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the two wireless connectivity technologies share.
Abbreviated Term: Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity, a term that was more of a marketing stint as it rhymed with Hi-Fi. WiMAX, on the other hand, stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, a term fulfilling technological as well as commercial requirements
Official Release: Wi-Fi was officially launched in the year1997 where as WiMAX came to the picture in the year2004.
IEEE Standards: Wi-Fi has been defined under IEEE802.11x standards where x is various Wi-Fi versions. WiMAX is standardized under802.16y family of wireless networking where y refers to various WiMAX versions.
Versions of the Standard: Depending on several factors such as frequency, range, encryption, application etc., Wi-Fi has several versions of it such as802.11b,802.11g,802.11n.
On the similar factors, WiMAX has a number of different versions too:802.16a,802.16d and802.16e are some popular WiMAX versions.
Frequency Band: Wi-Fi has been defined under ISM bands where user has to pay no extra charging for utilizing those bands. On the contrast, there is no bar on frequency usage in the WiMAX. This means that WiMAX protocols might work in the ISM bands or they might use a licensed frequency version for which the user probably would be charged.
Encryption Techniques: Encryption techniques in WiMAX include Triple Data Encryption Algorithm and Advanced Encryption Standards. On the other hand, in Wi-Fi, encryption techniques are Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and RC4.
Applications: Wi-Fi and WiMAX, though being used for same purpose of data exchange, are designed to cater two completely different needs. Wi-Fi is needed to serve for household and corporate needs of interconnectivity. Wi-Fi technology connects printers to computer, gaming consoles to router etc.
WiMAX serves a larger inter-operable network. WiMAX can be used to provide internet services to a larger area where it can serve households, mobile phones and even Wi-Fi spots. WiMAX has a different hardware specification and currently WiMAX serving towers tend to be as tall as Wi-Fi towers. On the other hand, Wi-Fi antennas are small enough to be placed on5 inch by3 inch routers.
Range: An ideal Wi-Fi based network reaches around100metres as it maximum range whereas an ideal WiMAX network can reach about80-90kilometers in terms of range.
Authentication: Authentication is process under Network Security where connection is checked for its identity before being established. Both these wireless networking technologies apply different set of protocols for authentication purposes. Wi-Fi uses Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) security algorithms depending on the Wi-Fi version. On the other hand, WiMAX uses X.509 or PKMv2 as authentication algorithms.
Data Transfer Rates: Wi-Fi based networking can transfer data at speeds up to54mbps. On the other hand, WiMAX networks exchange data at speeds upto40mbps. In WiMAX, data transfer rates have more variation as distances to be covered are quite larger.
Channel Bandwidth: Wi-Fi networks have a channel bandwidth of20MHz, whereas WiMAX networks have a flexible bandwidth option which ranges from1.25MHz to20MHz.
Bandwidth Efficiency: This term refers to bits of information sent per second per unit frequency. This is a measure of how qualitatively the channel is managed by the network. Bandwidth efficiency of a WiMAX channel (upto5bps/s/Hz) is theoretically twice as efficient as Wi-Fi based networks (upto0.44bps/s/Hz for802.11a and2.7bps/s/Hz for b/g/n standards).
Difference in MAC Layer: MAC layer is an essential part of an OSI model. It defines communication procedures that a protocol uses. Wi-Fi’s MAC layer uses CSMA/CA protocol which is not connection oriented while that in WiMAX is connection oriented.
Simplfy the subject Wifi Reffers to a small scale with lited no of users for data networks
while talking about WiMAX it comes to large scale network with larger range and capacity in terms of No of users and also if we talk about the standard in WiMAX it provides you the moveability while you are moving on a large geographical area like a mobile phone handover (Soft handovers)
Technically speaking, the main difference is that WiMAX basestations do the scheduling for the stations while Wi-Fi basestations do not do so.