Ruckus talks about Tikona's broadband
24-11-2009
"They're on track to probably be the largest WiFi network in the world by end of next year"
"We call it metro broadband 2.0, or maybe 3.0," says Ruckus CEO Selina Lo, speaking to Unstrung's Dan Jones on Indian firm Tikona's WiBro wireless broadband service recently making the waves in Mumbai.
As covered earlier on this website (See "Ruckus smart Wi-Fi competes with WiMax"), Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd is using Ruckus technology, which the latter claims operators can implement for as little as one-fifth the cost of a comparable WiMAX network
Ruckus is using its deal with Tikona to highlight its 802.11n-based outdoor access points, customer premises equipment, and backhaul boxes. Tikona is using the gear to build out WiFi clusters on business or residential buildings in Mumbai.
Tikona, which is backed by Goldman Sachs & Co. , intends to eventually roll out similar WiFi clusters across India. The carrier has deployed around 5,000 Ruckus APs, according to David Callisch, Ruckus VP of marketing.
"They're on track to probably be the largest WiFi network in the world by the end of next year," Callisch says.
Ruckus is supplying all of the WiFi-related equipment for the Tikona project. This includes outdoor mesh access points, CPE units, and 5-GHz backhaul boxes that can link back to fiber nodes in city railway stations at speeds at 180 Mbit/s over one kilometer or 60 Mbit/s over 12km.
This means that, when Tikona finds a building that wants service, it can provide occupants with Internet service of half a Megabit to 2 Mbit/s. Not bad for India, where last mile infrastructure is patchy and owned mainly by public sector firms.
This technology is made possible by the combination of 802.11n's better capacity and longer range or Ruckus's smart antenna technology, Lo claims. 802.11n has helped drastically reduce the cost of deploying these mesh clusters over previous 802.11g deployment. "Basically you needed five times the equipment to cover the same area using .11g," she says.
The smart antenna and beam-forming technology, which helps the signal find the best radio path, is necessary because building roof-tops in Mumbai are often crowded with other microwave and RF antennas. "The air is tremendously polluted with RF stuff," Lo notes.
Ruckus isn't just looking at India for these mesh clustering applications. "We're also doing this in Malaysia," says Callisch. Lo also foresees applications in China, Latin America, and possibly the U.S. itself.
Lo points to the way that AT&T has been using WiFi to try and offload traffic from its 3G network in densely used areas: "You cannot get away from using unlicensed spectrum."
Key input from Unstrung
"We call it metro broadband 2.0, or maybe 3.0," says Ruckus CEO Selina Lo, speaking to Unstrung's Dan Jones on Indian firm Tikona's WiBro wireless broadband service recently making the waves in Mumbai.
As covered earlier on this website (See "Ruckus smart Wi-Fi competes with WiMax"), Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd is using Ruckus technology, which the latter claims operators can implement for as little as one-fifth the cost of a comparable WiMAX network
Ruckus is using its deal with Tikona to highlight its 802.11n-based outdoor access points, customer premises equipment, and backhaul boxes. Tikona is using the gear to build out WiFi clusters on business or residential buildings in Mumbai.
Tikona, which is backed by Goldman Sachs & Co. , intends to eventually roll out similar WiFi clusters across India. The carrier has deployed around 5,000 Ruckus APs, according to David Callisch, Ruckus VP of marketing.
"They're on track to probably be the largest WiFi network in the world by the end of next year," Callisch says.
Ruckus is supplying all of the WiFi-related equipment for the Tikona project. This includes outdoor mesh access points, CPE units, and 5-GHz backhaul boxes that can link back to fiber nodes in city railway stations at speeds at 180 Mbit/s over one kilometer or 60 Mbit/s over 12km.
This means that, when Tikona finds a building that wants service, it can provide occupants with Internet service of half a Megabit to 2 Mbit/s. Not bad for India, where last mile infrastructure is patchy and owned mainly by public sector firms.
This technology is made possible by the combination of 802.11n's better capacity and longer range or Ruckus's smart antenna technology, Lo claims. 802.11n has helped drastically reduce the cost of deploying these mesh clusters over previous 802.11g deployment. "Basically you needed five times the equipment to cover the same area using .11g," she says.
The smart antenna and beam-forming technology, which helps the signal find the best radio path, is necessary because building roof-tops in Mumbai are often crowded with other microwave and RF antennas. "The air is tremendously polluted with RF stuff," Lo notes.
Ruckus isn't just looking at India for these mesh clustering applications. "We're also doing this in Malaysia," says Callisch. Lo also foresees applications in China, Latin America, and possibly the U.S. itself.
Lo points to the way that AT&T has been using WiFi to try and offload traffic from its 3G network in densely used areas: "You cannot get away from using unlicensed spectrum."
Key input from Unstrung
