[spotted on www.scripting.com ... can we schedule these folks for an upcoming meeting?] :
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/04/technology/04WIRE.html?ex=1036990800&en=6 54dd6da878473bf&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND >Antenna System Is Said to Expand Wireless Internet Use >By JOHN MARKOFF > >AN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 � A start-up company plans to announce new antenna >technology on Monday that it says can expand the limits of a popular >wireless Internet format, providing access to hundreds or even thousands >of portable computer users at distances of more than 2,000 feet within >buildings and about four miles outdoors. Yes, it's WiFi. Also good coverage at http://80211b.weblogger.com/ . More from NYT: >the technology [...] employs an >antenna shaped like a large picture frame, about three feet by four feet >and about three inches thick. > >The Vivato technology, which stems from 1950's research for so-called >phased-array antennas for military applications, makes it possible to >electronically steer numerous radio beams from a single point. Focusing >the beams increases their signal strength, and using large numbers of them >greatly increases the antenna's traffic capacity. interesting, it's a mesh alternative: >Vivato's antenna is meant to be placed in the corner of a large office and >used to provide wireless service throughout a building. In contrast to >many other companies that are trying to extend the range of 802.11 by >creating meshes of access points, Vivato takes a more centralized approach >by transmitting a series of beams from the antenna. Wired News has it at http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,56166,00.html different approach to roaming, from Wired News: >Supporting many roaming users from a single base point is the goal behind >those products, targeted for release in the first half of 2003. >"We think it'll work reasonably well at pedestrian speed," said CEO Ken >Biba, a veteran of the original Advanced Research Projects Agency TCP >Working Group that developed the transfer protocol used on the Internet. >Biba said the company�s approach was to apply the Ethernet local area >network model to roaming wireless access, rather than the cellular wide >area network model used by cellular carriers. R -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
