Gigabit wireless - in all kinds of weather

BridgeWave Communications this week introduced a line of gigabit-speed wireless products that the company says hold up no matter what the weather conditions.

The company says its new Gigabit Ethernet 80GHz Extended Range and AdaptRate 80GHz Extended Range wireless products are the first point-to-point, licensed outdoor wireless devices to provide "four nines" or better link availability at distances of more than two miles.

The AdaptRate model has the ability to momentarily switch its connection from gigabit rates to 100Mbps. This is useful in a heavy rain - the connection isn't lost completely, it is just throttled back.

The devices have two-foot antennas that BridgeWave says allow them to reach 40% farther than its previous products.

Like most point-to-point wireless connections, these are intended for inter-building LAN extensions from rooftop to rooftop.

BridgeWave says the new AdaptRate is being used by Bayonne Medical Center in Hudson County, N.J., which is connecting with Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, N.Y. Bayonne looked at using a T-3. It looked at aggregating multiple 52Mbps radios. It looked at free-space optics. But the T-3 was too expensive, and the other options didn't meet the reliability or distance requirements.

BridgeWave's new technology could reach over the 2.25 miles between hospitals, and fortunately there was clear line-of-sight over a waterway between them.

BridgeWave technology was used in another healthcare application earlier this year.

The two new wireless products are available now. The Gigabit Ethernet 80GHz Extended Range starts at $36,900, and the AdaptRate starts at $39,900.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.