Case for Wireless Broadband Catching On Worldwide

In the quest for broadband access everywhere, the option of fixed-wireless access (FWA) is attracting increasing interest, not just in North America, but throughout the world, with many spectrum bands being employed. The ARC Group (www.the-arc-group.com) forecasts that the fixed-wireless deployments in both homes and businesses will reach almost 28 million by 2005, with North America and Western Europe accounting for 24% and 27% of deployments respectively.

Although most of the early hype in the United States surrounded the awarding of LMDS licenses, MMDS-type services turned out to be the sleeper. Today large carriers such as Sprint (www.sprint.com), WorldCom (www.wcom.com) and Nucen-trix (www.nucentrix.com), as well as numerous small ISPs, are using fixed wireless in bands below 10GHz to compete with DSL and cable modems. And in more rural areas, fixed wireless is often the only way to get high-speed Internet access.

In fact, The ARC Group predicts that the volume market for FWA will remain in the sub 2Mb/s (downstream) sector with systems below 10GHz (such as MMDS) accounting for the bulk of deployments, especially in developing countries.

The unlicensed bands are proving attractive to some carriers as they allow immediate access and don’t carry the costly license fees of some of the other spectrum bands. Fuzion Wireless, for example (www.gofuzion.com), offers service in the U-NII band at 5.7GHz.

Operating in the unlicensed ISM band at 2.4GHz is Cirronet’s WaveBolt product line. Cirronet (visit #7535 or www.cirronet.com) uses a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum RF technology that is said to overcome interference. The subscriber installs the product, so no truck rolls are necessary. Although it must be mounted on a building exterior, the antenna transmits over 90 degrees, so it only needs to be aimed in the general direction of the access point. A 3- to 5-mile range is recommended. Another plus: The fixed-wireless industry has been looking for customer-premise equipment (CPEs) to get below $500; Cirronet’s CPE is under $400, according to CEO Robert Gemmell, who said his product is targeted toward second- and third-tier markets.

Products in the millimeter range (above 10GHz) are a different story. These products act like fiber, with the added benefit that no streets need to be torn up for their deployment. The radios can be used to form SONET rings or provide redundancy to existing fiber rings. Carriers such as XO Communications have the option of copper, fiber, wireless or any combination of these in their networks (www.xo.com), which generally are built to provide access to small, medium and larger businesses in metropolitan areas.

As far as the higher frequencies are concerned, many vendors are excited by the potential of point-to-point radios used for fiber extension, said Tim Luke, Lehman Brothers (www.lehman.com) senior analyst, at the 2001 Broadband Wireless Word Forum. He cited Ceragon Network as one player in this area that is “putting up good numbers.”

Ceragon’s Gigabit Ethernet system, the FibeAir 10000, offers carriers a building block for high-capacity wireless IP networks (visit #1126 or www.ceragon.com). The system is designed to bridge high-capacity connections across metropolitan areas and provides high-capacity wireless connectivity between campus buildings. This creates a high-speed Internet network by connecting high-speed next-generation Gigabit Ethernet switches.

A study from the Strategis Group forecasts global FWA service revenue at $16.3 billion by 2004 with 40% coming from North America, 25% from Europe, 17% from Latin America and 18% from Asia Pacific (www.strategisgroup.com). (See Figure 1.)

More at the Show:
• ADC’s Axity BTS is an integrated, carrier-class transceiver station for multicell deployments. With this technology, broadband wireless carriers can address capacity issues of super-cell network architectures and fill out coverage areas. The BTS offers N+1 redundancy, with one sector more than needed under full load to serve as a backup in case a primary sector fails. It accommodates early deployments of single carriers and can expand to multiple carriers as capacity demand increases.
Visit #2655 or www.adc.com

• Andrew has launched Radiax RXL4.5-1, a 5/8-inch coupling-mode cable for broadband applications. The cable is suitable for installation in buildings and in tunnels where speed of installation and high performance is required.

The cable’s coupling mode ensures that signal power is radiated uniformly around the cable and along its length, providing a more efficient platform for multiple frequencies.
Visit #5023 or www.andrew.com

• WJ Communications’ wireless portfolio has expanded with the addition of the 3.5GHz point-to-multipoint ODU units. The portfolio, available in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations, now supports the MMDS, 3.5GHz, and U-NII bands. All products provide low bit-error rate, high-data-rate capability, have high dynamic range front ends with low-noise synthesizers and have various output configurations.

This technology, which was recently adopted by the Broadband Wireless Internet Forum in an effort to drive industry standards, operates in both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight environments.
Visit #1844 or www.wj.com

• Unique Broadband Systems has completed the design and development of the following new products:

• Indoor broadband transmitter for the MMDS band, which can be used for wireless television and Internet application. The transmitter has a modular design, allowing for reduced maintenance costs to the carrier.

• L-band and S-band transmitter for point-to-multipoint wireless Internet applications, which can be used in the MDS1 and MDS2 bands in the United States.

• L-band and S-band receiver for digital point-to-point wireless Internet applications.

L-Band transceiver for point-to-multipoint wireless Internet applications.
Visit # 7029 or www.uniquesys.com

• The 2Mb/s Wiman System from Airdata Wiman Systems was designed as a scaleable WAN to offer dedicated point-to-multipoint network connections at speeds of up to 512kb/s full duplex over ranges of up to 20 miles.

For several applications, Wiman System offers a low cost of implementation, operation and maintenance. Wiman System data networks can be deployed in a matter of weeks and typically require low infrastructure investments and installation lead times. The company’s systems are flexible, easily expandable and transmit over extended ranges, which is especially advantageous where geographically dispersed customers or operations, environmental constraints, difficult terrain or limited installation times render the installation and implementation of competitive networks impractical or too costly.
Visit #8989 or www.wiman.net

• Remec has a line of antennas and transceivers for fixed-wireless broadband systems. ExcelAir antennas deliver high-speed Internet access to subscribers. They offer three gains that can accommodate various conditions that carriers may encounter. The 16dBi antenna works well for most subscribers, but an 11dBi and a 14dBi also are available.

SectorShape base-station antennas use artificial intelligence in the physical design so signal transmissions will stay within the boundaries of a sector, and signal interference is low.

These antennas are available for MMDS, 3.5GHz, 5.8GHz and LMDS frequencies, and can be polarized vertically or horizontally.

Remec also has announced its first product in its in-band transceiver line, which will offer 21 downstream channels for receiving information and two upstream channels for sending information, providing carriers with a solution that eliminates the need to purchase both the MMDS and the MDS spectrum.
Visit #5049 or www.remec.com

• Vyyo’s Hex Card for the V3000 wireless hub increases system capacity without the need to add more chassis to a rack. By increasing the number of channels that each card can support, the card allows wireless-broadband carriers to expand their upstream capacity by a factor of six per upstream card.

Enabling the Hex Card to support six channels per card increases system throughput from 2Mb/s to 12Mb/s in QPSK modulation and supports up to 24Mb/s in 16 QAM modulation, allowing MMDS carriers and those in the 3.5GHz band to support more users per hub. The V3000 chassis supports a combination of up to six upstream and downstream cards and requires at least one downstream and one upstream card per chassis.

Increased diversity capability counters signal fades due to propagation anomalies, including multipath, by using two channels with separate antennas to process the same received signal.
Visit #667 or www.yvvo.com

• The Nokia RoofTop Wireless Routing broadband solution will be available to ship second quarter. This includes the Nokia R240, an outdoor router, and the Nokia Rooftop Management System, which simplifies the installation and monitoring of the wireless network.

Advanced TelCom Group (ATG), an integrated communications provider based in Santa Rosa, CA, has trialed the solution for the past five months, using it to reach residential broadband customers that it has not been able to reach with a copper-wired solution.

Nokia’s mesh-designed network, which uses the Rooftop Wireless Routers, was built to model the wired structure of the Internet. The routers require line of sight only to another router in the network, rather than a base station. They operate in the 2.6GHz ISM band, eliminating license costs.
Visit # 2822 or www.wbs.nokia.com

• Broadway from Paragon Networks integrates different access and switching functions into a one modular platform, letting carriers deploy, scale and manage the voice and data services in their networks.

Broadway delivers transport, edge routing and switching intelligence to the access point of the network, helping to break down the bandwidth bottleneck between high-speed customer devices, wireless cell sites and high-speed carrier edge or core network.
Visit #7843 or www.paragon-networks.com