Ruckus launches Wi-Fi box

TechWorld.com - Ruckus Wireless Inc. has launched a Wi-Fi adapter designed to handle multimedia. The adapter will be built into IP television services for consumers first, reaching businesses when IP voice services take off.

"It's all about consistent, uninterrupted bandwidth," said Selina Lo, CEO of Ruckus, formerly known as Video54, which provides multiple-antenna hardware for NetGear Inc.'s RangeMax line of fast Soho Wi-Fi products. "We provide a constant bit-rate over unstable airwaves."

Ruckus provides NetGear with BeamFlex, an array of six antennas with control software, which can double the range of Wi-Fi equipment. Netgear's RangeMax is the top multiple-input, multiple-output-class product, said Lo, although rivals claim that because it uses multiple antennas and not multiple radios, it isn't technically MIMO.

MIMO products, including Airgo Networks Inc.'s "True MIMO" multiple-radio system which is used by Linksys, Belkin Corp. and others, are likely to remain in home or small-office equipment until the 802.11n standard is complete.

Ruckus has now built its system into customer-premises equipment which already has one customer, PCCW Ltd., which will use it to deliver a home IP TV service in Hong Kong.

The new box includes SmartCast, traffic management software which handles IP multicast for TV data. "There are standards for QoS [quality of service], including 802.11e," said Lo, "but people don't have them yet. We have a mechanism for deep packet inspection which can put packets in the relevant queue."

SmartCast's benefits are reminiscent of Lo's previous company, Alteon WebSystems Inc., which was bought by Nortel for $7.8 billion in 2000. While IP TV data is normally sent by User Datagram Protocol, with no quality, SmartCast adds the ability to prioritize it over other (TCP) data, and also to select priorities among video streams.

Wireless distribution of IP TV services will increase their adoption, and make "triple play" -- voice, video and Internet -- services more saleable, said Lo. "Thirty percent of potential cable subscribers turn the contractor away when they find out about the wiring requirements," she said.

SmartCast also includes remote monitoring and management, so service providers can tell whether they are delivering the quality they say the should be and fix problems without engineers visiting, said Lo.

All these benefits would also help businesses, but they are waiting on fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) before implementing wireless LANs everywhere, said Lo. "Fixed-mobile convergence is bigger in the longer term, but IP TV is a more pressing opportunity," she added.

Businesses will also want standards for fast reliable wireless, which will emerge when 802.11n is finalized. "Whatever the final802.11n standard, you can apply BeamFlex and SmartCast to it," said Lo. Although NetGear's RangeMax equipment uses the much-criticized channel-bonding technology, this too will be allowed within 802.11n, she said.