When lab testing and WiMAX are mentioned in the same breath, the discussion usually has to do with interoperability certification testing performed at independent labs. However, two labs being opened by the WiMAX Forum's Applications Working Group, or AWG, in the next few months take WiMAX out of the interop lab and into proof-of-concept environments involving real consumers.

In both cases, WiMAX will literally be taken to school. The proof-of-concept labs being set up by the Application Business Task Group (ABTG) within the AWG will be located at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, and at the University of California-Berkeley, with students at both campuses as the lab participants, according to Howard Liu, chairman of the ABTG and an executive at the Walt Disney Co. Part of the intent with the proof-of-concept lab is to test the delivery of WiMAX applications in a real-world environment, but Liu said the WiMAX community also hopes to learn something from the students participating about how they use the technology and what kinds of applications they find most interesting.

“The scope of the proof-of-concept is to do an end-to-end applications test,” Liu said. “We'll look at the end user's quality of experience. We're hoping that by putting devices in the hands of college students, that in a way they can help develop new applications for us, in the way they use social networking and other types of emerging applications.”

Sheldon Shen, secretary of the ABTG, added that the goal is to have the proof-of-concept labs running parallel to the WiMAX Forum's other efforts, particularly the multiple waves of Mobile WiMAX certification testing, for a period of at least 24 months. The associate dean of National Taiwan University is incorporating the research into the school's MBA program to further engage students and encourage them to develop their own ideas for new WiMAX applications.

“What they will really be doing is helping us develop business models for WiMAX, which in some cases might not be there yet,” Liu said. “We'll eventually have more labs going on in other countries because the end user behavior will be different from country to country.”

Liu said the ABTG has a skeleton of a plan for the proof-of-concept project, which probably will include some comparative technology testing, demonstrating WiMAX's performance capabilities against those of other mobile broadband technologies. The plan has received a strong vote of confidence from network operators, infrastructure vendors, device-makers and content companies. Among some of the big names involved besides Disney are MobiTV, Sony, Warner Bros. and others. Both tests probably will kick off sometime in the next few months.