Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News

700 MHz Isn't The End Of Spectrum - It's Just The Beginning

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) met yesterday and the main, contentious (delaying the meeting into a rare evening session) topic of discussion (PDF) was the transition of television broadcast spectrum from channels 52 through 69 (698 - 806 MHz) to commercial use (via auctions) and to public safety use (via a grant). Some portions of this block of spectrum have already been auctioned, and the entire "700 MHz band" is encumbered by remaining television broadcasting which does not have to cease transmission until February 17, 2009.

Much ado is being made about the upcoming auctions for the remaining commercial "blocks" of the 700 MHz band, the dimensions and particulars of both the commercial and public safety portions, and, according to some, that this spectrum represents the "last, best chance" to establish a viable Broadband Wireless Internet Access system - perhaps nationwide.

The sad reality is that these auctions, like every other spectrum auction, will be "gamed" to a greater or lesser degree. It's inevitable, it's historical, and it's an indicator of how much money is at stake. As with the recent AWS auctions, while some bidders will be trying to acquire spectrum, other bidders will be simply be "blocking" and trying to run bid prices up to levels at which only very wealthy companies or consortiums will be able to purchase spectrum.

The mere allocation, auction, and acquisition of spectrum does nothing to promote the deployment of Broadband Internet Access; in fact the acquisition of spectrum is in many ways the "least of the worries" relating to deployment of Broadband Wireless Internet Access systems. Actual deployment of base station sites, backhaul to same, the financial resources required for such a massive deployment, user equipment, user acceptance, technological evolution... all of those are much bigger issues than merely winning "exclusive use" licenses for portions of spectrum.

I predict that the 700 MHz auctions are not the end of the reallocation of television broadcast spectrum. Most forget that the analog cellular band, 800 MHz commercial, and 800 MHz public safety bands were earlier reclaimed from television broadcast channels 70-83. Already, channels 14-20 are in use for public safety communications in some major metropolitan areas.

The simple truth is that terrestrial television broadcasting is an anachronism that very few people actually use. The vast majority of television viewers (I can't find a quotable, credible number at the moment) now receive their television signals via cable television or direct broadcast satellite (DBS). If television broadcasting were to cease entirely, only a minority of television viewers would even notice (it's my impression that most television stations feed their signal directly to cable and satellite providers). Television stations could continue their mission, and their business, completely uninterrupted... better, in fact, if the incredible financial and operational overhead of terrestrial television transmission was more widely recognized as no longer needed.

So... through the opportunistic use of "white space" (unused television broadcast channels in a given area) or by further en masse reallocation of some of the remaining 180 MHz (channels 21-36 and 38-51) of unencumbered television broadcast channels, I believe we will soon see more spectrum made available for communications in this portion of spectrum. The 700 MHz auctions of 2007 are just the beginning.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh.

Proximetry AirSync - Network Monitoring System (NMS) for Complex Wireless Networks

Proximetry is a relatively new company whose AirSync product purports to configure, manage, and monitor complex wireless networks including those that include mixed technologies such as WiMAX and mixed vendors.

I was alerted to the existence of Proximetry AirSync by a message from Carlton O'Neal announcing his move from Alvarion, where he was Vice President of Marketing, to Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Proximetry.

In explaining the opportunity he sees at Proximetry, O'Neal said: I truly believe that many of the coming discussions and debates in wireless will center around the deployment, provisioning, operation, and management of the networks themselves including how to share the bandwidth and provide differential quality of service to various users and applications.  And these issues will only become more acute as multiple networks, frequencies, protocols (such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, etc.) and combinations thereof are deployed by service providers.

I agree with O'Neal that Broadband Wireless Internet Access networks are rapidly becoming more heterogeneous and complex, employing multiple technologies such as WiMAX, Wi-Fi, and proprietary systems. Thus it's imperative that service providers be able to effectively, rapidly, and proactively be able to configure, manage, and monitor such heterogeneous networks because reliable Internet access is now a requirement for many (perhaps most) businesses to be able to conduct business, on a par with stable electrical power and phone service.

Is Proximetry the configuration / management / monitoring solution for emerging, complex Broadband Wireless Internet Access networks? I don't know; but I do know the field is wide open for new entrants that can offer truly savvy management and proactive monitoring of Broadband Wireless Internet Access networks, is independent of particular vendors, and can offer carrier-grade monitoring management detail that allows service providers to monitor their networks in-depth and predict capacity bottlenecks and reliability issues.

HP Openview is often too complex, too expensive, takes too long to implement and change, and doesn't seem "tuned" for unique aspects of managing wireless networks. I've seen HP Openview in action, and it astonished me how much it could not do, at least in the implementation I saw. Effective management of a complex enterprise network still required numerous other NMS-related products, often proprietary NMS because Openview couldn't (or wasn't configured) to manage "odd" network systems.

There are numerous other systems for wireless networks that are, in a word, too simplistic. Vendor's management systems are usually proprietary to their product lines and inflexible. Wholly custom solutions are simply unmaintainable in the long term. I have seen (what I consider) a Network Management System (NMS) done right - the CONXX Carrier Communications Observer, but CONXX is a small company that isn't focused on the NMS business nor does it seem to have the financial backing that Proximetry seems to have. (Disclosure - I was formerly associated with CONXX, but that association ended almost four months ago and since then I have had no discussions with CONXX).

I invite current Proximetry users to contact me and share their impressions.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh (except for excerpt from Carlton O'Neal).

More On Fixed WiMAX

On Friday I said:
In a post next week on Monday or Tuesday, I'll explain why I think that BWIA vendors like TeleCIS Wireless that are focused more on Fixed, rather than Mobile, WiMAX are going to going to do very, very well at least in the short term, and perhaps in the long term.

One of the key trends I am seeing is the rapidly-accelerating pace of deployment of Broadband Wireless Internet Access networks - of all kinds. Not just that BWIA deployments are happening, or that there are more such deployments now than there were last year,  but that the pace of the deployments is accelerating. That acceleration means that the BWIA industry needs immediate solutions to its issues, and Fixed WiMAX is a solution to several problems that is ready now. One such problem is the issue of backhaul to Broadband Wireless Internet Access networks - wireless telephony broadband, Wi-Fi, even mobile WiMAX. For those networks to work, they must have backhaul of sufficient capacity to supply customers with the services and type of Internet Access experience that they require; T-1's (landline and wireless) are no longer adequate at all.

While I'm seeing a number of Mobile WiMAX deployments announced, my sense is that the numbers behind those initial Mobile WiMAX deployments could well be dwarfed, in the immediate and intermediate term by the numbers behind the deployments of Fixed WiMAX equipment.

The reason I say that is that that Fixed WiMAX solves an immediate need - high-capacity Internet backhaul and access that's:

1. Good enough - tens of Mbps now, hundreds of Mbps in the future;
2. Quick to deploy - lots of product stocked and in the pipeline, training and support is widely available;
3. Relatively inexpensive to purchase and deploy (resulting from standardization, commoditization of components and subsystems, competition); and
4. Standardized and interoperable with systems from other vendors giving the service provider the ability to choose "best for my requirements" combinations of base station and user systems.

So... I think that a lot of Fixed WiMAX systems are being installed "under the RADAR", supplying backhaul and access/backhaul*, because that's what's needed right now. In contrast, Mobile WiMAX is... at times... a solution in search of a problem when Intel and many others in the WiMAX Forum are trying to posit a future where customers lust after a portable Internet device that features multiple streamed video entertainment "channels" and doesn't make any use of local storage 'ala iPod.

For the moment, wireless telephony broadband is meeting some of the need for full mobility Broadband Internet Access, and increasingly-capable Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks are meeting many of the requirements of those that want full Internet speed, portability, reasonable price, and access devices that exist now. But both of those systems need backhaul... and (Fixed) WiMAX is a very good technology for backhaul.

*Access/Backhaul - a situation where a single link feeds many users, like a link to an office. It's not purely an "access" link because it doesn't connect an individual user, but it's not pure backhaul either since it's only serving one "customer".

One example of this trend is a PC World story this morning:
Wi-Fi Cloaks London
Cloud Networks launches one of Europe's largest networks, serving more than 350,000.
John Blau, IDG News Service
Monday, April 23, 2007 9:00 AM PDT

The City of London is home to a new Wi-Fi network that is not only one of Europe's largest but also among the first to give users mobile coverage similar to a cellular network.

The service, launched Monday by The Cloud Networks Ltd., uses mesh technology to provide continuous connectivity to more than 350,000 users located in the 2.6-square kilometer city borough, in addition to the thousands of people visiting the area each day.

Each Wi-Fi node in the wireless mesh network forwards data to the next nearest node required by users moving inside the service area. Customers of the city service can "walk from one end of the area to the other without losing your connection," a spokesman for the company said.

(end excerpt)

In London, it's Wi-Fi... not Mobile WiMAX. For now, enough said.

The reason I think that TeleCIS Wireless and other small players in the WiMAX industry that have chosen to focus on Fixed WiMAX technology are going to do very, very well is that at least they're not going to end up in what seems destined to end up as a brutal head-to-head competition with the behemoths of the wireless telephony industry. Siemens, Alcatel/Lucent, Nortel, etc. are now committed to building Mobile WiMAX systems as an extension of their dominance in wireless telephony. The numbers, and carrier's historic preference of working only with behemoths for deploying new technology bode ill, I think, for smaller WiMAX vendors to "play" in Mobile WiMAX (other than exploiting niches where Mobile WiMAX is being deployed by smaller entities that can't work with behemoths like Alcatel/Lucent.)

So, I'll continue to watch Fixed WiMAX... far from being dead, I think it's the star of the moment because the higher-capacity backhaul is so badly needed at the moment.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

Review And Comment Of This Week's BWIA Press Releases

This is a summary, and accompanying commentary of this week's postings from:

Broadband Wireless Internet Access Press Releases
Significant Press Releases relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access, WiMAX, outdoor Wi-Fi, cellular Broadband

Monday, April 16, 2007:

Atria Networks Standardizes On Ruckus Wireless To Bring Outdoor Wi-Fi Indoors And To Create In-Building Hot Spots - This announcement was significant because it's indicative of the rapidly evolving nature of Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks moving towards the use of Wi-Fi clients with specialized capabilities. Wi-Fi is rapidly evolving new capabilities, but "innovating within the standard" as the PC industry used to say.

Sierra Wireless MP Rugged Modems Now Available With 3G Connectivity - I think these sorts of products presage the emergence of at least certain classes of vehicles having inherent Internet connectivity. There are a lot of high-value vehicles where, if you assume Internet connectivity, you can do some very interesting things. One application that comes immediately to mind is high-value vehicles that come with a warranty. The company can monitor the vehicle's performance and proactively take action when it appears a failure is immanent, such as a construction crane. There's a significant difference in the old "telematics" remote monitoring where the connectivity wasn't Internet - it was proprietary, low bandwidth, etc. Another application is putting an optional Wi-Fi HotSpot (enabled remotely) into high-occupancy vehicles.

Ruckus Wireless Unveils RIOT Metro Program - Clearly Ruckus Wireless is a company to be watched, affiliating and differentiating their products to better interoperate with Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks.. They get that Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks are a big deal, and they're way out in front of the rest of the consumer Wi-Fi industry on offering such capabilities, beating out fast-to-market companies like Linksys and D-Link.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007:

Harris Corporation Introduces High-Speed Broadband Ethernet Radio For Military, Homeland Security And Public Safety Use - Long range, high-speed, and easy to deploy.

Singapore Wi-Fi Deployment Offers Best Practices For Municipalities Worldwide - I can't imagine the complexities of deploying a city-wide Wi-Fi network in Singapore. This is a session I would have learned a lot from.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007:

Broadband Internet Access Peaking - Wireless Connectivity To Drive Next Phase Of Global Internet Usage -   Discusses the rise in Internet access through wireless telephony handheld devices.

Hughes Signs Contract with TerreStar to Develop, Manufacture and Install Turnkey Satellite Base Station Subsystem - Satellite, both as a backhaul and access technology, gets often overlooked, but it's the only way to get Broadband Internet Access in many, many parts of the world.

Mobile Assets Announces New Wireless Subsidiary - This announcement came across as a little too breathless.

Phoenicia Group Rolls Out BGAN Satellite Internet Technology In Libya - Again, satellite (see above), but this time in reference to Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN).

Alvarion's 4Motion Solution Being Showcased At The Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Beijing, P.R. China - It's fascinating to me to contemplate that the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), dominated for so long by microprocessors, is now discussing WiMAX.

TeleCIS Wireless Streamlines Focus to Maximize Fixed/Portable WiMAX Solutions - I saw a brief mention of this development posted elsewhere and that sparked Wednesday's posting - Qualcomm Acquires Mobile WiMAX Assets of TeleCIS Wireless. In a post next week on Monday or Tuesday, I'll explain why I think that BWIA vendors like TeleCIS Wireless that are focused more on Fixed, rather than Mobile, WiMAX are going to going to do very, very well at least in the short term, and perhaps in the long term.

Thursday, April 19, 2007:

Celtel Congo Powers Mobile Network With $3Million of Ceragon's High Power Radios - I'm always fascinated with telecommunications deployments in Africa.

Moovera and Vodafone Collaborate On Wi-Fi For Public Transport - This press release sparked yesterday's posting - The Last Fifty Feet Are Wi-Fi.

Friday, April 20, 2007:

Demand Growing for Option's HSDPA 7.2 EXPRESS Data Cards and ICON USB Wireless Modems - Owners of  Mac Pro laptops (like me) are glad to see that wireless telephony broadband modem cards are finally emerging in the Mac Pro's new (no more PCMCIA) expansion slot format (ExpressCard/34).

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

The Last Fifty Feet Are Wi-Fi

I've said this in various forms over the last five years or so, but the point seems to slam home every week now - I've come to believe that Wi-Fi has become, and will continue to be the dominant connection method for the last fifty feet (minimum) of nearly any form of Broadband Internet Access to an individual user.

Sometimes the Wi-Fi connection will be even longer than fifty feet, like with next generation Metropolitan Wi-Fi systems that incorporate beamforming technology.

My latest inspiration on this topic comes from a press release about a mobile Wi-Fi HotSpot system in the UK using wireless telephony broadband for the backhaul and Wi-Fi on the bus for user access. There's certainly no breakthrough in what these companies did - I first heard about this concept from Seattle-based Junxion, Inc. who makes a box incorporating a Wi-Fi access point and router that uses wireless telephony broadband for its backhaul, designed for installations like public transit buses. I was told that the first use of the Junxion box on a bus was for Google's private transit buses in the San Francisco Bay area in 2004.

Worldwide, the wireless telephony broadband service providers don't want to acknowledge the  possibility that mobile / portable / nomadic Broadband Internet Access will default to Wi-Fi. But every new portable / mobile / nomadic communications or communications device sold that incorporates Wi-Fi increases the likelihood that Wi-Fi will become... or most chillingly to them... perhaps already is the dominant "final delivery" technology of Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Similarly, the nascent Mobile WiMAX industry is predicated on the idea that users will be willing to pay, and dearly, for full-time, always-on, personal Broadband Internet Access that enables new services such as watching video content, listing to audio content.

Yes... there certainly is some demonstrated demand for "one person" accounts for wireless telephony broadband and Mobile WiMAX, but in my opinion, that demand is relatively limited, at least at the current price points. (At $20-30/month there would be enormous demand.)

But the ugly truth for the wireless telephony broadband and Mobile WiMAX industries is that "good enough" Wi-Fi  availability and cheap, large storage embedded into personal communications / computing devices have combined to gut the anticipated "obscene profitability" from the business of offering individual wireless telephony broadband and Mobile WiMAX accounts.

To illustrate, think of the press release example cited above. Many who ride public transit buses are regular commuters who might reasonably be expected to carry laptop computers which they use to extend their work time or to pass time pleasantly during the commute. The wireless telephony broadband / Mobile WiMAX industries posit that such bus commuters are their potential customers for Broadband Internet Access or streamed video entertainment on a portable device. But if the bus offers Broadband Internet Access via Wi-Fi... especially if it's free Wi-Fi... why would those bus commuters be the least bit interested in individually buying wireless telephony broadband / Mobile WiMAX accounts? Why would they want to watch a limited selection of "live" video using Mobile WiMAX when they can easily download and cache more hours of video content than they have battery life with which to watch that video content? (Not to mention the irritation from downloading too many movies from an Internet site so you exceed the only-now-just-put-into-writing 5 GB transfer limit on your what-was-formerly-termed-"unlimited" Verizon BroadbandAccess account for which you're paying $60-80/month).

Now, expand this vision from an individual transit bus to:

• Enterprises (Microsoft comes to mind),
• Campuses (Dartmouth College comes to mind),
• Small towns or regions of a metropolitan area (Mountain View, CA comes to mind),
• Entire metropolitan areas (Philadelphia comes to mind),
• Or even when individuals decide to do Broadband Internet Access themselves (Meraki comes to mind)...

... where inexpensive or free Wi-Fi service is available. It seems to me that the existence of Wi-Fi Broadband Internet Access, being available in enough (most, but not all, places) and good enough (usable, especially if free) could obviate much of the potential demand for cellular telephony broadband or Mobile WiMAX... or even worse... considerably reduce the projected enormous profits of those services.

Even in developing markets where Mobile WiMAX will be the first widely deployed individual Internet access option, I can still foresee a large potential market for Wi-Fi services. Compared to wireless telephony networks, Wi-Fi is cheap to deploy, even as infrastructure because the commodity nature and huge volume of Wi-Fi devices and that it makes use of portions of spectrum that are don't require a license (license-exempt).

So... we'll see. At least the wireless telephony industry is tacitly acknowledging the the rising precedence of Wi-Fi in the emergence of wireless telephony handheld devices that incorporate a Wi-Fi mode. But the Mobile WiMAX industry appears to still be in denial that Wi-Fi is any threat whatsoever.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

Qualcomm Acquires Mobile WiMAX Assets of TeleCIS Wireless

Update - Press Release from TeleCIS Wireless

Dan Jones, writing on Unstrung, reports that Qualcomm ... has acquired the mobile WiMAX capabilities of TeleCSIS Wireless, Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Jones' article, Qualcomm Buys Into WiMAX, offers differing perspectives about Qualcomm's intent. One perspective is that this acquisition is simply one more  in a string of acquisitions that Qualcomm has made over the past several years to augment its very strong patent position in wireless technology.

Another perspective is that in acquiring the TeleCIS Wireless Mobile WiMAX assets, Qualcomm simply bought more product develop expertise and a quote in the article bolsters this perspective:

"TeleCIS's engineering resources were acquired for their mobile broadband system knowledge and System On a Chip design experience," says a Qualcomm spokesperson. "Their knowledge and experience can contribute to multiple R&D efforts such as UMB, LTE, and other OFDM based technologies such as WiMAX."

But another perspective is that this acquisition, a company, technology, and personnel specific to WiMAX, is tacit admission that Qualcomm is overcoming its parochialism about Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless technology which it developed, championed, and over which it has aggressively enforced  intellectual property claims and is preparing to tap into the rapidly-growing WiMAX market which, to date, it has completely eschewed.

For TeleCIS Wireless, this seems to be a strategic move. TeleCIS has taken an unusual path (PDF link) in the evolution of WiMAX by creating a chipset that makes many of the advantages of Mobile WiMAX (based on 802.16e) available to systems built for Fixed WiMAX (802.16d). Fixed WiMAX infrastructure is, arguably, cheaper to deploy since it presumes that customer premise equipment will be permanently installed, with access to line power (not operating on batteries), can use a large, gain antenna to permit longer range, higher speeds, greater reliability, etc.

Using TeleCIS chipsets, vendors can build portable equipment that will operate on Fixed WiMAX networks. Spotting that particular market niche was a shrewd move for TeleCIS given that the conventional wisdom that, while Fixed WiMAX does have its place, Mobile WiMAX is going to be far, far bigger than Fixed WiMAX and that the only way to offer portable WiMAX devices is to use Mobile WiMAX.

My guess is that TeleCIS did the math and saw that Mobile WiMAX is, and will increasingly be swamped with chipset vendors that are far larger than TeleCIS, and thus, in Mobile WiMAX, they would likely be marginalized. Thus it makes sense for TeleCIS to focus all its energies on developing the promising niche of offering portable capabilities on Fixed WiMAX networks.

By selling its Mobile WiMAX capabilities to deep-pocketed Qualcomm, TeleCIS Wireless likely profited handsomely. But it's sobering for the WiMAX industry that Qualcomm has acquired even more intellectual property with which it could potentially attack the WiMAX industry with aggressive claims of intellectual property infringement similar to what it has done in the wireless telephony industry.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

WiMAX Devices Rundown

GigaOM is one of those rare sites that, while not being dedicated to covering Broadband Wireless Internet Access topics, generally does a pretty good job of breaking BWIA-related news (and covering developments  cluefully). Katie Fehrenbacher wrote a nice rundown on WiMAX Devices, Coming Soon.

Her article lists new devices coming out from Nokia, LG, Samsung, ZTE, and ZyXEL. Worth a read!

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

Ruckus Inspires (A) RIOT

Ruckus Wireless has partnered with a number of vendors of Metropolitan Wi-Fi network systems to improve interoperability between Ruckus Wireless products such as the Ruckus MetroFlex DZ that are used as Customer Premise Equipment and Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks.

The initial Metropolitan Wi-Fi vendor participants in Ruckus Interoperability and Open Testing (RIOT) are:

• BelAir Networks
• Mesh Dynamics
• Motorola
• Proxim
• SkyPilot Networks
• Tropos Networks

This is an entirely logical development in the evolution of Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks. The intial promise of such networks was that "ordinary Wi-FI devices" such as those built into laptop computers could be used as access devices. However, the technology of Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks has largely not lived up to that promise because Wi-Fi signals do not propagate very well through foliage and buildings, and Wi-Fi devices built into laptops and other devices transmit at very low power levels (as well as having relatively poor receivers). So, higher-power, directional antenna "bridge" Wi-Fi devices such as Ruckus' MetroFlex DZ are often required to relay signals from Metropolitan Wi-Fi devices mounted on streetlights into the building and  then to Wi-Fi devices within the home.

Incorporating more sophisticated Metropolitan Wi-Fi technology into Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks, such as  Access Points incorporating beam forming offered by Wavion Networks may well obviate the "physical layer need" for devices. However, another reason to use bridge devices is that such devices can better interoperate with Metropolitan Wi-FI networks, bringing management, monitoring, and "mesh control" into the customer premises:

Under the RIOT Metro program, metro partners are invited to test and validate complete end-to-end solutions, trial and tune services, ensure technical interoperability and leverage unique functionality and features to optimize higher-layer applications.

Ruckus Wireless is impressive that they are developing highly-differentiated Wi-Fi devices for, among other things, distributing Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) within the home.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

Jim Geier On Meraki Versus Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks

In a thoughtful commentary piece on MuniWireless.com titled "Are low-cost Meraki networks conflicting with muni alternatives?" Jim Geier muses that user-constructed Meraki mesh networks "conflict" with larger, well-funded, professionally-designed-built-and-operated Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks.

Geier writes: I’m somewhat concerned that the ad hoc installation of this Meraki network in San Francisco and other cities will result in limited capabilities and interfere with municipality initiatives for deploying city-wide Wi-Fi networks. The cities generally employ leaders in the industry to help them make the right business and technical decisions to ensure that resulting solutions satisfy all requirements for performance, capacity, security and ability to migrate to future technologies. It takes considerable planning and design, for example, to ensure that the network will support wireless IP telephony.

Municipalities could consider Meraki mesh nodes as part of the network infrastructure; however, the Meraki specifications, at least what’s posted on their website, indicate limited features to support demanding municipal wireless network requirements. For example, there is no support for multiple SSIDs and VLANs. This is often needed to keep various application traffic separate when requirements call for differing security and performance for applications.

From his perspective, Geier is right to be concerned. Geier is a long-time consultant on (what's now known as) Wi-Fi and now works for Civitium as Principal Consultant. Civitium and the Metroplitan Wi-Fi networks think of themselves as "serious" networks, designed to be reliable, scalable, and offering essential services.

But Geier forgets that the license-exempt spectrum in which all of these systems operate is, inherently, open to all users and all uses. Geier's point is specious if he doesn't also fret about the plethora of Wi-Fi HotSpots, access points in homes and businesses, which all "pollute" the license-exempt spectrum... let alone cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.

Geier also doesn't seem to understand that Metroplolitan Wi-Fi systems are not the be-all-to-end-all and that systems such as Meraki that can be financed, built, and managed by end users fill a very real need such as the small San Francisco network that he mentions.

Lastly, I don't think Geier gives proper credit to Meraki. It's easy to design and build a product that "throws in all the bells and whistles" and will sell for a steep price (though it's another thing entirely to be able to sell a premium-priced product). Meraki took a different, harder path, deciding to build a device with low cost as a primary design goal because they kept in mind what they were trying to accomplish and who would be using their products. It's a real discipline to forgo "creeping featureitis".

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh

CALEA FAQ For WISPs

A new article by Steve Stroh - CALEA FAQ For WISPs has been posted on Wireless Internet Service Provider News - WISPNews.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)