Don't turn your back on WLL - wireless local loop - Company Business and Marketing

Communications News, May, 2001

One of the first on the wireless scene, a Canadian ISP serves industrial zones.

WiBand Communications Corp. provides bandwidth solutions for all and midsize businesses. With its own wireless loop capability, WiBand is a value-added ISP delivering a full range of services--including website development and maintenance, e-commerce and videoconferencing.

In developing one of the first national wireless data communications networks in Canada, WiBand--with a presence in five major cities--uses current wireless technology to connect its customers to the Internet at speeds up to 3 Mbps for standard connections, and up to 45 Mbps for custom applications.

In each of its centers--Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary and Toronto--wireless local loop (WLL) offers customers direct access to WiBand's nationwide fiber-optic backbone. Subsequently, customers can connect directly to its other local loops across Canada for corporate wide area networking or to the national access point for high-speed Internet access. Installation and integration time is minimal, with the only hardware required a small rooftop antenna and a wireless e-bridge.

Bringing lower-cost, highspeed Internet connections to industrial zones, which previously only had frame relay or standard copper connections, is the company's mission. "The key was the high speed," says co-founder and chief executive officer Bob Kennedy. "We wanted to bring high-speed access to industrial parks and other places where there was no cable or fiber." Wiband's plan means that its customers do not incur huge upfront costs, such as trenching and facility constructions.

NEED FOR HIGHER FREQUENCY

WiBand started with a 2.4 GHz frequency band. As the business began to grow, so did the need for a higher-frequency solution. "Interference with the 2.4 GHz band was a big issue," explains Kennedy. "We operate a lot of our cells in the 2.4 range, but as soon as you put another radio in that 2.4 range, you stand the chance of interfering."

In need of a solution that would backhaul all data collection and aggregation of customers from cell zones back to fiber connection, and supply 5.8 MHz of frequency band, WiBand turned to Western Multiplex Tsunami radios--after reviewing several others--because of their high-speed throughput, stability and affordable price.

"Network management was important in the decision, so that we could monitor the links," says Kennedy. "When our customers are expecting 1.5 Mbps of throughput, we need a high-speed radio to backhaul."

WiBand currently has 30 Tsunami radios at 10 Mbps each, in addition to four Tsunami radios at 4 Mbps. The radios enable wireless IP links for wide area network (WAN) backhaul connections at 10Base-T, 100Base-T or higher throughput that cannot be found with other tariffed services. The radios are designed for demanding environments, with redundant configurations, licensed and license-exempt models, and DC battery standby power options.

LICENSE-EXEMPT BAND

The 100Base-T bridges operate in the license-exempt U-NII 5.8 GHz frequency band, and can be installed without frequency coordination or Industry Canada licensing.

With the Tsunami radios, WiBand transmits communication signals from a dish-like antenna on top of a customer's building to one of a number of 30-meter-high rooftop towers it erects in different areas of the city. From there, the signals are relayed to another larger tower on the roof of WiBand's downtown aggregation point, and then on to the underground fiber-optic network.

Once the decision was made to purchase, order and implementation was completed within a week. "We basically plugged it in and it worked. All our problems disappeared," says Kennedy. He adds that the wireless system is capable of moving data 80 times faster than a telephone modem and five times faster than a cable modem, and at a fraction of the cost.

"This solution has been a key strategy to our local loop backbone," states Kennedy. With the combination of Tsunami, leading-edge wireless and IP technologies, and a comprehensive private network, WiBand can give its customers rapid installation, high-speed consistent WAN and Internet connections, data security, and access to a variety of Internet services.

www.wmux.com

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