Chris Buechler wrote:

>On 10/25/05, Jean Everson Martina <everson at inf dot ufsc dot br> wrote:
>  
>
>>       Just to have one more discussion about the  base OS for the new m0n0.
>>Does any of the suggested OS have support to wimax cards?
>>    
>>
>
>There don't appear to be any WiMax cards on the market at this point. 
>I don't think the standard is even finalized yet.
>  
>

One (in an extended miniPCI form factor) got announced:
http://www.deviceforge.com/news/NS4426104253.html
http://www.wavesat.com/products/mini-pci.html

Note that its for 3.5GHz, and its the client end.  Base stations will 
probably be $50,000 each (for a small one).   Welcome to the wonderful 
world of telcom gear.  :-)

Parts of the standard are ratified.  The one everyone here probably 
cares about (802.16e, for use in unlicensed spectrum) is ratified, but 
the test compatibility matrix hasn't been finished, so there is no 
'interoperability testing' possible (yet).

WiMax is a whole lotta hype.

>It would definitely be nice to support it, if it becomes as big as the
>hype that's surrounded it to date.  But at this point, it's anybody's
>guess which will have support first.  Of all the OS's on the list,
>Linux would probably be first (though it's not really a serious
>contender), and FreeBSD second, judging from past hardware support. 
>  
>
Linux is almost a given.  Good luck getting the code "open" or "free" 
though. 

One of the things I've thought would be a very *good* thing would be a 
802.16-like MAC using commodity 802.11 cards.

The .11a and .16 PHYs aren't all that different (in the simplest 
mode).   Rage would be about the same, and the result (as a matter of 
not having to purchase a super-expensive base station) would be a whole 
lot less expensive.

jim