Alvarion Webinar Impressions

Here are some very raw, very initial, very incomplete impressions from today's Alvarion "What's New, What's Different" WISP Webinar from 12:00 - 13:15 Pacific. I took some notes for a future, comprehensive article about what Alvarion revealed and I hope to do an interview with presenter Patrick Leary, get a copy of the presentation and listen to the replay (very cool if they provide it as a MP3 / podcast). Only then would I have a prayer of doing justice to all of what Alvarion presented.

The Webinar should have been a three-hour seminar, distilled down to its essence to fit into a one-hour timeslot. Leary delivered a solid, but rapid-fire presentation describing numerous product improvements, new product announcements, solid  background information about Alvarion's technological choices, and "sneak peaks".

Leary led off the presentation by talking about Alvarion's corporate strengths, including that it's a publicly traded company, and thus offering a high degree of transparency with which to judge their overall corporate "stability" (my words, not Leary's). Alvarion has offered products specifically designed and built for the WISP market since before there has been a widely-recognized WISP market. (I've been watching the WISP market since late 1996, and Alvarion [then BreezeCOM] was a major vendor before then.)

On the most basic level, in my opinion it's unique that Alvarion "cares" at all, let alone to such a degree, about small, entrepreneurial Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs). I'm receiving information this week from Alvarion about their participation in one of the largest wireless telephony trade shows - the Mobile World Congress held in Eurpope, where they're unveiling new products for Mobile WiMAX. In Mobile WiMAX, Alvarion is a major player in a rapidly growing industry that's largely outside the US. Yet, Alvarion appears to offer a surprising continuing commitment to the WISP market.

Only Motorola with its Canopy product line for WISPs (and the only "WISP" vendor competitor that Alvarion specifically named) is comparable to Alvarion's breadth of products for the overall Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) industry. But, notably, Motorola's apparent commitment to Canopy has lagged, causing some large users and resellers that I spoke to recently to be nervous about the future of Canopy. Motorola is in serious corporate trouble and the Canopy product line could potentially be a casualty of Motorola restructuring (given that Motorola is reported as considering the spinout of its wireless telephony handset product line...)

What comes to mind... and this is only an impression... but an informed one from an industry observer watching the overall Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry... is that Alvarion sees a triple opportunity: 1) Most other vendors don't appear to be investing comparable resources (new products, advanced technology) in the WISP industry that Alvarion is capable of doing, 2) New technology and spectrum (most notably, the 3.65 GHz and 5.4 GHz bands) offer new opportunities for WISPs to provide more reliable, higher-value services that previously possible with older technology and other license-exempt spectrum, and 3) the WISP industry is rapidly consolidating into a new tier of much more professional, well-capitalized Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider (BWIA SPs).  Alvarion is pretty uniquely positioned to exploit those three opportunities.

The products Alvarion discussed were all for license-exempt spectrum, intended for the US market, including several improved products for the 902-928 MHz band.

BreezeAccess EZ is a low-cost, high-performance new BWIA system operating in the 5 GHz bands. My first impression is that the EZ product is a "de-featured" and lower-cost version of the VL product line. That said, it's a distinct product with features not found (yet?) on the VL product line, such as improved external indicators meant to simplify installation and troubleshooting.

The BreezeAccess VL product line is being improved to add more "carrier-grade" features, including a hot-standby feature that allows two radios to be installed to cover the same sector in a hot-standby configuration and much improved firmware-update capability. There was a long list of security enhancements, but one that leaped out at me is that Alvarion implements its AES encryption in hardware, not software, so the Access and Subscribe units do not suffer a performance hit when AES is activated. It's also impressive that the AES capability is a standard feature in the VL product line. Alvarion is also paying particular (and impressive) attention to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) issues in its systems.

Alvarion did a bit of education about 802.16d (Fixed WiMAX) and 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX). Alvarion's point, as I understood it (putting it bluntly) that there won't be much more significant product development (investment) in 802.16d in the industry as a whole- it's essentially a technological dead-end. That's not to say that the investment in 802.16d is "stranded". I don't think that's the case - there will continue to be development by the existing 802.16d players like Alvarion, but for the most part current and future development, investment, growth-in-the-ecosystem, future enhancements, etc. will all be based on 802.16e / Mobile WiMAX. I agree and made this observation last year after attending WiMAX World; the growth in Mobile WiMAX devices (the ecosystem) is astonishing. I'm guessing this was a "shot across the bow" at a few vendors who offer and still tout 802.16d-based systems (including Alvarion itself to demonstrate that it's not "stuck" on 802.16d. Redline was a bit ahead of Alvarion in saying that you can do "traditional fixed" with Mobile WiMAX, and Alvarion is now saying the same.

Alvarion discussed BreezeMAX 3650, derived from their BreezeMAX Mobile WiMAX products for 2.3 / 2.5 GHz. Again, it's impressive that Alvarion is offering the capabilities of licensed spectrum in the "licensed lite" 3.65 GHz band, which is available for nearly anyone to use. One example that comes immediately to mind is that enterprises such as colleges in small towns with inadequate broadband infrastructure (off campus) can deploy 3.65 GHz systems like BreezeMAX 3650 to provide Broadband Internet Access similarly... and perhaps better... and "Metropolitan Wi-Fi" systems. BreezeMAX 3650 includes an impressive indoor self-install unit. It came out later in the Webinar that the WiMAX Forum doesn't currently plan to offer an interoperability profile for the (unique technological constraints of) US 3.65 GHz band, so BreezeMAX 3650 should be considered a proprietary system (unlike BreezeMAX systems for 2.3 / 2.5 GHz).

Time was getting short when Leary discussed a new Wi-Fi product - Wi(squared) which is a "HotSpot / HotZone complete solution" that includes the capability of doing localized mesh on Wi-Fi. (I predicted to Leary... with vehement opposition from him... that Alvarion would do meshed Wi-Fi... and now they have.)

BreezeNET B is 5 GHz point-to-point backhaul system with range up to 50 Km and speeds up to 73 Mbps (true throughput as measured with FTPs) with optimizations for handling up to 900 simultaneous VOIP sessions.

Leary teased the audience with a few new (web-based?) "tools", including a "Voice Per Data Capacity Trade-off Calculator", "Leased Line Versus BreezeAccess VL P-P Calculator", a "Business Case Dashboard" (which they hinted might create a version of specifically for the unique aspects of WISPs), and most impressively "Comprehensive Link and BOM [Bill of Materials?] Calculator. The latter is essentially a free (for qualified Alvarion customers) and relatively simple to use (but comprehensive) link / terrain / network planning tool.

The Webinar concluded with an interesting-sounding "Trade in your T-1" promotion, but I wasn't able to capture the details.

Overall, I was very, very impressed with both the Webinar and Alvarion's ongoing interest and commitment to the WISP industry.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Comments

[Chas]

I am a larger user of Mot Canopy and totally disagree. It has never been stronger, the future brighter or supported better. I don't know you or your writing at all, but it appears to be an alvarion shill site.

[Steve Stroh]

Chas:

You have me dead to rights. Absolutely WISPNews is one of those infamous "Alvarion Shill Sites"...
and Canopy Shill sites...
and Trango Shill sites...
and Proxim Shill sites...
and Redline Shill sites...
and Tranzeo Shill sites...
etc.

All of that... and none of that. I'm an Independent Technology Writer with long experience (see www.stevestroh.com) covering the WISP industry since its very early days. I call them as I see them, and what I'm seeing... and hearing... about Canopy and Motorola isn't too encouraging at the moment.

Your mileage may vary... especially as a vendor of products specifically for Canopy... which you chose not to disclose in your comment.

Thanks,

Steve

[Colin]

Thanks for the useful writeup Steve!

I had looked at Alvarion gear before but I wasn't very impressed after seeing a few of their products that did the "cheap Atheros radio plus custom firmware = 5x the price" trick. There's way too much generic-quality equipment of that kind already; also Trango has almost cornered that market. If Alvarion gets solidly into WiMAX it'll be good competition to Canopy.

Also, at Animal Farm last month, the Motorola VP(products?) seemed to indicate that Canopy's financial results impressed some higher-ups, so I doubt they'll be getting rid of it or cutting it down.

[Mark Howard]

I attended the webinar as well and came away very impressed with Alvarion's commitment to smaller WISPs. As someone just starting out I'm glad to see a rather large, established company insisting, in words and actions, they will continue to support small operators.

In my part of the country (New Hampshire) I'm pretty much forced to use the 900 gear if I want to reach customers. Alvarion's new, 900 VL, gear should go a long way to improving my options. The ability to trade-in the old gear for the new 900 gear is really icing on the cake.

I'll end by mentioning I've taken their training and walked away very pleased. Overall, they sure get my vote as a company I want to do business with.

[Justin Wilson]

I am encouraged to see that Alvarion has taken an interest in the "small WISP". They seem genuinely interested in helping those out their that don't have pockets lined with Gold.