FIXED WIRELESS ENMESHED IN TECHNOLOGY DEBATE

Network architecture creates reliability, speed trade-off

There's no easy answer when it comes to the value of mesh in broadband fixed wireless networks. Supporters claim mesh circumvents line-of-sight issues and overcomes the need to develop second-generation gear. Detractors see it as another technological dead end as the industry navigates through first-generation problems.

Vista Broadband Networks supports mesh. It's deploying Nokia's technology to tap residential and small to medium-sized enterprise customers in the San Francisco Bay area with a network that starts with a roof-mounted Nokia AirHead outdoor antenna and spreads like a spider's web throughout a neighborhood.

“We can quickly, easily grow the network exponentially,” said Vista co-founder, Chairman and CEO Scott Mindemann during the recent Broadband Wireless World Forum in Anaheim. “Mesh allows us to route around obstacles.”

But that routing comes at a price because “every hop cuts the bandwidth in half,” said Peter Jarich, analyst for The Strategis Group. “Three hops out, you're down to 375 kb/s.”

That's enough to satisfy an audience more interested in reliability than blazing speed, said Mindemann, adding that 384 kb/s seems to be a very popular speed.

Nokia developed mesh to overcome a basic first-generation wireless network problem. “You can't deploy a 35-mile supercell for residential use,” said Andy Kelm, head of Nokia's wireless routing business for the Americas. “Coverage is really where a mesh network shines.”

But mesh isn't the only way to get that coverage. Jarich said conventional point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks accomplish basically the same thing. “[There are] very few good answers into why someone else's mesh is better than doing just a bunch of point-to-point links with a router,” he said.

Another potential mesh drawback is its price. “It's too expensive for most residential users,” Jarich said. “You run into the issue of having to go to those families that are willing to shell out the big bucks. No one else is going to pay for it.”

Though it has no plans to sell its mesh technology retail, Nokia uses Tessco Technologies as a resale partner. Nokia won't say how much operators pay to get equipment from Tessco, though. “We really shy away from attaching a price to it and haven't done so for a number of months,” said a Nokia spokeswoman.

Nevertheless, she admitted “it would be expensive at this stage of the game for you — if you wanted an Internet connection — to go out and purchase it that way.”

That means an operator such as Vista buys, deploys and leases the equipment — and eats the costs of removing it when subscribers turn it off. Mindemann said that hasn't been a problem because Vista has low churn rates.

Nokia and Vista insist that mesh is ready today, but others in the industry share Jarich's skepticism.

“Mesh isn't commercially proven yet,” said Ensemble Communications Chairman and CEO Dave Twyver. “It probably will be in the next year or so.”

By then, though, the rest of the fixed wireless industry may have the much-needed second-generation gear.

Jarich is taking a wait-and-see attitude. “Mesh is a really cool way to get around line-of-sight issues,” he said. “It's fairly simple, and it's fairly robust. The issue is that no one really has done it well.”