Tropos Networks Inc., formerly operating in stealth mode as FHP Wireless Inc., has unveiled its new Tropos technology, products and services to enable metro-scale deployments of Wi-Fi technology, offering end users wireless broadband access to data from wide public areas.
Tropos’ goal is to take traditional Wi-Fi from its typical limited deployment in a home, office or hot spot and expand it to a larger scale, creating “hot zones” that cover entire neighborhoods or cities.
Traditional Wi-Fi, offered in homes or other limited areas, can be considered “cordless data,” comparable with a cordless phone, said Bert Williams, vice president of marketing at Tropos. Tropos hopes its network will offer wide-area wireless coverage, rivaling cellular coverage, but with a focus on offering data.
“Wi-Fi’s real potential is true broadband wireless data access, with anytime, anywhere availability in coverage areas similar to those of cellular telephone service,” added Dave Hanna, president and chief executive officer of Tropos. “Tropos’ cellular Wi-Fi is the first system that can deliver on Wi-Fi’s promise.”
The company is working with service providers to roll out hot zones in select municipalities and with law enforcement agencies to deploy them in high-incident areas so law enforcement officials can access wireless data while on the job.
Normally, service providers would need to roll out one wired backhaul access point for every Wi-Fi node in a system. But with Tropos’ network, Wi-Fi cells communicate with each other, creating paths back to one wired node. The system, therefore, cuts installation and operational costs for service providers.
At the heart of Tropos’ network lies the Tropos Sphere network operating system, embedded in each Wi-Fi cell it deploys. This technology allows the Wi-Fi cells to communicate between each other, similar to the way communications pass between devices in a mesh network, providing scalability and reliability to the network and making it capable of self-organizing and self-healing.
New cells are capable of auto-discovering optimal paths over which they can communicate data back to one wired backhaul point. The cells also constantly monitor and dynamically adjust individual data paths depending on the current quality and availability of other cells in the network.
“Tropos offers more coverage, more economically,” said Craig Mathias, an analyst at the Farpoint Group. “I think this could be an excellent application of a mesh network.”
The system typically costs between $20,000 and $50,000 per square mile, depending on the terrain and Wi-Fi environment.
The company has deployed the system for use in several municipal public-safety sites and for service providers, including Coastside Net, headquartered in Half Moon Bay, Calif., which is using Tropos products to provide wireless “hot zone” service in downtown Half Moon Bay.
