Matt, I'm not a WISP (I do network design, deployment, and consulting for service providers), but, seeing as how none of the WISPs are answering, I'll give it a shot as to percieved advantages of MT or StarOS.
1. I don't think the FCC certification is a huge issue. This is largely because any of the certification stuff needs to be done once, and can then be replicated. Regardless of how you look at it, the initial cost of deploying a platform (any platform) is quite expensive especially once you start factoring in all of the things that are usually ignored by smaller service providers (ie their own time for R&D). This is true whether you are doing Cisco, Moto, Alvarion, Trango, etc...--you have to (should!) do bench testing, draw up network diagrams, figure out all the specifics to getting install processes and so forth down pat), figure out how you are going to manage hundreds or thousands of these things, and so forth. The effort for certification is not a huge deal, then, since you can amoratize out the time across all of your systems, just like you're already doing for all the other aspects of your network. Is it an increased cost? Sure...but, in the end, not that big of one on a per-unit basis, especially since the whole concept of a business is to scale big (right?). That said, the irony is that the guys that tend to run MT or StarOS are often the small providers where there simply isn't the return of scale that makes this even vaguely a good idea. 2. The main advantage is (theoretically) the ability to have a single platform across the entire infrastructure. I say theoretically because there are areas where most providers diverge from this because they don't feel that it really "fits". Still, the idea of having a unified platform across the infrastructure can potentially be very powerful and very good. Still, I tend to find the MT management app kinda weak in this regard; it hasn't (IMHO) sufficiently evolved from a "mass managment app" to a "platform management app". Still, while these are criticisms, if MT can cover a sufficiently large portion of your infrastructure needs, then having a single (or 2 or 3) platforms can really reduce operational costs considerably. Conceptually, the idea of "upgrade the hardware, not the platform" is great. 3. Some degree of freedom. This is somewhat seperate from #2, but along the same lines. I can think of several instances of larger service providers being left with millions of dollars of infrastructure with no support and no future because a particular product line no longer fit into their vendors roadmap. Divorcing the hardware from the software makes this less of a possibility, although does not totally negate the possibility, especially given that most of the hardware vendors that MT stuff typically ends up running on (ie the embedded PC market) are often, well, not the most financially stable operations. I hope this helps. Just for the record, while I do think MT can be a good choice for some people, I would make the observation that there are providers out there who could have better allocated their resources elsewhere--most of the advantages don't really work until there is some degree of scale, but at that point there are other considerations that often take MT out of consideration. Thanks, Clint Ricker Kentnis Technologies On 6/10/07, Matt Liotta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
George Rogato wrote: > Matt there is a tool for every job. Just because someone uses MT or > Star does not mean they don't use canopy, trango or alvarion as well. > > And nobody needs to explain why. > > I am well aware of that, which is why we use so many different vendors' radios. We first started with Canopy on a recommendation and over time various operators (mostly WISPA members) introduced us to other vendors' radios. Every time we learned about a new vendor from the experiences of others. I respect the experience of my peers and find it quite useful in vendor selection. Why everyone is so defensive about MT I don't know. I personally don't care what equipment anyone uses. I am just curious why people use it in case it would be useful for us. But, no one seems willing to answer that. -Matt -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
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