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Doug Lockie is founder and executive vice president of Endwave, a provider of advanced broadband wireless network solutions. He previously co-founded Pacific Monolithics, where he worked from 1984 to 1991, and is co-author of seven patents in the fields of electronics and communications.
The explosive growth of performance in the computing industry is driving business demand for ultra-broadband wireless access (100-plus megabits per second). Intel, the world's largest microprocessor maker has recently announced it will begin shipping a 5e GHz microprocessor in 2004. This exciting news means businesses will be able to run multi-gigabit applications such as streaming video, high-resolution artwork, and massive software downloads very quickly on their standalone computers. However, Intel's announcement also highlights the bandwidth bottleneck beyond the LAN for the majority of users who will need to share and exchange those same applications with other computers in real-time.
These users increasingly are finding that computers do not operate anywhere near their potential efficiency when attempting to communicate with other systems in the WAN. The quandary lies in the network. While Ethernet-based LANs can keep up with today's computers, once users seek to move data outside the LAN, data transfer rate becomes subject to the limitations of wireline technology in the last-mile. Cross-country and citywide metropolitan loop fiber optic backbones provide nearly infinite bandwidth, but they do not reach 95 percent of businesses due to trenching costs and lengthy installation times. Legacy network telecommunications providers have not been able to offer last-mile connections that come anywhere close to computer processing speeds. The fact remains that today's sub-gigabit connectivity is insufficient for businesses' sophisticated computing needs.
Because computer-to-computer connectivity is most efficient at data rates near the native speeds of microprocessors, Intel's announcement underscores the opportunity for ultra-broadband wireless system providers to enable last-mile gigabit connectivity. Intel's announcement is one of a number of factors shaping up to drive this industry to its next phase of evolution. Consider the following:
-- The FCC is examining opening the 94 GHz band to commercial use with between three and 10 GHz of RF bandwidth. This would enable equipment providers to develop radios with 1 bit per hertz modulation formats-a more cost-effective, entry-level gigabit class radio that offers 10 times the data rate available today.
-- Ultra-broadband wireless radio manufacturers are preparing to introduce 622 Megabit and 1 Gigabit data rate products. These radios are suitable for operation at distances up to 2 to 3 miles at "four-nines" or "five-nines" reliability within about 85 percent of the continental United States.
-- Wireline solutions continue to break the bank for the majority of businesses. Although next generation fiber optic networks will come online at near infinite bandwidth and lower cost than previous generations, the trenching cost of implementing last mile connections to 95 percent of buildings that are not lit is growing. Trench costs in urban areas run from $250,000 per mile to $1.5 million per mile.
-- Service providers are designing networks with Ethernet-IP-Ethernet architectures (as opposed to Ethernet-ATM-SONET-ATM-Ethernet architectures), which are up to10 to 15 times more cost effective when driven by multi-gigabit bandwidth. These architectures start with 100 Mbps and gracefully grow to multi-Gigabit data rates as required.
As businesses become massive data users needing real time connectivity, new high-frequency spectrum opens up, radio data rates increase, corporate networks continue to evolve and Intel continues development of their 5 GHz microprocessor (and begins work on a 10 GHz microprocessor), the computing industry will need to look to ultra-broadband wireless system providers to solve the last mile bottleneck.
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