Cisco focuses on broadband fixed wireless

(Telephony) Cisco Systems has jumped into broadband fixed wireless with both feet, a set of products and a technology it is encouraging others to use.

"We happen to believe that 2001 is when we're going to start seeing (broadband fixed wireless) customers believe that they have a solution and road map. They're either going to step up trials or start deploying initial cities," said Troy Trenchard, product marketing director for Wireless Access.

The true wireless explosion will happen in 2002, Trenchard predicted, but the operators need to be ready this year with technologies that work across different vendors' platforms.

Cisco's products include a headend router "that's the same router we use in the cable space" with a card for a wireless radio, said Trenchard. The company also provides wireless modem cards for its routers and is working with partners to develop volume solutions. Finally, he said, Cisco is introducing a power feed panel to feed power to the outside radio, although it is depending on "ecosystem partners" to build those radios.

Cisco is working with the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF), to push the concept of vector orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (VOFDM) technology for which Cisco holds patents.

"We have contributed those to the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum. They're available for royalty-free licensing by BWIF members who are implementing products that are based on BWIF standards based on VOFDM and DOCSIS," Trenchard said.

VOFDM combines spread signals and vectorization to eliminate line-of-sight problems that plague wireless deployments. Another industry group, the OFDM Forum is promoting a wideband format to accomplish a similar result.

That there are at least three industry groups – including a wireless DSL Forum – is indicative of the need for industry standards.

Fixed broadband wireless is still without an interoperability standard, but Trenchard said industry members, impatient to deploy, can't wait.

"There is general agreement that OFDM is the right base for it (and) you're starting to see a movement that says DOCSIS is maybe the way to do this," he said. "The message we got and what we're moving toward is to continue to push for standards, continue to look at opportunities for a single standard, but don't slow down version one."

Cisco, he said, is "trying to help make the market happen. We're trying to help emerge what we think is a key enabling technology."

That technology will deliver high-speed data via MMDS in the 2.5 to 2.7 GHz range to point-to-multipoint customers located 20 miles away. Cisco is also developing products for the unlicensed band with a shorter target range of about 5 miles, Trenchard said.

Because the system uses DOCSIS, he said, "we can deliver packet telephony services. Essentially all the services we can offer over cable can be offered over this wireless solution."

For Cisco, Trenchard concluded, "fixed wireless is just another last-mile access technology that allows service providers to offer a consistent set of services to their customers. What they're selling is not DSL or cable, but Internet access or second line telephone or video streaming or whatever application they can offer as a value-add."