Comparison of WLAN, WPAN and WMAN Technologies

There are three main wireless technology groups for the fixed wireless communications, namely, Wireless LAN (or Wi-Fi), Wireless Personal Area Networking (WPAN) and Wireless Metropolitan Area Networking (or WiMax). While competing in many applications, each technology has its own application focus and limitations.

The key parameters of WLAN, WPAN and WMAN(WiMax) technologies are compared and displayed in the table below:

Technology	WLAN (IEEE)
Standard	802.11 Legacy	802.11a	802.11b	802.11g	802.11n
Release year	1997	1999	1999	2003	2008
Frequency Band	2.4GHz	5.8GHz	2.4GHz	2.4GHz	2.4 – 5.8GHz
Maximum Range	~70 meters	~100 meters	~100 meters	~110 meters	~160 meters
Maximum data rate	2Mbps	54Mbps	11Mbps	54Mbps	248Mbps
Number of users	Dozens	Dozens	Dozens	Dozens	Dozens
Access Method	DSSS, FHSS	OFDM	DSSS, CCK	OFDM	MIMO
Modulation Method	GFSK, BPSK, DBPSK, DQPSK	BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM	DPSK, DBPSK, DQPSK	BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM and DBPSK, DQPSK	BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM

Technology	WPAN (IEEE)				WMAN WiMAX (IEEE)
Standard	802.15.1 (Bluetooth)	802.15.3 (UWB)	802.15.3a (WiMedia)	ZigBee 802.15.4-2003 802.15.4-2006	802.16-2004 (802.116d) 802.16e-2005 (802.16e)
Release year	2002	2003	*	2003 and 2006	2004 and 2005
Frequency Band	2.4Ghz	3.1 to 10.6 GHz	2.4GHz	868 MHz, 915 MHz, 2.4 GHz	2-66GHz
Maximum Range	~10meters	~10meters	~10meters	~100 meters	~50 km
Maximum data rate	3Mbps	55Mbps – 1Gbps	110Mbps – 1Gbps	250 Kbps	134 Mbps
Number of users	Dozens	Dozens	Dozens	Dozens	Thousands
Access Method	FHSS	DS-UWB, OFDM	MB-OFDM	DSSS	MIMO-SOFDMA
Modulation Method	GFSK, 2PSK, DQSP, 8PSK	OPSK, BPSK, OOK, PAM, PPM, Bi-Phase	QPSK, DCM	BPSK (868/928MHz) OPSK (2.4GHz)	QPSK, QAM