Ruckus Wireless pits 802.11n against WiMAX

Ruckus Wireless introduced a wireless broadband access solution based on the 802.11n flavor of WiFi that is designed for developing urban environments at a fraction of the cost of WiMAX.

The solution includes outdoor mesh access points, customer premises equipment, WiFi backhaul and system-wide remote management designed to deliver reliable coverage and capacity at a low cost per bit by incorporating the company's Smart Wi-Fi technologies that uses intelligent antennas and dynamic beamforming software to solve interference problems. Ruckus said its solution can offer service providers a five times reduction in capital costs for initial coverage and a 30 times reduction in the cost of incremental capacity. Moreover, operators can deploy the service incrementally rather than blanket coverage.

Ruckus is hoping to capitalize on new and established broadband players in emerging and established markets where operators may need to expand their networks. In India, for instance, Tikona Digital Network is offering the solution to offer broadband for $5 per month and will have achieve a payback in the near future. Winners of the broadband stimulus loans and grants will be another target, said David Callisch, vice president of marketing with Ruckus.

Ruckus said its Smart Mesh networking routes traffic over wired and wirelessly meshed APs, using the highest performing path in real time. It allows APs to be aggregated over gigabit Ethernet for capacity without the overhead of additional mesh hops.

For more:
- see this release [1]

Related articles:
AT&T to trial Ruckus for HD IPTV via WiFi [2]
Ruckus Wireless introduces 802.11n access point for outdoor market [3]
Ruckus enters 802.11n fray [4]