WiMAX, or the IEEE 802.16 standard for broadband wireless access, is increasingly gaining in popularity as

a technology with significant market potential. This paper first provides an overview of the existing and

developing 802.16 standards and their key differences/applications. The PHY and MAC layers of a typical

WiMAX base station are then described. The associated implementation challenges faced by WiMAX

infrastructure developers, including performance/cost/flexibility trade-offs in the choice of silicon, are

clearly outlined. The paper then describes how FPGA-based system implementation can address these

challenges including the “accelerated time-to-market” requirement which is considered a key enabler for

early success in this market. As an example design, the physical layer implementation of the 802.16d

standard with Altera FPGAs and intellectual property (IP) is proposed.