Wireless products gravitate to mesh

Cisco and a group of other vendors are releasing mesh network products based on the 802.11 wireless LAN standard.

The products are aimed mainly at creating outdoor wireless networks, such as for municipalities, or as extensions to enterprise WLANs . In a mesh, wireless devices connect to a nearby node, which passes the packets to one or more companion nodes. Algorithms are used to find a route for optimal performance and avoid downed nodes or interference. Most of the nodes in a mesh don't need cabled network connections, so deployments are relatively simple, fast, and inexpensive, compared with using convention WLAN access points.

Cisco is expected to announce this week its two-radio Aironet 1500 Outdoor Mesh Access Point. Users will connect via 802.11g/b to the 1500, which will then use a separate 802.11a radio to connect with neighboring nodes. The product is based on work done by Airespace, a company Cisco acquired earlier this year.

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Cisco and a group of other vendors are releasing mesh network products based on the 802.11 wireless LAN standard.

The products are aimed mainly at creating outdoor wireless networks, such as for municipalities, or as extensions to enterprise WLANs . In a mesh, wireless devices connect to a nearby node, which passes the packets to one or more companion nodes. Algorithms are used to find a route for optimal performance and avoid downed nodes or interference. Most of the nodes in a mesh don't need cabled network connections, so deployments are relatively simple, fast, and inexpensive, compared with using convention WLAN access points.

Cisco is expected to announce this week its two-radio Aironet 1500 Outdoor Mesh Access Point. Users will connect via 802.11g/b to the 1500, which will then use a separate 802.11a radio to connect with neighboring nodes. The product is based on work done by Airespace, a company Cisco acquired earlier this year.

But Cisco is late to the market. Nortel introduced mesh products in 2004, the same year Motorola acquired an early mesh vendor. BelAir, Strix and Tropos began selling products even earlier.

The 1500 is priced at $4,000. Cisco's Alan Cohen says rivals have single-radio nodes that are less expensive. But Cisco's two-radio product pricing is comparable to similar products, he says.

Last week, D-Link announced plans to deliver early in 2006 its own brand of outdoor WLAN mesh products, initially with one radio that can support 802.11g and 802.11a traffic via a dual-mode radio chipset from Atheros. The target price is $4,000.

Tropos this week is unveiling software and hardware for managing and optimizing its radios. Tropos Insight is a server-based application that pulls data from Tropos MetroMesh nodes, analyzes it and displays the results in about 40 graphical reports. The reports show active and inactive links, two-way throughput over each link and packet loss. It also calculates the likelihood of a packet successfully traveling a link the first time.

A second new tool is Tropos Drive, an appliance used to test a Tropos network from the viewpoint of end users.

The device features a mesh radio and software and can be set up to emulate various client radio adapter cards. It displays the throughput and other statistics for a given connection to a Tropos node, creating a map that plots how the mesh performs in each area.

Also new is a third-party program, SignalMX from EDX Wireless, that now incorporates some Tropos code. SignalMX is used to create and tune a model of a Tropos mesh before the network is installed. It can import municipal data on building heights, light pole locations and similar data to create a map that can guide node placement.

The company is also opening its APIs to third-party software applications, so these programs can make use of Tropos network statistics and data.

Finally, Ruckus Wireless says it will unveil a home wireless gateway designed to create an optimal wireless connection to a Tropos mesh. The gateway will incorporate Ruckus' antenna and associated software, which can switch configurations automatically to create the best connection, and the highest throughput, to the Tropos node. Ruckus antenna technology works over longer distances than conventional access points.