Who Will Win With Wireless
There's no shortage of buzz in the wireless industry about an emerging standard called Wi-Max. The reason? It addresses three things sorely lacking in today's wireless infrastructure -- bandwidth, range and security.
Wi-Max, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, provides fixed, portable and, ultimately, mobile, wireless broadband connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight with a base station. Infrastructure supported by the Wi-Max Forum, an industry consortium, is intended to support distances ranging from 3 to 10 kilometers.
Fixed and portable access applications are expected to deliver up to 40 Mbps per channel for fixed and portable access configurations, and will be targeted as last-mile infrastructure for DSL networks. Mobile applications will deliver about 15 Mbps.
The forum says it is expected that Wi-Max technology will be available in notebook computers and PDAs next year, allowing for urban areas and cities to become "MetroZones" for portable outdoor broadband wireless access.
AirTegrity Wireless is among the first to offer a solution consisting of a base station that supports Wi-Max. The product is among three finalists for the Mobility/Wireless category of this year's VARBusiness Tech Innovators awards.
The company's AirVantage Base Station provides what the company calls WiMAX in a Box, which integrates a multichannel radio and antenna with routing, switching and security functions, allowing customers to link their existing systems, such as T-3, T-1, E-1, xDSL termination gear as well as 10/100Base-T equipment.
The WiMAX in a Box solution has stiff competition from two vendors who have technology that may have broader reach -- SonicWall and Meru Networks. SonicWall's TZ 150, which costs less than $500, is a security appliance specifically designed to secure data over 802.11b/g wireless networks. SonicWall's TZ 150 is a wireless firewall that performs deep packet inspection and is capable of scanning for viruses, spyware and application-specific attacks. It supports enforced VPN encryption, WEB, or WPA, using a variety of key encryption protocols.
The final contender is Meru's Radio Switch Family. Launched earlier this year, they are offered in four, eight and 12-radio configurations and delivers up to 648 Mbps of wireless LAN bandwidth via 802.11 radios and can scale up to 1.2 Gbps in its coverage zone.
Meru's infrastructure is intended for large enterprises and campuses that want to run both voice and data over the wireless LAN.
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