Cisco, Kentrox and Novatel Wireless among vendors with new products geared for 3G cellular data networks
Vendors at the CTIA Wireless conference this week debuted an array of products, from modems for laptops to gateways for offices, aimed at helping enterprises exploit the higher bandwidth finally becoming available via 3G cellular data services.
Vendors at the CTIA Wireless conference this week debuted an array of products, from modems for laptops to gateways for offices, aimed at helping enterprises exploit the higher bandwidth finally becoming available via 3G cellular data services.
Cisco and Kentrox unveiled wireless wide area gateways that incorporate a cellular data modem. Novatel Wireless has a new high-speed embedded cellular adapter, geared for Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A nets that incorporates two types of GPS location data and enables streamlined configuration. Sierra Wireless is showcasing its just-announced adapter card for High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) nets, and Axesstel has a new EV-DO Revision A USB modem targeted at mobile professionals.
Products such as these will make it possible for enterprise users to shift connectivity to increasingly pervasive cellular nets that support much higher throughput than ever before. Verizon Wireless, for example, just announced plans to spend $6 billion to upgrade and extend its CDMA2000 EV-DO cell net to Revision A from Revision 0. The change will give users upload speeds of 300K to 400Kbps and download speeds of 450K to 800Kbps, up from the corresponding Rev 0 speeds of 50K to 70Kbps and 400K to 700Kbps.
Cisco’s new cellular interface card, the 3G High-speed Interface Card, slots into the vendor’s popular Integrated Services Router (ISR), which is widely deployed in small and midsize businesses as well as branch offices. The board can work on cellular nets from three leading U.S. operators: AT&T (Cingular), Sprint and Verizon Wireless.
“This is just like any other WAN option for the router,” says Inbar Lasser-Raab, Cisco’s director of marketing for enterprise routing. Cisco worked with the carriers to test and certify that the board works with their networks.
The card has sparked a flood of customer inquiries, Lasser-Raab says. Most of them see the cellular link as a network-redundancy option: If a service outage cripples network access over landlines, a high-speed cellular connection will keep a business operational. “Cellular is better than ISDN, and comparable to DSL,” Lasser-Raab says.
The cellular antenna can be mounted on the ISR itself or up to 50 feet away using a cable. The cards are scheduled to be available this summer for $850.
Also new for the router are two Cisco Wireless LAN Controller cards for attaching WLAN access points. In the past, the ISR’s controller card linked with six access points. The new cards support eight and 12. These are set to ship in May, priced at $4,750 for eight access points and $6,500 for 12.
Kentrox, meanwhile, announced a similar, but stand-alone, 3G gateway. The W1100 Wireless WAN Gateway can be fitted with cellular interfaces for nearly the whole alphabet of nets, including EV-DO and HSUPA, and including 2G services. It has an Ethernet LAN interface to connect with routers or other LAN equipment.
The gateway includes a built-in firewall and VPN for protection and creating an encrypted wireless connection. Or the gateway can plug into a Cisco or other router, for example, and make use of the network vendor’s security features, says Dan Murray, Kentrox’s vice president of marketing.
Murray acknowledges a cellular link is slower than, for example, a 1.5Mbps T-1 connection. “But you are up and running and you’re conducting business,” he says.
Carrier service plans are flexible and affordable enough to make cellular data a viable backup for enterprise branches and small or midsize businesses, according to Murray. Unlimited data plans are in the $60 to $80-per-month range, but limited plans geared for occasional use are comparable to existing DSL packages, he says. “If you use cellular bandwidth just once in a while, for example to service occasional credit card transactions, these ‘smaller’ packages are very cost effective,” he says.
The Kentrox gateway can be ordered with a card that runs on a given carrier’s network. A simple GUI application lets a user enter the IP address and other LAN settings, DHCP server address and information about the 3G service. “Enter half a dozen things and you’re up and running,” Murray says.
The W1100 is available now for $350.
For its part, Novatel Wireless introduced the Expedite E725 PCI Express minicard, a new version of its EV-DO Rev A module for embedded applications that now utilizes two types of GPS data. One draws longitude and latitude data from the GPS satellite network, the other from a carrier’s cellular base stations. Any application written to seek this input can tap into the data and use it to track assets or map locations.
The E725 is available now with OEM pricing dependent on volumes.
For all its products, Novatel is dramatically simplifying user installation. The adapters, with all needed drivers and software stored in the card’s flash memory, simply plug into a laptop or other client and configure themselves to that device. In addition, all Novatel devices now incorporate the USB 2.0 interface.
Novatel’s arch-rival, Sierra Wireless, showcased its recently announced AirCard 881 PC card adapter for HSUPA nets, which have a theoretical maximum downlink speed of 7.2Mbps and uplink speed of 2Mbps. It is scheduled to be available through carriers about mid-2007.
Lastly, Axesstel released the MV100 Series of EV-DO Revision A USB modems. The devices, which are small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, cover a range of cellular frequencies. They plug into a desktop or laptop PC and wirelessly connect it to the Internet via the user’s cellular carrier. No software has to be installed on the client device from a CD: The modem manager program loads automatically from the modem to the PC. The new products also can run on EV-DO Revision 0 and CDMA2000 1X nets.
