Clearwire revamping 4G core with Cisco gear

The shift in focus from 4G as a mobile platform to 4G as an IP platform leaves the door wide open to traditional IP players like Cisco. While the architecture Cisco is supplying Clearwire isn't the exact same it would supply to an LTE operator, it uses many common components, including the same routers, said Suraj Shetty, vice president of worldwide service provider marketing at Cisco.

"As we go to 4G, both LTE and WiMax have a similar core once they leave the radio network," Shetty said. "Products like the 7600, for example, can be configured for the ASN, can be configured for WiFi, and can be configured for LTE or 3G. It's a software product that we have, along with some hardware components, which we'll reconfigure for different applications. That's what we bring to Clearwire: an IP platform, which can do edge routing, which can do WiMax gateways, which can do home agent—all of these packaged in a converged platform."

Clearwire has been solidifying its vendor contracts in recent months, naming Amdocs as its billing, mediation and customer management services provider. Amdocs will also handle customer support for Clearwire's virtual operator partners and investors Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Google. On the radio network front, Clearwire has solidified its deployments on Motorola and Samsung equipment.

When Sprint (NYSE:S) and Clearwire merged their WiMax assets late last year, Clearwire inherited both Samsung and Nokia Siemens Networks (NYSE:NOK, NYSE:SI) as radio vendors. Clearwire has green-lighted multiple Samsung deployments this year, but none of NSN's markets have shown up on Clearwire's 2009 rollout plans. NSN lost its original launch market in Dallas-Fort Worth to Samsung last year, and very little has been heard from the vendor on WiMax since. Richardson said NSN isn't out of the picture yet. Clearwire is considering NSN as well as several other vendors for future market deployments, he said.

The other aspects of Cisco and Clearwire's partnership pertain primarily to end-user devices. Cisco will be a participant in Clearwire's innovation project—a live WiMax test network in Silicon Valley announced at CTIA Wireless last month. But today Cisco announced its commitment to design end-user devices and technology for the commercial network. The devices will come out of Cisco's Linksys consumer router division, which could mean Cisco is getting into the WiMax home gateway business. Neither Shetty nor Richardson offered any details on what products would emerge from the partnership.

Cisco will also give Clearwire access to its sales channels, opening up a huge pipeline of potential small office and home office (SOHO) customers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Clearwire has focused primarily on the consumer market so far.