Broadband Wireless Access (BWA)

Broadband in telecommunications is a term which refers to a signaling method which includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies which may be divided into channels or frequency bins. Broadband is always a relative term, understood according to its context. The wider the bandwidth, the more information can be carried. In radio, for example, a very narrowband signal will carry Morse code; a broader band will carry speech; a yet broader band is required to carry music without losing the high audio frequencies required for realistic sound reproduction. A television antenna described as normal may be capable of receiving a certain range of channels; one described as "broadband" will receive more channels.

However, broadband in telecommunications is frequently used in a more technical sense where Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is a technology aimed at providing high-speed wireless access over a wide area from devices such as personal computers to data networks.

Communications may utilize a number of distinct physical channels simultaneously; this is multiplexing for multiple access. Such channels may be distinguished by being separated from each other in time (time division multiplexing or TDMA), in carrier frequency (frequency division multiplexing (FDMA) or wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)), or in access method (code division multiplexing or CDM). Each channel that takes part in such a multiplexing exercise is by definition narrowband (because it is not utilizing the whole bandwidth of the medium); whereas the whole set of channels taken together and utilized for the same communication could be described as broadband.

Broadband technology also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode is useful in consumer point-to-point high speed connections.