When will the next-generation Wi-Fi standard — 802.11n — finally be ready for prime time? And how will municipalities make the leap from current wireless mesh solutions to 802.11n gear? I reached out to multiple wireless mesh experts for some perspective. When will the next-generation Wi-Fi standard — 802.11n — finally be ready for prime time? And how will municipalities make the leap from current wireless mesh solutions to 802.11n gear? I reached out to multiple wireless mesh experts for some perspective.
I tried to give vendors and service providers equal time. But in this particular case, Nan Chen, VP of marketing at Strix Systems, met my deadline with the most in-depth answers. Here’s a look at our conversation, which took place over email.
MUNIWIRELESS: When do you expect wireless mesh solutions with 802.11n support (even pre-standard support) to arrive?
CHEN: The IEEE Draft 2.0 of 802.11n is now available. This will help move the industry solidly toward uniformity, which is required before 802.11n in muniWiFi makes commercial sense. The final version of 802.11n will be ratified in 2008. You will see some pre-standard implementations late
this year, likely beginning of next. But the real compliant solution will be available after ratification of the standard.
MUNIWIRELESS: So where will 802.11n fit in a public broadband solution?
CHEN: There are two noticeable applications of 802.11n for wireless mesh.
1. Backhaul – as more and more subscribers sign up, more and more bandwidth demanding applications increase, over wireless mesh networks,
backhaul as the aggregation layer, is required to be higher bandwidth, running 100-600 Mbps, 11n is a good aggregation technology, much like Ethernet’s tiered aggregation structure, 10 to 100 to 1,000 Mbps.
2. When CPE, especially laptops, has 802.11n as the standard in their wireless card the demand for 802.11n in muniWiFi will be compelling. But today [PC companies like] Dell still install 802.11g cards as the standard offering.
MUNIWIRELESS: Will there be an easy upgrade path from current mesh gear to 802.11n gear?
CHEN: New hardware boards and software will be required with multiple radios for the multiple antennas used in MIMO, so vendors with modular hardware designs will have the easier upgrade path. The node’s physical design will also require a change as 802.11n involves multiple antennas where one is used today (MIMO – means multiple antennas). Vendors that use an internal antenna design will have to re-think their whole mechanical
design, while vendors using an external antenna design with multiple antenna ports on their chassis will have the easier upgrade path.
MUNIWIRELESS: Do you expect 802.11n gear to compete with or complement WiMAX?
CHEN: They are complementary technologies. WiMAX will see most of its deployment in the licensed frequency bands, while WiFi is unlicensed. This difference affects the basic operating economics. Also impacting the economics is the higher cost of WiMAX devices. Intel has announced their plans to have dual-mode wireless devices that select the “best” network based upon the user’s preferences. 802.11n will always have the best cost/performance characteristics, while WiMAX may have better reach and strict SLA control. The laptop’s application will make the best choice in the future between an 802.11n network and WiMAX, if available.
MUNIWIRELESS: How will the client market evolve between Wi-Fi and WiMAX?
CHEN: The ubiquity and better cost/performance of WiFi means that there will always be many more WiFi clients in the World than WiMAX clients. A service provider will then have a choice of addressing a large ubiquitous market, or a niche market if they treat WiFi and WiMAX as two
separate technologies. But if they threat the technologies as complementary then they will be able to use the best of both worlds.
MUNIWIRELESS: What are the potential benefits/challenges municipalities should keep in mind as they begin to hear hype about 802.11n?
CHEN: 802.11n can increase either the throughput, or distance of a WiFi link. These performance benefits will mean better customer experience when running a streaming application such as video in support of first responders, or reaching further into the home in support of bridging the digital divide. The hype for 802.11n will be confusing as the technology is complex. The hype will be in promising what the 802.11n standard could do, not what the vendor’s equipment can do. The 802.11n standard can operate between 100Mbps to 600Mbps over-the-air. Be suspicious of any vendor that quotes the upper numbers and read the fine print.
Because of the distance involved in a muniWiFi network the throughput will be on the lower side of the scale, while still impressive don’t let a vendor quote unrealistic numbers in the hopes of making a sale.
802.11n will also find use in the backhaul of muniWiFi traffic, as well as part of the client access. As more subscribers sign up and as streaming applications such as video become more popular backhaul throughput requirements will increase. This need for higher throughput in the backhaul link will be met by using 802.11n technology.
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