View Full Version : Public freq wimax pci card
pwmaclean
03-18-2007, 10:46 PM
Is there any chance of Wimax being commericalized in the public frequencies? Does anyone foresee a maker of 2.4 wimax pci cards we could pop into a war and away we go? Is there a reason why this wouldn't happen? Just fantasizing...
go.fast
03-19-2007, 12:45 AM
Too complicated for a forum like this.
If I might, you may want to ask this on an open list such as the wireless list at wispa.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
I'm sure if you ask there we can get some wimax insiders to explain it.
It's a legnthly discussion.
lonnie
03-19-2007, 09:21 AM
Save your time. WiMax is the Silver Bullet that was going to cure all the ills of wireless and take the world by storm and deliver incredible speeds.
The Industry has been steadily working towards much higher speeds using non WiMax and WiMax has found the real world much harder to work in than on paper, thus it is delayed and is now promising much reduced throughputs than originally hyped.
There are no readily available cards nor affordable driver code bases so we are awaiting the introduction of ether or both of those things to happen and then we will add it to our code.
pwmaclean
03-19-2007, 09:35 AM
Thanks guys.
pwmaclean
03-19-2007, 07:34 PM
PS - Check out the recent article about opening access to white space frequencies. I could see this working very well for us, or ...
FCC May Allow Unlicensed use of 'White Space' Spectrum
by Lauren Gelman (http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/profile/lauren-gelman), posted on March 13, 2007 - 12:55pm.
Techdirt reports (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070313/073005.shtml) that the Federal Communications Commission may start to allow unlicensed uses in so- called "white space spectrum." WSS is the buffer zone that used to be necessary around broadcast analog spectrum to make sure there was no interference. Finally, the FCC is starting to recognize that technology has made (and will continue to make) interference less of a problem. Therefore, locking up all the best spectrum so that your analog TV channels will work is not the best use of a valuable public resource.
This is a dangerous road for the FCC so you can understand their reluctance. In fact it might just put them out of business. If interference disappears they lose their constitutional justification for selling spectrum at all. In Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969) the Supreme Court found that it did not violate the First Amendment for the FCC to choose speech winners and losers when they sold exclusive rights to use spectrum at auctions because having some people able to speak was better than allowing everyone to speak at the same time and noone be heard because of the interference. (upholding a FCC rule that required broadcasters to provide a right of reply under certain circumstances.) As technology drops the interference factor to zero, the FCC's spectrum auctions continue to lose their First Amendment bona fides.
We had a conference (http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/spectrum/) on this issue 4 years ago. It is nice to finally see some concrete movement from the FCC.
Is there any chance of Wimax being commericalized in the public frequencies? Does anyone foresee a maker of 2.4 wimax pci cards we could pop into a war and away we go? Is there a reason why this wouldn't happen? Just fantasizing...
The only WiMAX (http://wimax.eu) thing i've found for 2.4GHz is Navini's modem > click here.. (http://http://www.navini.com/Products/Ripwave_MX_2.4GHz.htm) . Vendors are mostly interested in Mobile version of WiMAX - so we should probably wait some more time..
palmczak
03-26-2007, 05:36 PM
It will be interesting to see what the future holds.
I for one think 802.11n has a bright future. I would really like to start seeing 802.11N (MIMO) cards. I am still very impressed with the Orthogon system we run while not a silver bullet it does things that no other system I have found will do.
A multipoint system that works in a similar fashion could be awesome.
Joe
pwmaclean
04-09-2007, 03:32 PM
Any word on mimo 802.11n cards coming down the pipe?
Atheros has the AR5008 out, but it has yet to be seen what kind of benefit you could expect outdoors from 11n/MIMO. The benefit is pretty clear indoors, though. Also, keep in mind, 11n is still a draft spec.
My best guess from the information I have, we would be very lucky if we doubled our current 11a/g throughput and we would likely have to come up with some interesting outdoor antenna arrays to do so.
11n draft has finally been ratified (as far as I know), however MIMO has no real (useful) outdoor applications that we can see due to the two and three antenna design.
Of course, time will tell.
go.fast
04-09-2007, 09:29 PM
Does the multi antennas all work on individual channels or all the same channels?
The multiple antennas are all transmitting/receiving the same data on the same channel
pwmaclean
04-09-2007, 09:46 PM
Is this similar technology the cell companies use? I see they have 3 omni sort of looking antenna's on their towers up here...
Yes, actually. 3G base stations use MIMO technology to make better sense out of the ridiculously poor and screwed-up signals coming from subscriber phones after they penetrate walls and foliage and god knows what else. Also keep in mind that you can still have a phone conversation with a -106 signal because your phone conversation is a relatively small data channel. Akin to, say, a 250kbit wifi data rate like what Atheros provides with their "XR" technology.
go.fast
04-09-2007, 10:44 PM
I wouldn't mind trying an outdoor mimo triple omni set up.
Is mimo a lot of work to add to V3 or is it V4 before we see this?
Yes, MIMO is a lot of work, and strays from the standard Atheros card and design methodology. Implementing support would require heavily on the overall usefulness of MIMO in an outdoor environment.
go.fast
04-09-2007, 11:24 PM
Be honest I would prefer hotspot stuff to be added to V3 before mimo
pwmaclean
04-10-2007, 09:39 AM
Agreed.
...Akin to, say, a 250kbit wifi data rate like what Atheros provides with their "XR" technology.
Tog, can you explain more? Or point me towards what you are referring to? Do the XR cards offer significant advantages?
XR is a technology employed on modern Atheros cards, that can drop the transmit rate below 1Mbps to assist in creating a more reliable link. This is used for inner-building roaming where there are dark areas with weak signal.
pwmaclean
04-10-2007, 10:19 AM
Is there any movement towards having staros allow us to lock a 250kb signal? .25?
Is there any movement towards having staros allow us to lock a 250kb signal? .25?
At 5mhz cloaking? ;)
lonnie
04-10-2007, 11:13 AM
XR is also a new set of cards that Ubiquiti are promoting and basically an output that is 500 to 700 mW.
Ugh, why would we bother locking our transmit rates at 250Kbit?
David L. Vrablic
04-10-2007, 01:22 PM
So we can go places that we have never gone before???
Basements and boiler rooms, some is better than nothing they tell me.