NEW YORK-Wireless Internet and intranet access over long distances, even in remote areas without a wireline infrastructure, is about to get easier and less expensive.
That’s the promise of Cylink Corp., the Sunnyvale, Calif., designer and manufacturer of Cylink DataMetro, which will be available commercially May 7.
Cylink DataMetro “is the first wireless remote access router that connects geographically [distant] networks at distances up to and beyond 30 miles in a single hop … for network service providers and organizations that operate with dispersed sites.”
Exploiting spread spectrum technology and the free Industrial, Scientific and Medical radio band, DataMetro is a step ahead of the typical wireless bridge, which permits interconnection of local area network segments into one logical network, Cylink said. Instead, it will allow network designers to construct large, individual, high-performance networks.
“It’s based on an upgraded version of a three-to-four-year-old design we’ve been fine tuning in international markets under FCC (Federal Communications Commission) equivalents,” said Stephen Wood, product line manager.
Because wireless communications often are a substitute for, not an adjunct to, wireline communications in developing countries, Cylink DataMetro is designed for the same 99.99 percent reliability standards required of wireline telephony, Wood said.
“In data communications, there are three basic topologies, the basic architectural models or styles of interconnection,” he said. “In Star, there is a master or control at the center. Peer-to-peer is similar to a party line. Point-to-point is collision-based, like a single wire with a bunch of people talking at the same time and about 40 percent getting through at any one time.” Cylink DataMetro will work with any of these topologies.
Radiofrequency signaling rates often are used as shorthand for data speeds, which are another important consideration in wireless communications linkages. “RF signaling rates are different and much slower than data speed rates,” Wood said.
Cylink DataMetro 1280, with a data rate of 1.28 megabits per second, is designed to approach T1 speeds offered by wired wide area network connections. The list price is about $4,000. A lower-speed Cylink 320, with a data rate of 320 kilobits per second, lists for $3,000.
“Success breeds its own set of problems. As Internet service providers sign up people more cheaply, more people will sign up,” Wood said. “But radiofrequency is finite. It can be used casually or efficiently.”
Calling the current edition of Cylink DataMetro, “one major step” toward more efficient use of spectrum for data communications, Wood added, “upgrade paths are included in some of our product offerings.”
