SAN JOSE, Calif.-Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled its outdoor wireless mesh solution, launching itself into the municipal Wi-Fi technology marketplace.
Cisco said its new access point, called Aironet 1500, was built for large-scale deployments and can be deployed anywhere-rooftops, light posts or power poles. The solution includes an automatic set-up and can configure itself to operate within a mesh network, allowing it to “self-heal” if power should go down or some other interruption occurs.
In addition, Cisco said that to maximize capacity each access point has two radios-one that provides access-point-to-access-point communications and another that provides bandwidth to users.
“The market drivers that propelled widespread wireless adoption in the home and enterprise are now spurring a new demand to provide outdoor ubiquitous connectivity by wireless mesh technologies,” said Alan Cohen, senior director of Wireless Networking at Cisco. “With Cisco’s Wi-Fi mesh solution, cities and local service providers will be able to implement a secure and self-healing outdoor wireless network that not only gives the public access to the Internet, but allows cities to roll-out new and advanced services that build upon their existing indoor networks and applications.”
Cisco will no doubt face tough competition from Tropos Networks and BelAir Networks, the start-ups that have dominated the Wi-Fi equipment market so far. But Cisco said it already has a dozen or so contracts to provide equipment for citywide projects, including Dayton, Ohio and Lebanon, Oregon. And, although Cisco wasn’t ready to compete for Philadelphia’s Wi-Fi business, the company said it is competing for San Francisco’s contract.
Philadelphia chose EarthLink Inc. to provide the city with a Wi-Fi network using Tropos’ equipment. The San Francisco citywide Wi-Fi project is still in the bidding process, with several companies including Google Inc. and EarthLink maneuvering for the contract.
The market for wireless mesh networking is set for stellar growth, but most of the growth will be in market segments not served by existing infrastructure, according to a new study from ABI Research.
“It’s an interesting market that has a lot of potential for alternative service providers such as Earthlink-ISPs who don’t have their own facilities at present,” said Sam Lucero, senior analyst of wireless connectivity at ABI Research. “It is an essential means for them to remain viable in the provision of services. Wireless mesh networking allows them a relatively cost-effective way to deploy their own facilities within targeted areas. But they’re not positioning this as directly competitive to triple-play services.”
In its study, ABI noted that although cable operators and telcos have not significantly embraced the mesh concept, several of them have invested in mesh networking companies.
