Mar. 28, 2006 - Welcome to the fifth article in BWE's series of "How-To" articles that
focus on building broadband wireless networks in areas that desperately
need high-speed Internet connections.
This week's article is focused on how to select the broadband wireless
system that best meets a town's unique broadband wireless requirements.
First, we should introduce you to several types of wireless networks used
to provide high-speed Internet connections to several types of wireless customers.
The first type of wireless network is a small wireless local area network,
commonly known as a Wi-Fi Hotspot. These networks are designed
for indoor use with a broadcast range of several hundred feet and include both
public and private networks. Wi-Fi hotspots include a wireless access point
in a corporate environment and may also have a gateway that collects billing
information from roaming customers in retail environments such as airports or
coffee shops. The customer usually uses a built-in antenna, a USB antenna or
a PCMCIA antenna in a laptop computer to receive a signal. A typical Wi-Fi
Hotspot costs about $500 to set up and operate.
The second type of wireless network is a Wireless ISP, which is designed
to serve very large coverage areas using a point-to-multipoint network
topology and broadcasts wireless data up to 20-miles. Unlike Wi-Fi networks
where the customer brings their own Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) antenna,
a WISP broadcasts a signal from a base station and the signal is received
via a fixed wireless antenna mounted on the customer’s premises, which are
usually fairly expensive. Most WISP systems are based on proprietary
systems that do not allow roaming. A typical WISP costs around $150,000 to
setup and operate, but vary a lot based on the number and cost of the fixed
wireless CPEs required to receive a signal.
In between a Wi-Fi Hotspot and a WISP, there is a hybrid version of the
first two systems, which we call a NISP or Neighborhood Internet Service Provider.
Another name for NISPs are Wi-Fi Hotzones because they use a group of
access points to coverage a large outdoor environment such as a neighborhoood,
marina, shopping mall or campground.
NISPs consist of at least one access point, one gateway and can deliver
a wireless Internet signal to the same type of CPE devices that are utilized
by Wi-Fi hotspots for customers that are located within 500 feet of the access
point. CPEs located further away receive the signal with the same fixed
wireless CPE units used by large WISPs. A typical NISP should cost around
$5,000 - $10,000 to setup and operate, but will vary based on the number
and cost of fixed CPEs needed to set up customers as well as the terrain
where the network is setup.
When selecting wireless networking equipment, the three most important
factors to look for are broadcasting power, the clarity of the signal
and network management software, which includes billing, bandwidth
management and tightly integrated network management features based
on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). There are many more features
to consider, but not enough room in this story to cover them all.
The ability for a base station to broadcast a clear signal with as
much power as possible is critical. Just as important, is the receiving
CPE's ability to have enough power to send information back to the base
station. There are a multitude of different antennas, amplifiers, cables and
radios that can be mixed and matched to achieve the optimum signal link
requirements. All combinations used by a WISP must be certified by the FCC.
Just as important as the broadcast power is the ability to manage customers.
A billing system and network management platform should be able to set up
multiple levels of service based on alloted bandwidth and billed accordingly.
The other part of network management is providing sufficient security to keep
intruders out of your network and keep your users' connections secure.
Again, we couldn't begin to address all of the security concerns in an article
of this length.
If you aren't sure which system is right for you, or if you need a custom
system built for your town, we recommend you contact a wireless distributor
that has a lot of experience building wireless networks. Most have a friendly team of
experts that will answer your questions about which broadband wireless
system is right for your city or town.
Please join us next week to learn, "How To Get a WISP Built in Your Town."
If you would like to read other articles in this series or an
expanded version of this article you can read them online at:
www.bbwexchange.com/howto/
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