TurboCell^® Polling Protocol

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Key Features

• Point-to-point or Point-to-Multipoint Wireless Bridging: Ideal for metropolitan WAN or Internet Backhaul for WISP operators
• Packet aggregation for maximum possible throughput from the base to every remote
• Dynamic polling of the remote units to completely eliminate the Hidden Node collision problem
• Automatically calculates and optimizes for RF propagation delay through the air enabling 11 Mbps connectivity on long-range links
• Wireless IP Router capabilities with RIP-2 RFC compliance
• Allows for Classless Routing (Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM) allocates address space more efficiently)
• In TurboCell® mode, Base units will be invisible to NetStumbler and other 802.11b scanning methods
• Dual channel APs (such as the Terabeam Wireless AP-Plus) can have one WLAN card in the TurboCell® bridging mode and the other card in standard 802.11b Access Point mode
• Supports all Terabeam Wireless AP-Plus in AP mode, including Relay Blocking between wireless clients
• Two-way authentication to prevent any unauthorized users from getting into the system
• Bandwidth control in both directions for point-to-multipoint WISP applications

Description

TurboCell®, Terabeam Wireless’ award-winning protocol for broadband wireless communication, is designed to address specific shortcomings of the wireless protocols defined by the 802.11 standards. Originally developed in the early 1990s, TurboCell® has evolved from being the pioneering high-performance outdoor wireless protocol to becoming the world leader and de facto standard for large or complex broadband wireless network deployments.

In mission-critical point-to-multipoint environments, where the wireless network must support numerous interconnected LANs, it is crucial that the wireless bandwidth be used in the most efficient manner. Unfortunately, standard 802.11 protocols are not designed to provide the efficiency and reliability required when used in a building-to-building environment. Problems with hidden node transmitters, scalability, bandwidth allocation, and excessive packet transmission overhead prevent standard 802.11 products from providing the kind of high-performance broadband wireless connectivity that TurboCell® delivers.

Utilizing a dynamic base station polling algorithm, TurboCell® prevents simultaneous transmission from remote locations, avoids wireless packet collisions, and solves the problem of hidden transmitters. TurboCell® polling allows a base station to automatically scale and optimize bandwidth for up to 64 remote buildings. When bandwidth limits are needed, bandwidth allocation can be programmed for the entire network or specific remote locations. Finally, SuperPacket Aggregation combines multiple small packets into more efficient SuperPackets before transmission. This reduces the total overhead associated with packet transmission and dramatically increases performance.

Today, used by original equipment manufacturers and customers around the world, TurboCell® continues to provide the innovative, flexible, and powerful solutions needed by providers of public access and outdoor point-to-multipoint networks.

Applications

The TurboCell® suite of firmware is ideal for outdoor WLAN applications where the highest possible data throughput is needed to a small number of remote clients, for example, a company or municipality who wants to bridge their LANs together. The DES and Blowfish encryption options will make the wireless links extremely secure. It is also a preferred solution for WISP operations when used in conjunction with the Terabeam Wireless 2.4 to 5.8 GHz Converter Amplifier to provide high-speed data from a base site to multiple WIPOPs and mini- WIPOPs on the 5.8 GHz ISM band. For multipoint-to-base web camera, web camera surveillance and other IP video applications where near full-motion video is required, it cannot be beat. If you want to just bridge two LANs in a P2P link, then the Remote firmware can be used on each end. It will support a transparent bridge that passes all LAN traffic wirelessly. Once again, the encryption option will make the link secure over the air. On dual channel APs, like the Terabeam Wireless AP-Plus, running either Base or Remote, TurboCell® firmware can enable one or both WLAN cards to act as a standard 802.11b with all the AP+ firmware upgrade features.

Versions

The TurboCell® firmware comes in two basic versions: Base and Remote. Encryption options are available for both. The Base firmware enables an Access Point to talk to one or more remote units. There are three version of the Remote firmware:

• 1 User/MAC address
• 5 Users/MAC address
• Unlimited Users/MAC address

General Features

• Fully compatible with the Orinoco COR/ROR/ORC products
• Packet Aggregation for Improved Performance
• Polling - Adaptive and Dynamic - supports up to 64 Remote devices
• Bandwidth Throttling for each remote
• DHCP Server/Client
• BOOTP / DHCP Forwarding
• MAC Access Control Lists
• ARP Pruning
• RADIUS Authentication & Accounting support
• Firmware upgrades can be loaded during software upgrades
• Firmware Uploads of Multiple Remotes
• Syslog Reporting
• Windows - based Configuration program

Protection Features

• Broadcast Storm Protection
• IGMP Multicast Pruning
• Multicast Filters
• Supports Spanning Tree
• Layer 2 Protocol Filtering
• Firewall: TCP / UDP / IP Protocol Filter
• Firewall: Incoming/Outgoing IGMP filtering
• VPN pass-through NAT (using IPSEC, PPTP, L2TP)

SNMP Features

• IP ping support
• IP SNMP Support (MIB 2, Ethernet, interface, and bridge MIB)
• SNMP MIB II and Traps
• SNMP access lists
• Remote Statistic Monitoring (for example, SNMP Total Byte count, Collisions, Errors, signal, noise, SNR)

Encryption Features

• DES or Blowfish encryption options available
• Support of built-in encryption: 40-bit WEP, 128-bit RC4, and the WEP-Plus encryption available in the Terabeam Wireless or Agere WLAN cards

Encryption

For a secure link, TurboCell® is available with optional over-the-air data encryption. When encryption capable versions are purchased, the following encryption algorithms can be used:

• DES - 56 bit
• Blowfish - 128 bit

In addition to firmware encryption, TurboCell® also supports built in encryption, including 40-bit WEP, 128-bit RC4, and the WEP-Plus encryption available in the Terabeam Wireless or Agere WLAN cards used in the APs or client devices.

IP Routing Features (if enabled)

• IP static routing with direct and static routes
• Supports RIP II in Routing Mode
• ICMP messages, default router and subnet support
• SNMP support for all router related MIB variables
• NAT (Incoming/Outgoing)

Wireless Features

• Base Station polling of two or more remotes solves
• Hidden problem
• Set Maximum Transmit rate for the wireless card and the Ethernet card
• Automatically calculates and optimizes for RF propagation delay enabling 11 Mbps connectivity on long-range links
• 31- character password for security of your wireless network

Bridging Features

• Transparent bridging
• Filtering by Ethernet multicast, broadcast and bad packets
• Filtering by protocol
• Filtering by Ethernet Address pair
• VLAN compatibility - supports VLAN bridging
• Generic Ethernet tunneling through IP networks
• Learned table lock down
• Expanded IP ARP support
• Simple Bridge Filter
• MAC address filtering

Testing Features

• Wireless Link Test: tests signal strength, noise level and ratios of link
• Antenna alignment features: sends constant signal to facilitate antenna alignment
• Ping Fill: used to test the throughput of wireless link and performance on radio

AP+ Mode Features

• 802.11b compliant AP+ extra features
• Simple firewall: Blocks Network Neighborhood between wireless clients
• 802.1x support with RADIUS authorization
• Super-EC Ethernet Converter client support

Documentation

All of the documents below are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF Document) format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, you can download it for free from Adobe.

• Specifications for the TurboCell®

Purchasing Information

Part Number: 105-900000-021 (TurboCell Base Upgrade, 64 Client Limit),
105-900000-009 (TurboCell Client Upgrade, Unlimited Users)

Toll Free Number: (888) 297-9090

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