Cisco is teaming with Clearwire, Google and Intel for a 4G WiMax trial in Silicon Valley, colleague Steve Lawson reports. The network is intended to allow software developers to try out new applications on the mobile broadband infrastructure.
The network will cover the three companies’ campuses and the region in between them and will span roughly 20 square miles. Cisco is expected to contribute technology from its 2007 acquisition of Navini Networks.
Application developers will have free access to the network for at least a year.
WiMax faces stiff competition from LTE for 4G deployments. Many believe LTE will find more support among operators — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile plan to implement it, while Clearwire and Sprint Nextel are partners in WiMax.
Where’s Cisco in LTE? The company’s routers are used for backhaul in Verizon Wireless’ 3G/4G network; and Cisco said it plans to develop LTE gateways for operators migrating from CDMA and GSM/UMTS environments.
Those gateways currently are modules for Cisco’s 7600 series routers — specifically, the Service and Application Module for IP (SAMI). But you can bet SAMIs or a functional equivalent will make their way into the new ASR 9000 routers being deployed by Verizon Wireless as well.
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