Solutions for WISPs
Terabeam Wireless has long been involved in helping
WISPs bring broadband wireless Internet access to their
communities around the world. Many geographies are
simply not served by traditional access methods for economic
reasons, and WISPs have played a vital role in closing
the digital divide. Wireless technology has proven it
has the performance, security and cost effectiveness to
help service providers ensure that residents and businesses
everywhere have equal access to the information and
communication mechanisms that are fast becoming standard.
Terabeam Wireless offers several lines of solutions targeted
at specific applications.
TeraStar™ (802.11) Series
Enabling broadband wireless access to the
Internet based on the 802.11 open standard
Industry standard for 802.11b bi-directional
2.4 GHz linear amplifiers
TeraMax™ Point-to-Point and
Point-to-Multipoint Long-Range Series
Robust combination of bandwidth, range and NLOS communication
Applications include high-speed and long-range
access, backhaul and private networks
The TeraMax™ series is a series of base stations, clients and
bridges based on TurboCell®, a superior and patented
software protocol for managing outdoor wireless networks.
TurboCell® maximizes throughput over significant distances,
prevents interference between multiple nodes and
secures communications by employing Adaptive Dynamic
Polling, Bandwidth Control at the Client, SuperPacket
Aggregation, and a variety of encryption methods including
AES, DES, Blowfish and WEP+.
Other TeraMax™ features include:
- Over-the-air data rate of 36 Mbps maximum
- Range over 30 miles
- NLOS communication enabled by OFDM
- Patented amplifier technology
- Available in 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz or 5.8 GHz versions
- Available with ruggedized enclosures.
TeraBridge™ - High Speed Bridges
Highest reliability, unprecedented cost effectiveness and
superior design and performance
The TeraBridge™ 5345 and 5845 are point-to-point, highcapacity,
all-outdoor radios optimized for backhaul of
Ethernet or traditional telecommunications converged
voice and data networks. They feature license-free radio operation in the UNII or ISM 5 GHz bands with a choice of
either DS3 or 10/100 Base-T digital interfaces.
Advantages of the TeraBridge™ 5345/5845 are:
- TeraBridge™ 5345: 5.3 GHz UNII Band full-duplex
radio for short to medium range links
- TeraBridge™ 5845: 5.8 GHz ISM Band full-duplex
radio for links up to 40 miles
- 45 Mbps actual payload throughput each way
- Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) operation
- Very low latency performance
- SNMP and web browser management for easy
and intelligent installation/management
- All-weather outdoor unit.
Case studies
Aernet Wireless, Inc.
Aernet Wireless, Inc., the first WISP to serve Atlantic Canada, with approximately 500 customers, has exclusively used Terabeam’s outdoor, extended-range 802.11b-based products to deliver broadband service to rural customers since 2003. With the introduction of Terabeam’s TeraStar™ (802.11b) Turbo product set, Aernet has been able to upgrade portions of its network to increase performance and expand into denser urban regions without suffering from interference issues.
Aernet began its existence to bring broadband services to rural communities which were not being served by telephone or cable operators. After evaluating multiple vendors, they selected Terabeam for its WISP infrastructure portfolio of outdoor, extended-range access points, clients and bridges based on the 802.11b standard. “Terabeam’s equipment offered the most effective combination of coverage, range and affordable CPE,” said Thomas Rivington, President of Aernet.
As Aernet grew its customer base in rural areas, it received requests from households in denser urban areas for similar service. Outdoor networks based on 802.11b are subject to what’s commonly called the “hidden node” effect, which is an increased level of self-generated interference as additional subscribers (nodes) are added to the network. This interference becomes more noticeable as node density increases. Aernet was concerned about its ability to serve the urban market using its existing platform. Fortunately, it was able to address the issue using Terabeam’s range of TeraStar™ (802.11b) Turbo products, which utilize the proprietary TurboCell® protocol specifically developed to increase the performance and scalability of 802.11 networks.
“We upgraded the Terabeam AP Plus access points in one of our networks with TurboCell® licenses, and switched out the EtherAnt II clients for the new EtherAnt Turbos,” explained Mr. Rivington. “The improvement in performance has been unbelievable.” Due to the elimination of interference and more efficient bandwidth management, TurboCell®-enabled equipment allows actual throughput to move closer to network capacity. “Customers for our 256 kbps service are experiencing Internet access comparable to a 1 Mbps service from a DSL provider. Our tests have shown that we can even offer a 2 Mbps service,” Mr. Rivington continued.
The company has also begun to switch its network backhaul from 802.11b-based bridges to Terabeam’s TeraMax™ line of 5.8 GHz, OFDM, TurboCell®-powered systems, and has seen throughput jump more than three-fold.
Aernet has been able to redeploy the EtherAnt II clients in new rural networks where the hidden node issue occurs less frequently, thus maximizing its return on investment in network infrastructure. Terabeam introduced the TeraStar EtherAnt 3 802.11b client – which can be upgraded with TurboCell® in the field – in recognition of the need for many WISPs to transition from 802.11b to TurboCell®-enabled equipment over time without stranding previous investments. This way a WISP can purchase a lower-cost CPE but still have future upgrade capability.
“Successful WISPs such as Aernet rapidly develop opportunities to expand the territories they serve as well as the services they offer,” said Amit Malhotra, Vice President of Marketing at Terabeam Wireless. “Terabeam is augmenting our broadband wireless infrastructure solutions to ensure that we can continue to exceed our customers’ most sophisticated demands.”
Four Seasons Wireless
Four Seasons Wireless is a WISP serving Tazewell
County, Virginia (population 44,000). As the incumbent
cable and telco operators chose not to serve the community
with high-speed Internet access, Four Seasons was
born. Brian Leedy, President, first heard about Terabeam
Wireless (then called YDI) at WISPCON, where he attended
one of our training sessions. He purchased a range of
equipment from our 802.11 Series, including AP access
points and EtherAnt clients.
“There has obviously been a
lot of thought put into the manufacturing of the equipment,
which has provided us the ability to serve a rural community
with wireless broadband,” says Leedy. “Any time we
come across a new circumstance or problem in our network, Terabeam has given us direct access all the way to
the CTO level to ensure the situation is resolved. They
have provided us with a vast amount of support.”
OACYS Technology
OACYS Technology is one of the largest Wireless
Internet Service Providers (WISPs) in Central California.
The wireless access they provide operates in the licensefree
2.4 GHz band and uses the Terabeam Wireless
TurboCell® protocol. Key benefits that OACYS receives
include increased capacity and performance due to
advanced polling, minimal interference with a competitor
who is running 802.11b, and proactive management
enabled by SNMP monitoring.
"We prefer TurboCell® because of its reliability for high subscriber counts and its
open manageability," said Ryan Walker, Senior Network
Engineer at OACYS.
Cutthroat Communications
Cutthroat Communications, a Montana-based broadband
WISP, strives to deliver the same broadband network
services to businesses in Montana that businesses in large
metropolitan areas have been receiving for years. One of
the company's greatest challenges is to find secure, reliable
ways to move large amounts of data without interference
from other providers. Cutthroat chose Terabeam
Wireless's GigaLink® millimeter Wave (mmW, 60 GHz) solution because it offered high bandwidth, low interference
and a price-per-bit that was more affordable than the
other high-data rate RF technologies.
"The links we
installed, which were deployed as primary links to service
customers, have been operating perfectly and we realized
our ROI in just four months," says Todd Graetz, VP of
Network Operations at Cutthroat.
Prodacom
Prodacom jumped on the opportunity to provide broadband
Internet access to residents of Langernak in the
Netherlands, a community that local cable and telephone
companies considered too remote for their interests."[Terabeam Wireless] software has already addressed hidden
node and packet aggregation problems associated
with 802.x technology," said Wim Bos, CEO of Aerga
Communications, a systems integrator. "We needed such
proven software, or our product would be unreliable."
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