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November 1, 2007

Pepwave Drops Price of Bridge for Muni Networks to $99, $129

By Glenn Fleishman

The company decided to take some of the pain out of municipal deployments by extending its bulk price to individuals on its entry-level Wi-Fi bridge: In metro-scale networks, it’s become clear that to get good indoor reception in most cases, you need a bridge. The popular bridges from Pepwave and Ruckus Wireless pick up a faint signal from a city-wide network and then essentially rebroadcast it under a different network name for users in proximity. These bridges used to start at about $150 for units with 200 milliwatt (mW) radios, which is from twice to septuple the power of built-in adapters; they usually put out 30 mW to 100 mW of juice.

The price has fallen, though, and while $100 isn’t free, it’s approaching a level that I suspect more people are comfortable spending to improve access in areas with coverage. Ruckus Wireless’s MetroFlex DZ has a list of $149, but ExpressNets will sell it to you for $99; and Pepwave’s comparable Surf AP 200 can now be bought for $129. The Surf 200, which lacks the second home network feature, is $99.

Pepwave has dropped its 400 mW Surf AP 400 from $289 to $189, which could be useful, too, in the right circumstances, but receive sensitivity is a more critical measure than transmit power in trying to “hear” distant signals. The AP 400 has a small but measurable improvement in receive sensitivity over the two 200 models. I can’t find Ruckus’s receive sensitivity numbers readily, but their approach involves multiple antennas, in which beam forming and multi-path reflection analysis provide their own improvements in range and reception.

Update: Ruckus provided their receive sensitivity numbers, which in nearly all cases exceed the Pepwave AP 400’s numbers for nearly $100 less. Now, this requires real-world testing to see whether the multiple antennas and this higher measured sensitivity equate to a greater service area, but the raw numbers are good.

Update: Pepwave notes that in its testing transmit power is more critical; their perspective is that with metro-scale networks, the nodes can push power out quite well - often using the legal maximum - but it’s difficult for them to hear distant, faint clients. An iPhone, for instance, can hear a far-distant transmitter, but can only call back weakly.

Posted by Glennf at November 1, 2007 5:19 PM

Categories: Hardware, Home, Metro-Scale Networks

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