With the WiMAX interoperability certification process under way and the volume of competitive rhetoric rising, the WiMAX Forum promised last week that it will more clearly define the specifics of the various phases of the certification testing process.

“Our challenge has been to identify a road map for certification,” said Mo Shakouri, vice president of marketing for the WiMAX Forum and assistant vice president of business development for Alvarion. “I wish we would have been thinking ahead a little more, but our goal now is to better define the process.” He added that the WiMAX Forum could begin to provide that definition as early as this week, at the WiMAX World conference in Boston.

Many factors make the clarification necessary, chief among them the fact that WiMAX technology is in its infancy. A dearth of specifics creates the potential for misinterpretation and misinformation.

“Operators are very intelligent, and they know the real issues, but unfortunately, some confusion does exist in the marketplace,” Shakouri said.

More specifics from the WiMAX Forum should help the telecom industry better understand the nuances of the certification testing waves and where, how and why companies with different product strategies will participate.

“The certification process is a progression,” said Carlton O'Neal, vice president of marketing for Alvarion, which developed a graphic it hopes the WiMAX Forum will adopt to illustrate the timing and flow of the various certification waves (see diagram). “We're going to jump into different spots with different products, so we need it to be specific.”

For example, the first wave of testing will certify interoperability for the outdoor air interface but not for quality of service (QOS). Subsequently, Alvarion and other vendors are opting to focus their resources on other priorities.

“Wave 1 will not yield a commercial product for us,” O'Neal said. “The testing will not include certain elements necessary for commercial products — like quality of service, which is the key enabler of voice, video and data.”

Despite that fact, the WiMAX Forum believes the first phase of testing is necessary. “The first wave is important because it shows a commitment from the industry,” Shakouri said.

One analyst acknowledged that the QOS aspect is critical for WiMAX but said different technology developers have different motivations.

“Some vendors feel [Wave 1] is a lot of effort since service providers still need quality of service,” said Monica Paolini, president of Senza Fili Consulting. “Others feel it's good to get in early to understand how everything works and see if there are any problems with their products.”

Aperto Networks, which announced earlier this month that its products are in the Cetecom labs in Malaga, Spain, for WiMAX Forum certification testing, said Wave 1 certification is a competitive advantage. “If you're in the first wave, you participate in the interpretation of what interoperability really means,” said Dean Chang, director of product management for Aperto, who is also a forum board member. “That's why from our perspective, it's really important to be early.”

Airspan Networks, which also announced that its products are in the Cetecom labs, offered its own explanation for why some companies are bypassing the first phase of certification testing. “We think it's because they don't have products ready,” said Paul Aronstam, chief financial officer of Airspan. “They screwed up.”

O'Neal dismissed that notion. “The number one reason for certification testing is quality of service,” he said. “We have all these customers we have to make happy. No QOS is only OK for companies with no customers yet.”