Who will rule the wireless world?
- Posted:
- 16:24 24 Mar 2005
- Topics:
- Mobile & Wireless Networking | Broadband Services | Networking
Businesses stretching Wi-Fi's capabilities on distance
and speed would be advised to consider adopting WiMax - the newer,
faster, long-distance broadband internet standard. Sally Flood
reports
When residents of the Winslade Estate in Lewisham, South
London, go online, rather than using a dial-up or ADSL connection,
they use a Wi-Fi network provided by the local council. The
£250,000 network was set up in 2003 using funding from the
government's New Deal for Communities programme. Today, more than
500 residents enjoy free, high-speed internet access, thanks to the
Wi-Fi system.
"We knew that the finance was not enough to cable the entire
estate, and we could not go back a year later for more money to dig
in more cables," says Nigel Tyrell, project leader of Winslade
Online. "With Wi-Fi, we can potentially expand the network very
quickly for little additional cost."
However, some wireless experts believe that the days of using Wi-Fi
for this type of project are numbered.
"People have been stretching what they are doing with Wi-Fi, taking
it far beyond what it was intended to do," says Peter Firstbrook, a
programme director with analyst firm Meta Group. "For example,
Wi-Fi was never really designed to be used outside, or to be used
to cover large physical areas."
Because Wi-Fi is a low-power technology, it works best over short
distances and indoors, where echoes and obstacles are less of an
issue, says Simon Saunders, chief executive of wireless consulting
group CDS. In addition, Wi-Fi does not offer any interference
protection, and enterprises cannot guarantee the level of service
provided by a Wi-Fi network when lots of people are using the same
frequency.
However, there will soon be an alternative for enterprises that
could overcome many of these problems. WiMax is a new wireless
broadband technology that promises high-speed internet access (up
to 70mbps) over distances of up to 30 kilometres. The WiMax Forum
(the industry association responsible for defining WiMax standards)
is gaining strong support from organisations such as Intel,
Fujitsu, Siemens and Motorola.
WiMax also has some powerful advantages over Wi-Fi for enterprises,
says Caroline Gabriel, research director at Rethink IT. "The
security and quality of service are far more advanced in WiMax,
whereas Wi-Fi needs a host of extensions to handle these issues,"
she says. "WiMax will support Advanced Encryption System from day
one and has native support for quality of service, making it a
strong contender for voice and video over IP and for mesh, which is
good for campus coverage."
Saunders also believes that WiMax is much better suited to
providing broadband access over long distances and open spaces.
"Wi-Fi will always be a local network technology, but WiMax is
designed specifically for metro networks," he says.
Strictly speaking, WiMax is not a new technology. For almost a
decade companies such as broadband technology supplier Alvarion
have used proprietary broadband wireless access (BWA) technology to
transmit digital traffic without wires. What is different now is
that companies such as Intel and Fujitsu are working together to
set standards for BWA products. These standards will create a new
generation of WiMax-compatible products that should ensure
interoperability, increase customer choice and reduce prices.
WiMax products will arrive in waves as different standards are
agreed. The first WiMax services will be based on the 802.16-2004
standard, which will cover fixed WiMax services. Fixed WiMax sets a
common method for fixed wireless services products designed to beam
an internet signal from a base station to a building or area.
Relatively few enterprises will buy into fixed WiMax services,
because they will be too expensive, says Firstbrook. The exception
could be where companies want to replace expensive point-to-point
links such as Free Space Optics, which might be used to link two
buildings on different sides of a river or other physical
barrier.
Instead, most fixed WiMax customers will be carriers and telecom
service providers, which will buy WiMax to flood a particular area
with broadband, then offer access to business and home users in
return for a monthly fee. "The big market opportunity is WiMax as
an alternative to DSL and cable, particularly in rural and suburban
areas," says Firstbrook. "We should start seeing WiMax services by
the end of 2005 with more arriving in 2006."
Some services of this type are already running in the UK using
uncertified, pre-WiMax technology. Start-up company Libera is
offering business customers in central Bristol access to a 2mbps
wireless broadband service for £299 a month, plus £499
installation. The service is aimed at medium-sized companies which
need better reliability and speed than ADSL but cannot afford a
leased line, says Libera's chief executive, Robert Condon.
"This system is capable of delivering up to 10mbps access for
customers, and we offer performance guarantees of 2mbps," he says.
"At the moment, if a business wants that, they have to double up
their lines or buy a leased line, which can cost £1,000 a
month."
A second wave of WiMax products is expected in 2006 or 2007, based
on a second WiMax standard that should be ratified this summer. The
802.16e standard will define common standards for chip sets for use
in laptops and other mobile devices. Leading the way is chip firm
Intel, which has released a test version of its WiMax-compatible
chip, Rosedale, to selected suppliers.
"When that chip is released, you will suddenly have millions of
users able to use WiMax networks, and that will drive the creation
of WiMax services," says Carlton O'Neil, marketing director of
Alvarion. "WiMax access cards for laptops will be available pretty
quickly after that, certainly within 18 months or two years."
Mobile WiMax will allow service providers to create large
metropolitan wireless networks that will outperform Wi-Fi hotspots.
"Wi-Fi can technically offer a service over a distance of 300 feet
but that is only if you are standing on level ground, with the sun
shining and the wind blowing in the right direction," says O'Neil.
"With WiMax, you can realistically expect to cover five or 10
kilometres with a single base station which, in many cases, is an
entire town."
Authorities in New York and Philadelphia in the US have recently
created mesh Wi-Fi networks that link together hundreds of Wi-Fi
hotspots to provide coverage across an entire city. This type of
service will eventually be replaced with WiMax networks that users
can access on the move, says Firstbrook.
But, like many wireless technologies before it, WiMax has several
obstacles to overcome. First among these is price. Today, receivers
and base stations for WiMax networks cost about 10 times more than
their Wi-Fi equivalents.
In addition, WiMax in the UK does not yet guarantee protection from
interference. "Ofcom has made the 5.8Ghz spectrum available for
WiMax access, but it is not protected," says Saunders. "Also, at
that frequency, the signal from a WiMax base station will not
necessarily be able to penetrate buildings, so companies will need
external antennas, which will bump up the price of services."
And there are still some WiMax sceptics. Cisco Systems, for
example, recently released a statement saying it had no plans to
support WiMax because the company believes that "Wi-Fi is the
fastest, most cost-effective and most tested technology for the
marketplace."
So what does this mean for 3G services? In the short-term, probably
not much, says Firstbrook. Although a service provider might be
able to offer voice and data over WiMax in a given area, the
ability to roam between different WiMax zones is more complicated.
"It took the mobile operators years to sort out roaming for mobile
phones, and it will take years to achieve the same with WiMax,"
Firstbrook says.
Some analysts believe that in future, WiMax may compete with 3G
services. "The real breakthrough will come when there is full
mobility, from about 2007 or 2008," says Gabriel. "We will start to
see WiMax handsets with full hand-off between base-stations,
enabling new enterprise applications at low cost, such as mobile
videoconferencing and other video over IP functions. This should be
delivered with far better price-performance than on 3G or 3.5G,"
she says.
Ultimately, it is likely that IT directors will need to factor both
Wi-Fi and WiMax into their internet access strategies, along with
3G and wired technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet for the desktop.
This presents IT managers with a potential management nightmare,
but Firstbrook believes that suppliers are beginning to address the
issue.
"Some suppliers such as IBM are beginning to look at connection
managers that will automatically select the right access
technology, depending on where the user is and what they are
doing," he says. "We will start to see new products that will
ensure we are always connected, no matter where we go."
Case study: Upton Magna Business Park
Upton Magna Business Park looks like a haven for those wishing to set up a business outside the city. The site is surrounded by the rolling countryside of Shrewsbury and has space for 14 businesses in converted agricultural buildings.
However, in the past the park has had problems attracting tenants because it does not have access to ADSL broadband services. As a result, businesses had to use dial-up or ISDN, which were not ideal.
Upton Magna was approached by Internet Central, an independent internet service provider with a potential solution. It already operated a number of broadband wireless access (BWA) networks in non-DSL areas in the UK, and offered to create a similar network for the business park.
Because BWA does not rely on the copper infrastructure of the incumbent operator and does not require fibre to be laid, it is relatively inexpensive, says Dave Thorpe, operations manager at Internet Central. "Fixed wireless is a good alternative to ADSL because it is faster to install and customers can choose a tailored access package depending on how much bandwidth they need," he says.
Another attraction was that the network can easily be expanded or upgraded as Upton Magna grows. Once the wireless network is in place, new customers can be connected in a couple of hours and most new features can be added with a software download.
Internet Central created a BWA network using a base station from Alvarion, which is installed at the ISP's head office in Stafford. The base station communicates with the access point at the business park. The network provides tenants with internet access of about 1mbps - 20 times faster than a traditional dial-up connection.
The hardware used to create the network uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology, which is the basis of the upcoming Wi-Max standard, so it should be relatively straightforward to upgrade once the standard has been defined.
Glossary
Mesh network
A type of local area network where each transmitter or receiver is connected to others to create a larger pool of coverage
Metro network
A metropolitian area netwrok connects users over larger areas than would be covered by a Lan but covers a smaller area network. Metro networks are often used to connect entire cities or large campus sites
Wi-Fi
Short for wireless fidelity, Wi-Fi is a type of wireless Lan that uses the 802.11 wireless networking standard. Wi-Fi is designed to be used over short distances, for example, in offices and schools. Public access Wi-Fi networks are known as hotspots
WiMax
A wireless broadband technology that uses the 802.16 networking standard. WiMax networks will have a range of up to 30 miles and support multimedia applications
