Hello All,
The talk of Vivato (next in antenna technology of wireless) and a
more reality based assessment of the situation. I'm surprised more people
have not expressed doubt. Sorry to rain on the party Vivato... ;-)
I looked for a link for the article below, but was unable to find
one, sorry, clipped from the e-mail newsletter.
Enjoy,
-Ben
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1) The Mobile & Wireless Voice: Is Vivato the Next Big Thing in WLANs?
General URL - http://www.networkcomputing.com/mobile/
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By Dave Molta (mailto:dmolta@;nwc.com)
Whenever I see a product billed as a next-generation offering, it
always raises a red flag. Maybe that's because, over the years, I have
come to equate the phrase "next-generation" with half-baked,
unreliable and obscenely expensive. Work with enough next-generation
products in the lab, and you gain a keener appreciation of the current
generation.
With that context in mind, I read an e-mail and accompanying press
release this week announcing Vivato, a startup WLAN infrastructure
company promising nothing less than a change in the "physics" of
wireless LAN infrastructure deployment. Vivato plans to develop new,
so-called WiFi switches that incorporate the company's Patent-Pending
PacketSteering technology. If successful, Vivato's products could
indeed revolutionize the way wireless LANs are deployed as well as
open up many new untapped markets.
Whenever I evaluate a startup, before I even look at the underlying
technology, I check out two key elements: funding and management.
Vivato passed both tests. The company initially received $2.5 million
in seed funding from Leapfrog Ventures and just completed a
$20-million Series B funding round led by U.S. Venture Partners and
Walden International. It's also assembled a very strong executive
team, led by CEO/Chairman Ken Biba and Vice President of Marketing
Phil Belanger, along with a solid group of ex-Agilent RF experts, led
by Skip Crilly.
Biba has a long history in the industry. He was the cofounder of
Xircom, Agilis and Sytek. I cut my network teeth managing an old Sytek
RF network in the 1980s, and while that company had its share of
problems, the technology itself was leading edge. Belanger brings
Vivato his close ties to the WiFi industry, having served in a key
management position at Aironet while also being active in the
development of key 802.11 standards. He was also one of WECA's
founders, and a former chairman. (The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility
Alliance is now known as the WiFi Alliance.) Few individuals have had
a greater impact on the WLAN industry than Belanger.
In a briefing late last week with Biba and Belanger, we discussed the
underlying technologies Vivato brings to the market. In essence, the
company is trying to draw an analogy between shared-media Ethernet and
switched Ethernet. Without a doubt, the move to Ethernet switching
revolutionized enterprise networking, providing greatly enhanced
scalability and security while also sealing the fate of Token Ring as
a dead technology. But, truth be told, Vivato's technology isn't
really switching, in its strictest sense. Instead, the company has
designed a system that incorporates smart-antenna technology (planar
phased array antennas) and some fairly sophisticated management
capabilities. Vivato promises this technology will overcome the
traditional bottlenecks that limit the scalability of shared-media
wireless LANs. And, in the process of solving the contention problem,
the company also promises to extend the range from less than 100
meters to kilometers. That's right, kilometers.
Imagine being able to light up an entire building with a single access
point--er, I mean wireless switch. That's Vivato's model, and it not
only has the potential to dramatically alter market dynamics, it could
also lead to a monumental shrinking of deployment time for enterprise
WLANs. Plus, Vivato's WiFi switching has applications that are
last-mile alternatives to DSL and cable modems in metropolitan or
suburban areas.
Right now, it's vaporware. And were it not for the fact that Biba and
Belanger have such a strong track record of executing their visions, I
would probably treat this as just another interesting technology
announcement. Because Vivato is planning to make its system work with
existing WiFi client adapters, I have some serious concerns about how
the system will scale--particularly in high-density client
environments. (Vivato can alter the radio behavior of its switches,
but it can't change the clients.)
The company plans to ship products to customers in the first quarter
2003. You can bet we'll be saving a spot for Vivato's product on the
bench in our lab.
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And credit goes to....
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