BROADWAY - the Way to Broadband Access at 60GHz

The IST project BROADWAY aims at proposing a hybrid dual frequency system based on a tight integration of HIPERLAN/2 OFDM high spectrum efficiently technology at 5GHz and an innovative fully ad-hoc extension of it at 60GHz named HIPERSPOT. This concept extends and complements existing 5GHz broadband wireless LAN systems in the 60GHz range for providing a new solution to very dense urban deployments and hot spot coverage. This system is to guarantee nomadic terminal mobility in combination with higher capacity (achieving data rates exceeding 100Mbps). This tight integration between both types of system (5/60GHz) will result in wider acceptance and lower cost of both systems through massive silicon reuse. This new radio architecture will by construction inherently provide backward compatibility with current 5GHz WLANs (ETSI BRAN HIPERLAN/2) and thus, the innovations coming out of this project will be a driver for standardization and spectrum allocation of the next ETSI BRAN HIPERLAN generations.