CALABASAS, Calif., Oct. 3, 2005 – Strix Systems, the leader in high-performance wireless mesh networking, today announced its strategy for implementing WiMAX in its products.The company’s Access/One products provide WiMAX-like performance today, and their modular design means moving to WiMAX and ultimately to mobile WiMAX is a simple field upgrade. The company also announced today that it has joined the WiMAX Forum, a community of leading WiMAX product and service providers that are committed to developing solutions based on Intel technologies.

With per-channel network performance of 54 Mbps, Strix’s Access/One products already handle the kind of demanding applications such as VoIP and video streaming that WiMAX will support. Also, Strix’s WiFi-based mesh technology already provides ubiquitous broadband coverage with a range of several hundred meters outdoors. WiMAX promises to increase range and quality of throughput with an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based modulation technique that will achieve a maximum coverage radius outdoors using OFD Multiple Access (OFDMA)

“Our customers want to extract maximum advantage from their Strix deployments now and in the future; that’s why we’re committed to providing the best performance in the industry today with our multi-radio, multi-channel, multi-RF system and continuing that performance lead by making the upgrade to WiMAX simple,” said Cyrus Irani, Vice President of Advanced Development and Strategy at Strix Systems. “When interoperable WiMAX becomes available, our networks will be ready. We’ll support in-network upgrades to WiMAX radios that will enhance our high-speed backhaul inside the wireless mesh, and we’ll be able to offer our customers mobile access to broadband services when phase two of WiMAX becomes available in late 2006 or early 2007. Becoming a member of the WiMAX Forum ensures that we’ll be able to keep our Access/One solution in synch with the latest WiMAX developments.”

High-Performance, WiMAX-Ready Architecture
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. This modular architecture is fully flexible and scalable, and can be easily upgraded to support emerging standardized wireless technologies such as WiMAX. Strix can offer its customers in-network WiMAX simply by adding WiMAX-enabled radios to their existing nodes, which will provide 802.16 backhaul.

Strix’s architecture already 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 both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed spectra, they can separate client access from the mesh backbone, 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 will allow the company to address 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.

Strix Systems designs, develops, and delivers high performance wireless mesh networking systems based on the company’s unique multi-radio, multi-channel and multi-RF wireless architecture. Sold globally by a network of integrators and resellers, these solutions address the high cost of hard-to-wire environments while providing the high throughput and low latency needed to support wireless voice, video, and data applications. Strix’s Access/One solutions provide scalable, reliable wireless connectivity in both indoor enterprise deployments as well as in the emerging outdoor public safety, municipal, and metropolitan Wi-Fi marketplace. For more information about Strix Systems, please visit www.strixsystems.com