Brian,
Excellent point about "not enough spectrum" - I agree 100%. Outdoor
antennas are required when a "fixed" computer is more than a few hundred
feet away from an access point. When a city or a mesh vendor pretends
otherwise, they are wrong.
Unfortunately, wireless is such a "hot" field now that the mesh
equipment vendors and the big Earthlink and Googles of the world just
see the profits without understanding the technology limitations and
without understanding the failure modes and the spectrum (and business)
devastation that their new blanket-the-city-with-wireless plan will bring.
Excellent point also about munis not having control over
(standardization of) the customer CPE. Imagine the WISP support burden
if a WISP had 1000 customers and each customer had unique,
self-selected, indoor CPE. Supporting a network like that and providing
a consistent level of service would drive anyone crazy (and out of
business) in short order.
Again, to survive, WISPs must
1) Learn RF
2) Be positive and proactive
3) Get involved early in the muni education process
4) Be creative thinkers to craft win-win muni scenarios.
Thanks, Brian, for you excellent comments.
jack
Brian Webster wrote:
Jack,
I hate to say it but didn't we say I told you so........ There is just
not
enough spectrum to design networks like this to work with anything but
dedicated CPE devices with outdoor antennas. Simply flooding an area with
more signal to let laptops inside a house work will not solve the problem.
It just creates more noise on already maxed out spectrum. I really wish the
vendors and project stalwarts would admit this is a problem with these
networks and not gloss it over. Self interference and outside interference
are always going to be huge problems in these muni-networks. Everyone trying
to build on the fact that off the shelf consumer devices can access this
network will be the downfall. Wi-fi was never designed for a massive outdoor
deployment such as this and when you try to make up for the fact that you do
not have control over the CPE when it comes to proper RF planning you are
doomed to failure. Just my 2 cents.
Thank You,
Brian Webster
www.wirelessmapping.com <http://www.wirelessmapping.com>
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Unger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 10:29 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Pioneering Wi-Fi City Sees Startup Woes
Unfortunately, this may be one of the first of many such muni problems
that I've been forcasting for years. Muni wireless can be done correctly
and WISPs (IMHO) should always try (when allowed) to play a positive
role in proper network design and operation however most muni networks
are incorrectly designed by people with limited wireless experience
(yes, that even includes some mesh network vendors) which will lead to
network failure, waste of taxpayer money, and possible loss of jobs on
the part of the city IT folks (not to mention the elected officials) who
backed the networks without first learning about how wireless technology
really works.
jack
George wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060424/ap_on_hi_te/muni_wi_fi_hiccups
I am not a fan of muni wireless.
George
--
Jack Unger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
Serving the License-Free Wireless Industry Since 1993
Author of the WISP Handbook - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
True Vendor-Neutral WISP Consulting-Training-Troubleshooting
Our next WISP Workshops are April 12-13 and April 26-27
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--
Jack Unger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
Serving the License-Free Wireless Industry Since 1993
Author of the WISP Handbook - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
True Vendor-Neutral WISP Consulting-Training-Troubleshooting
Our next WISP Workshops are April 12-13 and April 26-27
Phone (VoIP Over Broadband Wireless) 818-227-4220 www.ask-wi.com
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