WiMax in the USA and Server Based Computing.
Below is a portion of the AT&T web page announcing the availability of WiMax. Click here to view their web page.
What does WiMax have to do with Server Based Computing? Let us review the four components of Server Based Computing and then I am going to add a fifth component.
The first component is a Server. More likely clusters of servers that have high availability and fault tolerance. These servers host applications that are presented remotely and may also provide storage for data.
The second component is a client. It can be thin, fat, a phone, pen, Netbook, actually, almost anything. It is the presentation to the user and input device to the server.
Third, a protocol to allow servers and clients to communicate. Earlier examples are ICA and RDP. Now there are more than I can count.
Fourth, management systems that keeps tabs on the servers and clients. Who can do what, when, where and how. Ever been asked to key on you email address and a password? Now you know your are experiencing SBC.
I would like to add "Transmission Medium" as the fifth component. Connectivity has always been implicit. A benefit often sited for the early Citrix ICA protocol was its ability to operate with bandwidth as low a 20Kb. I had the opportunity to work with wireless thin clients ten years ago. It opened up new ways to place equipment on the shop floor. The distance and bandwidth limitations within 802.11b was not a problem using semi-mobile thin clients with embedded NT.
Now how we connect the server to the client and how much bandwidth is required will be more important. Today we are wanting broadband everywhere. Have broadband at home, at work and at hot spots. At home I have broadband via a cable company. Work is a corporate connection via a proxy server. The hot spots are a mix of open, closed, and browser based systems. Although many of them are client networks, generally I use the wireless network only to access the Internet.
It appears to me that SBC vendors that have the ability to pack more punch into less bandwidth will have an advantage over those vendors that are dependent on wide bandwidth to make their applications work. One ISP is banking on fiber to your door. Nice, except that sales forecasts for this year are that more laptops, Netbooks and NIDs are going to be sold than desktops. I will bet that mobility trumps big bandwidth. Leave carrying the big pipes to the "Blue Man Group"!
For the enterprises of the world this presents a new security challenge. It is possible to be on two networks at the same time. The secured enterprise network and the open wireless network can coexist on the the same device. So do you build a Faraday cage around every structure or do you switch to thin client systems that can access the enterprise system only by the way it is authorized?
There are over 350 WiMax installation world wide. The largest single installation may be the country of Pakistan by Wateen Telcom with at least 22 cites being served. In the US the list is smaller.
MetroBridge Networks serves businesses in Arizona and Greater Seattle with connections up to 2500 Mbit/s with 8000 square miles of coverage area. MetroBridge Networks 197 Cottage Ave.Sandy, UT, 84070.
DigitalBridge Communications launched the first commercially available WiMAX network in the United States in 2007 under the name BridgeMAXX and holds 2.5 GHz licenses in several regions. Current Deployments are in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, South Dakota, and Virginia. Digital Bridge Communications Corp. 44675, Cape Court Suite, 130 Ashburn, VA 20147 • Phone: 703.723.3566.
Sprint Nextel holds licences in the 2.5 GHz band covering most of the U.S. Sprint plans to build a "Nationwide advanced wireless broadband network expected to cover 100 million people in 2008." Chicago, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are named as U.S. cities scheduled to be online by the end of 2008 under the brand name Xohm.
Clearwire holds 2.5 GHz licences in several regions, and is running a test market in the Northwestern United States in preparation to deploy a nationwide network to rival the other nationwide carriers. In May 2008, Sprint Nextel announced a plan to merge their WiMax operation under the Clearwire name, with additional investment from five other technology companies.
NextWave Wireless holds licences in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz band. NextWave's has portfolio of licensed spectrum holdings in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic and Slovakia. US operations are based in California, 12670 High Bluff Drive, San Diego, CA 92130, (P) 858.480.3100.
NextPhase Wireless holds a national WiMAX license and LMDS in broad coverage areas over Atlanta, Southern California (Los Angeles), Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania/Wilmington, Delaware/Trenton, New Jersey. NextPhase Wireless 300 S. Harbor Blvd. Suite 500 Anaheim, CA 92805 Xanadoo operates Navini Networks-based pre-WiMax networks in the 2.5 GHz spectrum in 6 markets in the midwest.
Xanadoo operates Navini Networks-based pre-WiMax networks in the 2.5 GHz spectrum in 6 markets in the midwest.
Open Range Communications will build a 17-state WiMAX network providing wireless broadband to 500+ un-served and underserved rural American communities. 1735 Nineteenth St., Second Floor, Denver Colorado 80202, phone: 303.376.2111.
Conterra in Columbia, SC, Charlotte, NC, and nearby areas. Conterra Ultra Broadband, 2101 Rexford Road, Suite 200, East Wing Charlotte, NC 28211.
Quad-Cities Online will use 2.5 GHz spectrum in Illinois. It is currently under construction.
RazzoLink carries WiMax and pre WiMax throughout Monterey County, California on the 2.5/2.6 GHz band. Razzolink 6114 LaSalle Ave, #458 Oakland, CA 94611 800-913-RAZZ (7299), ext. 1.
The list is only going to get longer and the security challenge wider. And the productivity gets better.
Until the next post,
What does WiMax have to do with Server Based Computing? Let us review the four components of Server Based Computing and then I am going to add a fifth component.
The first component is a Server. More likely clusters of servers that have high availability and fault tolerance. These servers host applications that are presented remotely and may also provide storage for data.
The second component is a client. It can be thin, fat, a phone, pen, Netbook, actually, almost anything. It is the presentation to the user and input device to the server.
Third, a protocol to allow servers and clients to communicate. Earlier examples are ICA and RDP. Now there are more than I can count.
Fourth, management systems that keeps tabs on the servers and clients. Who can do what, when, where and how. Ever been asked to key on you email address and a password? Now you know your are experiencing SBC.
I would like to add "Transmission Medium" as the fifth component. Connectivity has always been implicit. A benefit often sited for the early Citrix ICA protocol was its ability to operate with bandwidth as low a 20Kb. I had the opportunity to work with wireless thin clients ten years ago. It opened up new ways to place equipment on the shop floor. The distance and bandwidth limitations within 802.11b was not a problem using semi-mobile thin clients with embedded NT.
Now how we connect the server to the client and how much bandwidth is required will be more important. Today we are wanting broadband everywhere. Have broadband at home, at work and at hot spots. At home I have broadband via a cable company. Work is a corporate connection via a proxy server. The hot spots are a mix of open, closed, and browser based systems. Although many of them are client networks, generally I use the wireless network only to access the Internet.
It appears to me that SBC vendors that have the ability to pack more punch into less bandwidth will have an advantage over those vendors that are dependent on wide bandwidth to make their applications work. One ISP is banking on fiber to your door. Nice, except that sales forecasts for this year are that more laptops, Netbooks and NIDs are going to be sold than desktops. I will bet that mobility trumps big bandwidth. Leave carrying the big pipes to the "Blue Man Group"!
For the enterprises of the world this presents a new security challenge. It is possible to be on two networks at the same time. The secured enterprise network and the open wireless network can coexist on the the same device. So do you build a Faraday cage around every structure or do you switch to thin client systems that can access the enterprise system only by the way it is authorized?
There are over 350 WiMax installation world wide. The largest single installation may be the country of Pakistan by Wateen Telcom with at least 22 cites being served. In the US the list is smaller.
MetroBridge Networks serves businesses in Arizona and Greater Seattle with connections up to 2500 Mbit/s with 8000 square miles of coverage area. MetroBridge Networks 197 Cottage Ave.Sandy, UT, 84070.
DigitalBridge Communications launched the first commercially available WiMAX network in the United States in 2007 under the name BridgeMAXX and holds 2.5 GHz licenses in several regions. Current Deployments are in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, South Dakota, and Virginia. Digital Bridge Communications Corp. 44675, Cape Court Suite, 130 Ashburn, VA 20147 • Phone: 703.723.3566.
Sprint Nextel holds licences in the 2.5 GHz band covering most of the U.S. Sprint plans to build a "Nationwide advanced wireless broadband network expected to cover 100 million people in 2008." Chicago, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are named as U.S. cities scheduled to be online by the end of 2008 under the brand name Xohm.
Clearwire holds 2.5 GHz licences in several regions, and is running a test market in the Northwestern United States in preparation to deploy a nationwide network to rival the other nationwide carriers. In May 2008, Sprint Nextel announced a plan to merge their WiMax operation under the Clearwire name, with additional investment from five other technology companies.
NextWave Wireless holds licences in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz band. NextWave's has portfolio of licensed spectrum holdings in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic and Slovakia. US operations are based in California, 12670 High Bluff Drive, San Diego, CA 92130, (P) 858.480.3100.
NextPhase Wireless holds a national WiMAX license and LMDS in broad coverage areas over Atlanta, Southern California (Los Angeles), Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania/Wilmington, Delaware/Trenton, New Jersey. NextPhase Wireless 300 S. Harbor Blvd. Suite 500 Anaheim, CA 92805 Xanadoo operates Navini Networks-based pre-WiMax networks in the 2.5 GHz spectrum in 6 markets in the midwest.
Xanadoo operates Navini Networks-based pre-WiMax networks in the 2.5 GHz spectrum in 6 markets in the midwest.
Open Range Communications will build a 17-state WiMAX network providing wireless broadband to 500+ un-served and underserved rural American communities. 1735 Nineteenth St., Second Floor, Denver Colorado 80202, phone: 303.376.2111.
Conterra in Columbia, SC, Charlotte, NC, and nearby areas. Conterra Ultra Broadband, 2101 Rexford Road, Suite 200, East Wing Charlotte, NC 28211.
Quad-Cities Online will use 2.5 GHz spectrum in Illinois. It is currently under construction.
RazzoLink carries WiMax and pre WiMax throughout Monterey County, California on the 2.5/2.6 GHz band. Razzolink 6114 LaSalle Ave, #458 Oakland, CA 94611 800-913-RAZZ (7299), ext. 1.
The list is only going to get longer and the security challenge wider. And the productivity gets better.
Until the next post,
Steve
