With some of the Wimax discussions going on I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.
3.650 Wimax using 802.16d only products provides decent connectivity, at a higher cost than traditional unlicensed gear. Performance/coverage is on par, or better than 2.4 that most of are used to. Pay a little extra for product, gain access to cleaner spectrum and hopefully a rule set that helps keep it cleaner than our wild wild west unlicensed world. Now deploy 3.650 using 802.16e upgradeable products. The coverage difference when using diversity options goes up significantly. Now 3.650 begins to act and feel more like a 900Mhz product with NLOS coverage capability. Actually our customers, and our field tests are showing that it exceeds 900Mhz often by a large margin. Here are a couple recent field examples all 2nd order diversity: Customer 1- 8.4 mile NLOS location. blocked by heavy trees . 1.5MB download holding CPE in their hand on the ground! Decided to test 5.8 at this location and @ 50' AGL the CPE got a link. 5.8 mounted on the same tower, same height as 3.650. The 5.8 system could not pass data and could just barely maintain association. Customer 2- 12.4 miles away at the owners home. 1.0mb on the ground. This location could not be serviced by 2.4 or 5.8 at 40' above the ground previously. The owner is going to mount Wimax on the roof and I expect he will se 10-12MB at that height. Customer 2- 12.6 miles on the ground. Completely obstructed 6MB down 3MB up. Customer 3- This is one of the most telling. Canopy 900 operator. 3.650 2nd order diversity mounted 10' below Canopy. 100% coverage at 3.650 of a small city. It takes 2 tower locations with 900 here to serve the same area. They gave up field testing because "it works everywhere". They the said "lets try to break it". We drove to a part of town that is challenged with 900 coverage. They found a traditionally bad coverage spot and drove up to a big tree, took the CPE out of the vehicle and buried it in the tree. -101 signal. They then picked up their VOIP phone and called the NOC and did a "can you hear me now"? Toll quality voice call. Our internal testing is showing similar results. Using 4th order diversity is showing even better results than above. When you do the upgrade to 16e and add Wave II CPE, Katy bar the door. That coverage is nothing less than jaw dropping. 2.5 miles obstructed with a PC card! Same PC card 1 mile away entering a commercial building, no signal change. Not possible with a traditional system. In this case the wall measured a 25db loss, however STC and MRC diversity gains completely made up for the attenuation once the paths became uncorrelated. Bottom line is diversity is the place to be with Wimax. It is more expensive, so find a way to afford it. Push your vendor for price breaks and don't be bashful. Alvarion for example is willing to work to earn business as well as the others. CPE costs for D and E systems are the same today, E will be much cheaper in the near future. Not all Wimax is the same, so test a site or visit one, you will walk away amazed. My two cents, and we carry all D and E products. Each has its place. Mike Mike Cowan Wireless Connections A Division of ACC 166 Milan Ave Norwalk, OH 44857 419-660-6100 419-706-7348 Cell [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wirelessconnections.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
