Independent ISP conference

Wireless Internet Service Providers Network Operators Group

I bet Park City, UT in August is nice. You now have an opportunity to visit on official business. The Wireless ISP Network Operators Group (I hope I got that acronym right) is hosting a Forum from August 15-17 in Park City, and Public Private Partnerships are the key focus of the forum. I just got off the phone with Charles Wu, whose job it is to promote the conference and he asked for help in getting the invitation out to muncipal government network specialists and policy planner types.

From their website: As the Public vs. Private Sector Broadband Network Debate gets more and more tied up in the legal system, what is clear is that, like in all lawsuits, "ultimately, no one ends up winning." So, what are the options? Rather than wasting resources "fighting amongst one another" - let's meet, talk, work together and coordinate an action plan that both public and private sector can jointly leverage.

In continuing the WiNOG EXCHANGE tradition, this August we will establish a forum to bring together both sides of the table, public and private, to stop the fighting and to discuss methods of working together to accomplish the task of "Bridging the Digital Divide."

I encourage you to take a look and attend if you can. There is tremendous potential in getting the public and private sectors to act more cooperatively to deploy wireless broadband, and this could be a good start for your town or city.

Posted on June 23, 2005 at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Introductory Interview with New Belair Board Member

BelAir's Fox: Backhaul Key Issue in Metro Networks eWeek interviews Scott Fox, newly appointed to Belair Networks' board of directors.

Posted on June 18, 2005 at 09:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Motorola and Mesh Networks

Radio-Hopping Leaps Ahead Interview with Motorola executive describes routing protocol and innovative uses for a mesh network, such as this: Portsmouth, England, deployed the technology across its public transportation system, wirelessly connecting its 308 buses to 35 intelligent bus stops, where passengers can see where buses are on the router, whether they're running on time, receive service messages and pay fares electronically in advance of the bus's arrival.

Posted on June 18, 2005 at 09:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Global WISP Directory

Global Listing of Wireless ISPs & Related Organizations - WISP Directory provides browsers with a valuable tool to identify a local Wireless ISP company. This directory tracks WISPs who register themselves on the site in what amounts to a Yellow Pages directory of WISPs. There is no indication on this Web site on whether the local WISP has experience with metropolitan mesh networking, but this is clearly a place to start in evaluation and local planning.

Posted on June 13, 2005 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wireless Vendors: An Overview

Time to go shopping. So, you've jumped in with both feet, sharpened your pencil, pulled up your web browser, and are ready to dive into the planning process.

I've assembled this chart of wireless vendors over the past 18 months. I recommend you start here to get familiar with the industry landscape and take notes on those vendors that look promising. I left this particular document in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format, so you can take this and make the chart you need for planning. I recommend you cut and paste the company names into Google to find websites as you get familiar with the industry.

I've also started this short list of municipal wireless vendors, which I will add to over time. Check back to watch the list grow. Even better, tell me about interesting companies that you know of that are missing, and I'll add them.

Aiirmesh Communications is a wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) and pioneer in the industry. The company launched the nation's largest Wi-Fi Hot Zone in 2003, blanketing the city of Cerritos, California, an 8.6 square mile community with over 60,000 residents, with wireless broadband service. Aiirmesh continues to utilize the latest in Wi-Fi, WiMAX and other robust technologies to design and deploy metro-scale broadband networks for communities across the county.

BelAir Networks features wireless networking solutions that are built on a patented cellular LAN architecture, which integrates wireless access with wireless backhaul in an innovative multi-radio mesh to provide a high-capacity wireless backbone. To create the mesh, Belair Networks uses unique, outdoor wireless internetworking platforms that beam Wi-Fi signals into buildings from the outside. Multiple backhaul radios in each node are configured point-to-point with directional antennas. Each node can connect to multiple others and the combined connections form the wireless backhaul mesh.

Cisco Metropolitan Mobile Network solutions enable public sector agencies to deploy a secure, scalable, broadband network that integrates wired and wireless IP infrastructures and provides local government and transit agencies with a secure broadband citywide network. Cisco Metropolitan Mobile Network solutions enhance security, improve communications and responsiveness, and enable new applications by extending intelligent information network services from the wired infrastructure to the wireless IP network.

Cohda Wireless Mobile Broadband is a developer and supplier of multi-hopping digital wireless communications products, which enable new mobile field applications. Focused on public safety clients, Cohda enables such applications as real time incident video, through reliable high bandwidth communications capability while traveling at high speeds.

Firetide was launched in 2003 to provide equipment for quickly, easily, and affordably deploying large Wireless Instant Networks. Firetide solutions support existing public "hotspots" and the company is developing instant networking technology that will deliver everywhere, all-the-time wireless data communication services to hotzones and hotregions.

LocustWorld, Bio-Diverse Networking Unleashed, has a vision of a world where communities download free software and organically develop a mesh network. Located in the UK, LocustWorld is an early mover on the global market.

MeshDynamics is an early entrant in the mesh networking world, starting in 2002. The website of Mesh Dynamics stresses the technological advantages of its products for scalability and capacity.

PacketHop describes their difference from standard mesh network vendors: Conventional wireless broadband networking is dependent on fixed access points and centralized, network-based servers. Fixed 802.11 networks have their shortcomings, as users are tethered to access points and hindered by bounded coverage, limited roaming, latency and single points of failure. The PacketHop™ Communication System changes the landscape by making infrastructure completely optional.

Telabria designs and manufactures the mSystem range of outdoor mesh products that utilize multi-radio technology to create scalable wireless network solutions. These include CampusMesh™ for local area Wi-Fi coverage, CityMesh™ for metro-scale hot zones, and MobileMesh™ for portable Wi-Fi access using 3G cellular backhaul.

Tropos Networks Installed in over 200 customer sites worldwide, Tropos Networks' MetroMesh architecture includes the innovative and patented Tropos MetroMesh OS with Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP(TM)), the Tropos Control element manager software suite and purpose-built outdoor, mobile and indoor MetroMesh routers. Started over 5 years ago, Tropos is a pioneer and leader in metropolitan wireless networks, whose wireless mesh dynamically routes traffic along the highest throughput path to the Internet, which scales to thousands of nodes with the lowest routing overhead in the industry, not exceeding 5% of available bandwidth regardless of network size, and features the industry's only purpose-built mesh routing protocol built on the important principal of optimizing client-server throughput.

Posted on June 09, 2005 at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Strong Argument for Citywide Wireless Networks

Should cities hook up to WiFi? | Tech News on ZDNet Tropos Networks CEO Ron Sege makes a strong argument in this article for citywide wireless broadband networks. Citing the numerous benefits of such networks, in contrast to public arguments that misinform the public, Sege calls for fact-based policy making at the state and federal level to encourage the development of broadband wireless networks. A Good Read to better understand the issues in this debate!

Posted on May 27, 2005 at 06:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack