-nots” in rural areas,often referred to as the digital divide.This imbalance in communication access can have social ramifications if not address at the nation al level.In Malaysia,the push to narrow down the gap between the urban and rural has been entrusted to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commision (MCMC).MCMC is mandated to work towards narrowing the inequalities of access that exist in underserved areas and populations.MCMC has overseen project that have steadily reduced the number of areas that were not served by telecommunications services.

• Speeding Up Malaysia’s Tranformation:

ICT and Internet are recognised as vital support services and platform in driving all other sectors in the social economic growth of nations along the lines of knowledge based and Digital economy.As a logical follow-through of the ICT development for the country following earlier related initiatives in computerization,upgrading and Digitalisation of the communications networks,the introduction of the multimedia super corridor (MSC) in the 1996,the advent and the phenomenal take up the Internet and IP-based technologies,the nation has indeed stepped up with the introduction of NBI in October 2004.

The strategy adopted under the NBI was to address the availability of broadband as an engine of growth and need to bridge the Digital divide with the objective of providing equitable access to communication services.

More importantly ,the citizen have access to basic amenities to basic amenities through the Internet such as health and emergency services,schools, government and local services and of course other consumer services.

Under NBI, rural communities will be connected to broadband services through the Community Broadband Centre located throughout the country.The competitive environment generated by the communications and multimedia industry has propelled the widespread adoptation of broadband through availability of affordable package and choices to the Malaysian public hence increasing the connectivity of the citizen and reach to market.

• Moving Towards Innovation Economy:

With broadband,Malaysian will have access to the Internet,information and services that can be capitalised to improve socio-economic standing.Rural communities in the hard-to-reach places especially,can use broadband to gather useful information and access to services at their fingertips,without having to go far and wide.Broadband is expected to have tangible impact on Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).It will increase national competitiveness and foreign direct investments plus enable a knowledge-based and innovation driven economy.NBI targets 50 percents households to get broadband service by end of 2010.It is a government initiative to provide infrastructure in line with the new economic model,aims to transform Malaysia into knowledge based society generating the high income economy.

In overall term, it aims to improve,the nation’s socio-economic standing globally.As the NBI will provide the service to the whole country,so every one will be entitled to the broadband service including those in the rural areas.This access to knowledge could be extended to family members and communities which in turn will enrich the nation.

With the NBI, economic innovation can also help bridge the socio-economic gap.The broadband service,has leveraged the small medium enterprises and entrepreneurs (SMEs) to market their products to much larger networks via the world wide web.Although there are concerns usage Internet will expose the people to negative influences,but to curb it, Internet also provides the education and knowledge at the fingertip.

Malaysia’s government on its part will take proactive action to prevent negative elements to stringent monitoring and enforcement of laws.Just as much as the country will get the economic benefits there are other aspects that Malaysia can gain from the improvement and enhancement of the broadband service too.The advantage of broadband service are limitless.

INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY:

Wireless is very essential.Wireless networksis presenting a network having no wires as wireless network can connect your computer to a network using radio waves and so you can move your computer wherever easily. Wireless network has made a network very portable because of digital modulation, adaptive modulation, information compression, and access multiplexing. IT Consulting group with IEEE certified 802.11b technology, introduced wireless networks. With wireless networks, you will experience the privacy and personal computer security extra than before. Air is the medium for the wireless network. A wireless networks have offering very flexible, roaming, high standard and low cost. There are different types of wireless network such as wireless LAN, wireless MAN, and mobile devices network. 2.2.1

• Types of Wireless Networks and network usage:

Imagine the world is completely without wire. It must be amazing and very comfortable. Without using any wires, by means of communication, a wireless network able to two or more than two computers.Depends on the technology which is using, wireless networksutilizes spread-spectrum orOFDM. User able to travel about within a wide coverage area and they still can be connected to the network with wireless network. There are different types of wireless networking such as wide area network, local area network and personal area network but the most common are of two which are WLAN(Wireless Local Area Network) and WMAN(Wireless Metropolitan Area Network).

The usage of wireless networking greater than ever gradually because it has influenced vital impact on the world therefore its uses have substantially developed. Through wireless networks, you can send information over the world using satellites. As wireless network utilize to commune significant information speedily, wireless networks used in emergency services like police department nowadays. It doesn’t matter to be in a small office or across the world, the growth of wireless network increasing develops both in people and businesses to send and share data rapidly. An extra very important exercise for wireless networks is as a cheap and fast way to be linked to the Internet in regions especially where telecom transportation is insufficient and no source for communication. You can get access to other network resources like Library Online System to make use of wireless networks because to move your laptop anywhere is very easy nowadays. The use of printer, file sharing and other documents with high security is also can be implement with wireless network.

(http://www.freewimaxinfo.com/wireless-network.html).

IMPROVING THE HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY:

Commonly, wideband of frequencies is available to send out information is called broadband refers to telecommunication in which a. Because a wide band of frequencies is available, information can be multiplexed and sent on many different frequencies or channels within the band concurrently, allowing more information to be transmitted in a given amount of time (much as more lanes on a highway allow more cars to travel on it at the same time). Related terms arewideband(a synonym),baseband(a one-channel band), and narrowband(sometimes meaning just wide enough to carry voice, or simply “not broadband”, and sometimes meaning specifically between 50cpsand 64Kpbs).

Meanwhile wireless mean wireless is a term used to describe telecommunications in which electromagnetic waves (rather than some form of wire) carry the signal over part or all of the communication path. Wireless is better than wired cable because wireless technology is portable, has premier performance and flexible configuration and integration.

Both provider and user want to improve the coverage.So that,the signal has good indoor penetration for residential and enterprise applications fast rollout and wide coverage.For the wireless broadband company they want to improve and achieve better capacity which can support sufficiently high number of simultaneous users.Call quality is one of the factor that both user and provider want to improve so that it will have low latency, high data-rate and high reliability and uptime.Generally user want to have affordable, differentiated tariff packages that suit different user needs plus low CPE (customer-provided equipment )price. Improving services is also essential so that user has opportunity to replace existing fixed line voice services and upgrade anything regarding their broadband without any complicated policy.Beside that, technology is based on open standard to enable economic of scales and wide adoption.The roadmap of the broadband also must be well defined to enhance technology or broadband services. Traffic management must achieve 80% of the bandwidth for 80% of the users (and not 20% of the users). Broadband should have sufficient spectrum for large-scale deployment & long-term growth.

Wireless broadband needs to deliver something that is affordable by the user with low cost CPE, low access price, and attractive value-added services -broadband data and voice.Broadband which is easy to install, simple installation and no need for phone lines (“broadband on the go”) plus best quality which has quick connection and consistently good performance.Finally user want to has portability which has pervasive coverage (including indoor) and always connected.

• WiMAX:

Also known as IEEE 802.16, WiMAX is a wireless digital communications system that is intended for wireless “metropolitan area networks”. In Malaysia,P1WiMAX is the company that use this technology to implement wireless broadband.WiMAX can give broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 30 miles (50 km) for fixed stations, and 3 – 10 miles (5 – 15 km) for mobile stations. On the contrary, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in most cases to only 100 – 300 feet (30 – 100m).

The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for connectingWi-Fi hotspotsto the Internet, providing a wireless alternative to cable andDSLfor “last mile” broadband access. Besides providing data, telecommunications andIPTVservices (triple play),WiMAX also providing a source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan. That is, if a business has both a fixed and a wireless Internet connection, especially from unrelated providers, they are unlikely to be affected by the same service outage. Finally WiMAX provides portable connectivity.

• WiMAX technology:

Extending broadband wireless access to new locations and over longer distance,WiMAX (802.16) is the next stage to a broadband .In the wireless world,WiMAX reducing the cost of bringing broadband to new areas. WiMAX (802.16) technology provides wider range and bandwidth than the other available or forthcoming broadband wireless technologies such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). It offers a wireless option to wired backhaul and last mile deployments that use cable modems, Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOGS1S), Digital Subscriber Line technologies (DSL), T-carrier and E-carrier (Tx/Ex) systems and Optical Carrier Level (OC-x) technologies.

Based on the typical connection to the public wireless networks by using optical fibre, microwave link, cable or any other high speed connectivity, the backhaul of the WiMAX (802.16) is created. Mesh networks, Point-to-Multi-Point (PMP) connectivity is also used as a backhaul in a few cases. WiMAX (802.16) should use Point-to-Point antennas as a backhaul ideally to join subscriber sites to each other and to basestations across long distance.

A Subscriber Station (WiMAX CPE) typically serves a building using wired or wireless LAN.Using Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) or LOS Point-to-Multi-Point connectivity,a WiMAX basestation serves subscriber stations; both connections is referred to as the last mile communication.WiMAX (802.16) should use NLOS Point-to-Multi-Point antennas to connect residential or business subscribers to the WiMAX Basestation (BS) preferably.

• Type of WiMAX and receiver:

TheWiMAXfamily of standards (802.16) focus on two types of usage models which are afixed WiMAXusage model and amobile WiMAXusage model. Thefixed WiMAXserves the stationary and pedestrian classes meanwhile amobile WiMAXnetwork access system is one that can address the vehicular class

Until now one of the important restrictions to the widespread acceptance of WiMAX has been the price of WiMAX CPE (WiMAX Receiver). This is not only the price of WiMAX CPE (WiMAX Receiver) itself, but also that of installation. The idea of a self-installed WiMAX CPE (WiMAX Receiver) has been difficult for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) from the beginning, but with the arrival of WiMAX technology this issue seems to be getting resolved. In the past, BWA has been predominantly Line Of Sight (LOS), requiring highly skilled labour and a truck role to install and provide a service to customer.

• WiMAX design:

Internal devices and a WiMAX tower are the contents of aWiMAX basestation. Some other and environmental issues bound the limits of WiMAX range to 10 km or 6 miles. A WiMAX basestation can normally covers the area of about 50 kilometres or 30 miles radius. The WiMAX basestations would use the media access control layer defines in the standard and would allocate uplink and downlink bandwidth to subscribers according to their requirements on real time basis. Any wireless user within the coverage area would be able to access the WiMAX services.

• WiMAX in future:

Compare to the typical Wi-Fi hot spots, WiMAX technologycan make high speedwireless broadbandInternet services available to much larger areas. Greater than the physical distance limitations of Wi-Fi hot spots or DSL, WiMAX technology can also be used to interconnect existing Wi-Fi networks.

WiMAX Technology can play a significant role in helping service providers to deliver converged services that can be accessed using a broad range of devices on a wide variety of networks.WiMAX implementations can provide a wireless range of up to 30 miles or 50 kilometres.

By given different capabilities while allowing for seamless integration at the technical level, 3G and WiMAX Technology solutions fit well together. To become highly spectrally efficient, 3G technologies have evolved over many years allowing operators to take benefit of costly spectrum dedicated to mobile services. 3G CDMA technologies such as W-CDMA and CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO provide high through puts in low bandwidths as 5 MHz and 1.25 MHz, respectively.

• Treat to WiMAX and security:

WiMAX security, stability and quality of service are some of factors involved in declining the WiMAX technology performance. In this subchapter author is going to discuss the threats involved in WiMAX.

WiMAX basestations andWiMAX Customer Premise Equipments are the content of the WiMAX wireless access network. The WiMAX basestations provide network add-on to the WiMAX CPEs. AWiMAX Customer Premise Equipment(WiMAX CPE) selects the one which offers the strongest signal as a servingWiMAX basestation. At this point, aWiMAX basestationand a collection of servedWiMAX Customer Premise Equipments (WiMAX CPE’s) play the role of system while the subscriber plays the role of the user.

TheMedium Access Control(MAC) layer andphysicallayer are two of most important layers of protocol architecture of WiMAX Technology. Common Partsub layer is the essential part of WiMAX technology layered architecture.MAC ProtocolData Units (PDUs) are constructed, connections are established and bandwidth is managed in this layer. With the Convergence layer, the Common Part (CP) exchangesMACService Data Units (SDUs). Tightly integrated with Common Part is thePrivacy sub layer. With the Physical layer ,the Security sub layer exchanges MAC PDUs. The Convergence layer adapts units of data of higher level protocols to the MAC SDU format, and vice versa. Sorts the incomingMACSDUs by the connections to which they belong by The Convergence layer. Received and transmitted through coding and modulation of radio frequency signals, ThePhysical layeris a two-way mapping between MAC PDUs and Physical layer frames.

Type of treats in WiMAX are Rouge Basestation,DoS (Denial of Service) Attacks,Data Link-Layer Threat,Application Layer Threat,Physical Layer Threat,Threat, Authentication, Key, Theft, Water and finally Black Hat Threat.

The primaryWiMAX securityconcerns from the point of view of an end user are privacy and data integrity. Users need guarantee that no one can eavesdrop on their sessions and that the data sent across the communication link is not tampered and usually achieved through the use ofWiMAX network encryption.

An importantWiMAX securityconsideration is preventing unauthorized use of the network services. From the service provider’s point of view, using strong authentication and access control methods. The service provider’s need to prevent fraud should be reasonable against the difficulty that it may impose on the user. Thephysical layer, and theprivacy sub layer are the example of authentication and access controlthat can be implemented at various levels of the network.

• Multiple-input multiple-output communications(MIMO) technology onWiMAX:

The use ofMultiple-input multiple-output communications(MIMO) technology onWiMAX, which is the technology brand name for the implementation of the standardIEEE 802.16 is called WiMAX MIMO.

Multiple Input and Multiple Output or MIMO, refers t