WiFi Mesh and WiMAX

There are over 150 fixed WiMAX trials and early commercial deployments worldwide, based on WiMAX 802.16d (fixed access) solutions on 3.5GHz TDD and FDD. The first wave of standard non pre-WiMAX 802.16d products certified in Q1 2006. While WiMAX is still in its infancy, its eventual acceptance as a cost-effective fixed wireless alternative to cable and DSL services gains greater ability to support large communities of users and distributed rural areas and countries when coupled with WiF Mesh for it's performance and economics.

While it may seem confusing, WiMAX 802.16e addresses both fixed and mobile operators as well as new entrants (cable companies, satellite providers) and bridges the digital divide for a certain set of potential users by minimizing cost per megabyte and delivering "Triple Play" services to enterprises and residential users, and features full-mobility broadband services, to the last mile.

Strix Access/One today bridges the gap for WiMAX deployments by delivering the industries highest performance for client access and backhaul access. Strix modular design enables the in-field upgradeadbility for those service providers and carriers have already or will be deploying WiMAX 802.16d/e but also require WiFi mesh for areas of greater demand on performance or strategic mobile applications such as public safety, or high-density business-centric services.

Strix Systems Access/One performance and economics make WiMAX an affordable technology when combined with Strix multi-radio WiFi mesh architecture. Strix DMA® enables high performance, low-latency, modularity, self-healing, self-optimizing and carrier class QoS capabilities and no speculation on the delivery high quality services.

With per-channel performance of 54 and 108 Mbps, Strix’s Access/One products already handles demanding and critical applications including public safety video surveillance, GIS (geographic information system) modeling and mapping, business critical data applications, voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia Internet services.

Strix’s WiFi-based mesh technology provides high range sectorized broadband coverage indoors and out. And while WiMAX promises to increase range and quality of throughput Strix Systems Access/One exceeds these capablities today and are deployed world-wide.

•	Closer Proximity for Increased Subscriber Performance
	-	Network of “picocells” increases link budget, modulation, and performance for low-power clients
•	Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) Operation via Mesh Routing around Obstructions
	-	Network route around obstructions and obstacles through multi-hop mesh topology
•	Expandable Coverage
	-	Network extends easily to reach subscribers by adding hops
•	Scalable Network Capacity
	-	Network scales as needed to meet subscriber growth and performance demands
•	Fault Tolerance with Failover Routing
	-	Network utilizes multiple traffic routes with dynamic self-healing
•	Load Balancing and Traffic Segmentation
	-	Network optimizes capacity utilization by balancing load and segmenting subscriber traffic
•	Highly Flexible Network Design
	-	Network supports variety of flexible configurations, fixed and mobiles subscribers, and traffic rates
•	Subscriber Mobility throughout Mesh
	-	Network provides broad coverage and allows subscribers to maintain connectivity while mobile
•	Automatic Discovery for Lower OPEX
	-	Network self-configures for optimal best-path routing and automatic provisioning
•	Single Network to Manage
	-	One integrated network to manage instead of many independent point-to-multipoint networks

Strix’s Access/One solutions employ a unique modular, multi-radio, multi-channel, and multi-RF wireless mesh architecture that provides the high throughput and low latency needed to support wireless voice, video, and data applications today.

WiMax deployments today have been limited to 6-7 MHz, providing less than 20 Mbps shared across subscribers in range and limiting available bandwidth in practice to 2-10 Mbps at 10km. These speeds may be attractive in rural areas that have few broadband alternatives, however, higher speeds are available in major metropolitan areas today. Regional and municipal mesh WiFi networks are already deployed that support mobile voice and data applications at 54 Mbps. Even higher WiFi rates will become available in the near future. And while a single WiFi access point is limited in range to tens of meters, a mesh WiFi network can extend hundreds of miles with reliable high performance.

Strix’s architecture provides mechanisms to support QoS, solving problems such as bandwidth degradation, network latency, and application priority contention. The architecture also provides end-to-end prioritization of voice traffic. When mobile WiMAX becomes available, the company will be able to support seamless, end-to-end QoS for VoIP and other real-time applications across its integrated WiFi and WiMAX systems.

Because Strix networks operate at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed spectra, separating client access and backbone traffic is simple, enabling the system to dynamically optimize data paths, circumnavigate network congestion and interference, and adjust in real time to avoid network failure.

Strix’s WiMAX solution addresses the needs of service providers who operate in the licensed spectrum as well and to cater to those providers that want to move up to licensed spectrum.

In the mean time, WiFi continues to gain momentum worldwide and is considered a significant technology when it comes to dual mode Wifi handsets. In the first quarter alone of 2007, more 20 million WiFi and dual-mode smartphones were sold worldwide, and some analysts predict that number will reach 100 million by YE 2007. (And the much-hyped iPhone could accelerate demand in mobile WiFi access.) WiFi represents a major revenue opportunity for mobile operators in terms of high-value, high-bandwidth services. By the time mobile WiMax even rolls out officially, operators will have a large installed base of WiFi-capable customers.

A new report from Report Buyer states a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent from $900 million in 2007 to $6.4 billion in 2012 for the Municipal WiFi market alone.