In-home 802.11n upgrades

Ruckus Wireless expands product line to bring HD IPTV and hot spots to the home

Among several new additions to its Smart Wi-Fi platform, Ruckus Wireless today announced enhancements to its in-home wireless LAN gear, including a Wi-Fi system for IEEE 802.11n capability and a new remote management system. The new 802.11n devices are designed to deliver high-definition IPTV and to give what the company calls a Starbucks-type of public Wi-Fi hotspot in subscribers’ homes.

Dubbed “homespot,” the hot-spot technology allows carriers to offer Wi-Fi services both to the home user as well as surrounding consumers and businesses via Wi-Fi networks adjacent to that homespot. The company said the new technology will allow telcos to expand their network footprint, while cutting costs through exploiting under-used local loops, offloading traffic from more expensive cellular networks and offering new services, including streaming video, to consumers.

Ruckus product manager Joel Brand said that a wireless network can reduce the installation time of the service significantly, as well as help technicians deal with multiple-TV homes. The Wi-Fi company’s IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, unveiled today, is designed to help service providers address bandwidth constraints in the home and deliver IP-based video on up to three HDTV streams anywhere in the home.

The platform also allows network, security and configuration to be performed without having to make on-site service calls. According to Brand, the overall goal of the new products is to relinquish control of Wi-Fi networks to the carriers and simplify home network management and set-up for consumers.

“We give carriers multiple virtual wireless LAN networks that they control in the house,” Brand said. “They can do with them whatever they want, and they can build any service over them…If you take T-Mobile’s UMA service, for example, they choose to build their UMA service on their home network controlled by the user. Their service is highly dependent on the user competency to set up the wireless LAN competently both on the home and the access point.”

Ruckus’ remote management system takes this responsibility out of the consumer’s hands and into the carrier’s. All of the Ruckus hotspot and homespot access points are remotely managed with the Ruckus FlexMaster system, a Linux-based software system that is integrated with existing OSSs.

Brand said that the beauty of the new 802.11n product is that it creates a mesh network, alleviating some of the bandwidth depletion problems that mobile Wi-Fi devices like the iPhone that encourage high-bandwidth mobile applications such as video streaming, gaming and social networking perpetuate. The company predicts that more than 170 million new Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices will ship this year.

Transitioning from 802.11 a, b and c protocols to the 802.11n has been a goal of many carriers and vendors, both at the consumer and enterprise level. Although more expensive to implement and often offering more capacity than users might actually need, the next-generation 802.11n technology’s higher bandwidth network has a greater reach than today’s more commonly used technologies.

Ruckus’s FlexMaster Wi-Fi software uses the TR-069 standard, developed by the DSL-Forum. Ruckus also unveiled today an 802.11n AP for enterprise applications and software enhancements for the Ruckus ZoneFlex 2942 APs for hotspot traffic management and authentication. The homespot router is and AP are currently available for $700, and the MediaFlex 7000 Series 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi system will be available in the second quarter of this year.