How Maestro Smart Antenna Improves Fixed Wireless

Accel Technologies, a division of Accel Networks, is introducing a game changer into the fixed wireless space. It’s their new Maestro smart antenna system. What Maestro looks to do is make 3G and 4G fixed wireless broadband more competitive with more expensive business connectivity solutions, such as T1, MPLS, VSAT, Frame Relay and point to point microwave services.

So, what is this Maestro and what’s so smart about it? Like all other smart devices, Maestro incorporates active technology improve performance. In this case, the improvement is to an inherently passive element, the RF antenna. Antennas are used for all electronic communications. They can be as simple as a foil trace on a circuit board to a multi-element Yagi beam antenna. Satellite dishes are antennas, or antennae if you prefer. So are long wires used with short wave radios or vertical tower arrays for directional AM radio broadcasts.

The thing that’s important about antennas is that they are the first point of contact with any incoming signal and the last element involved in outgoing signals. An antenna can be any random length conductor or it can be a finely tuned system. Most antenna designs are “cut” to a particular size that resonates with the frequencies you are using. The right antenna length greatly improves transmission and reception. You can tune antennas by adding other passive elements, capacitors and inductors. By adding more elements or creating a parabolic reflector (satellite dish) the gain of the antenna is increased. Gain is like amplification. It gives you a stronger signal. As a passive device, you can’t get something for nothing. That gain in a particular direction comes at the expense of reduced sensitivity in other directions. For most applications that’s an additional advantage. A directional antenna reduces pickup of otherwise interfering signals coming from other directions.

Now, take a look a the antenna on your wireless router. Looks like a little black vertical stick, doesn’t it? Is it a particular length selected for the frequencies involved? Yes. Is it directional? No. A vertical “whip” antenna radiates and receives equally in all horizontal directions, although not so well in vertical directions. That’s nice if you want to blanket an area for reception, like a WiFi hotspot. You need broad coverage if you have users scattered all over or moving from place to place.

Now, how about an antenna to connect with a fixed wireless service? Is a simple whip antenna good enough? It is if you have a very strong signal. But what if you are just far enough away from the tower that you don’t have 5-bar coverage? In the case of smartphones and USB modem aircards, you take what you get or do without. These devices are designed to be nomadic, so they have to have universal coverage that brings with it mediocre pickup performance. However, if your business location is fixed and the towers are fixed, you can do better with an antenna that optimizes for the transmission path.

This is what Maestro is all about. It’s a high technology patent pending design that includes eight antennas, three switchable filter banks and an embedded LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) that adjusts to maintain the highest carrier to noise ratio for the 3G or 4G service you are using. Maestro has over 500 discrete setting options to fine-tune for optimum performance.

Why go to all this trouble? Accel Networks has specialized in leveraging the near-universal availability of cellular broadband service across the US and Canada. We think of cellular as a way to get broadband for our mobile phones, but it can also be used as a fixed location broadband service. It sometimes doesn’t work so great within buildings because those itty-bitty antennas on USB dongle adaptors and MiFi boxes can’t deliver a strong enough signal. Put a decent antenna ahead of ahead of the transmitter/receiver and you’ll have a robust signal that won’t go dead or reduce connection speed.

Maestro will be available in about a month from this writing. Accel expects that its introduction for 3G and 4G fixed wireless broadband service will challenge other solutions that businesses have employed to get high speed Internet access. These include VSAT satellite dishes on the roof, T1 lines, DSL and Cable that may or may not be available, frame relay and even microwave fixed wireless systems. Most businesses, especially small retail stores and offices, don’t need massive bandwidth. They need basic connectivity for credit card verification, email and website access. A 3G or 4G cellular service can provide the bandwidth, reliability and latency they require at a substantial cost savings. Accel has over 6,000 installations now that prove just that. With Maestro, many more locations will be able to gain these benefits.

Is your business located in an area where broadband service is hard to come by or unreasonably expensive? Check availability and pricing for fixed wireless broadband. You may be pleasantly surprised by how affordable it is and how well it works.

Fixed Wireless Moving To 4G

There are a couple of faces to fixed wireless broadband for business. First is the licensed microwave services that you’ll find downtown in major cities. The coverage is limited to a few thousand feet with strict line of sight requirements. Bandwidth is high, but availability is very limited.

The other approach is to piggy-back on the 3G cellular broadband services that already blanket the country. This approach offers lower bandwidth, similar to a T1 line, but is available just about anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. That has made it perfect for rural locations, temporary stores and small businesses that need a broadband connection fast.

Accel Networks has been a leader in 3G fixed wireless in the United States and Canada. Their winning approach has been in contracting with multiple wireless providers and creating a proprietary hardware solution that is plug-and-play for the user. Your equipment package comes pre-programmed for the optimal carrier signal available at your location. The Maestro antenna system ensures a solid RF link. All you need to do is connect to the serial or Ethernet connection and you are ready to go in as little as 3 days from order placement.

What do you get in the way of performance. You have a static or dynamic IP address on a PCI compliant private Layer 2 connection. Typical 3G data rates average 1 Mbps download by 512 Kbps upload. A service level agreement assures you of 99.9% availability. Coverage includes 99% of all retail locations in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

As good as 3G fixed wireless is, businesses are pressing for more bandwidth. Fixed wireless providers are following the cellular upgrade path from 3G to 4G as it is fielded. Accel Networks has launched their 4G service with a proprietary antenna and embedded modem technology. Speeds are expected to increase to 6 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload with under 100 mSec of latency.

How long until you can upgrade from 3G to 4G? The industry changeover is expected to be completed within the next two years. It will depend on where you are located as to how quickly you can install 4G fixed wireless broadband.

If you’ve been following the consumer smartphone upgrades from 3G to 4G, you know that there are a competing technologies. The ultimate is LTE (Long Term Evolution), a GSM technology that looks like it will become the universal standard. That includes a switchover for CDMA carriers like Verizon. In the mean time, carriers are performing intermediate upgrades to their existing networks to squeeze out a little more bandwidth. Why? It’s quite expensive to install new circuit cards in every cellular base station to change the technology of the signals being transmitted. Simple evolutionary upgrades often involve only a software upgrade to existing hardware. T-Mobile is taking this approach with an upgrade from HSPA to HSPA+ prior to full deployment of LTE.

The other limitation to higher speed cellular deployment is backhaul. This is the connection between the cell tower and the centralized switching equipment. Up till recently, T1 lines were used for cellular backhaul. They offer 1.5 Mbps in both upload and download directions and are both highly reliable and available anywhere twisted pair telephone wire exists. That’s just about everywhere, including out in the boonies. Bonding T1 lines can increase bandwidth by adding two, four, six or more T1 lines in parallel. That’s good to about 12 Mbps. After that, you need either microwave backhaul or fiber optic connection.

Fiber optic is the way to go if at all possible. The bandwidth is nearly unlimited and you only pay for the construction costs once. The problem is that there are several hundred thousand cell towers sites that need to be upgraded to fiber. In remote locations, fiber is nowhere nearby and needs to be brought-in. Even in the cities, there is a cost and time involved to upgrade each cell. That, plus the cost of the hardware and labor for site just to switch to LTE limits how fast the carriers can move. Even so, cellular broadband is so lucrative that billion dollar investments will continue to flow until the job is completed.

Will fixed wireless work for your business situation? If so, prices are very attractive for both 3G and 4G fixes wireless broadband solutions. Check pricing and availability to see if you really need those landline connections after all.

Fixed Wireless For Rural Retail

Retail businesses in small towns and rural locations often find it difficult or expensive to get the broadband connectivity they need. Many go with two-way satellite or T1 lines to get the point of sale and Internet access they need. Others have discovered that 3G wireless gets them a reliable and secure connection for credit card verification at half the cost of a T1 line.

We’re all familiar with 3G as the cellular broadband service for smartphones. It is also used with USB aircards to get Internet access for laptop and notebook computers. There’s a less well known service that leverages the availability of 3G wireless signals with the robustness of high performance multi-carrier equipment and a secure VPN network. This is what you need for serious business applications.

Conventional cellular service is fine for mobile applications and has the low cost advantage for personal use. The Accel Networks fixed wireless solution adds performance reliability, coverage and security for installation in business locations. The idea behind fixed wireless is that you set it up once and forget it. It’s always on and connecting you to the data center. You can safely turn your back and forget about tweaking antennas or charging batteries. This network is managed to ensure that it is always up and running. Think of this solution as a replacement for T1 line service or a satellite dish on the roof.

Accel Networks has addressed the issue of poor rural broadband availability by leveraging the broadband signals that are available. You know that you can get cellular phone service just about anywhere. The only question is whether the carrier you are contracted with has coverage everywhere you want to go. Accel gets around the limitations of carrier coverage by contracting with multiple cellular carriers to provide coverage to over 90% of business locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. They have a proprietary provisioning system that determines which carrier has the most robust signal for your particular location. That data is used to configure a unique modem, router and antenna equipment package that is sent to you in a couple of weeks, although it is possible to get expedited delivery in as little as a few business days.

Once you get your wireless equipment bundle, you simply plug it in and you are up and running. No need to wait for a service technician to install an outdoor dish or roof antenna or go through a complex configuration setup. None of that is needed with the Accel Network system. You’ll be ready to go in 15 minutes after you open the shipping box. The rental of the equipment is also bundled with your bandwidth lease so that you pay by the month, without having to buy any hardware. Even at that, the cost of a bandwidth service that is competitive with many T1 installations is about half the price.

What kind of performance can you expect? You’ll get 3G data rates bursting to 1 Mbps download and 512 Kbps upload on a 99.9% available network. That’s more than adequate for most small retail applications. This connectivity is on a PCI compliant private layer 2 network that gives it a big advantage for meeting credit card verification requirements. Use it with a single card terminal or hook up all your electronic cash registers and get fast response times, especially compared to dial-up telephone line solutions.

Accel’s fixed wireless package is perfect for retail POS, security, inventory polling, tank monitoring and digital signage. Oil and gas companies have found it works great for remote site management. Other applications include lottery machine and ATM support. Specialty retail stores, convenience stores, grocery stores, automotive retailers, restaurants, payday loan stores, and car dealerships have all found that fixed wireless meets their needs.

Is your business located in a rural or out of the way location where business broadband is either hard to come by or expensive? If so, check out fixed wireless business broadband service as a high performance low cost bandwidth solution for your business location.

Wireless Internet Access For Farms

There are many advantages to living and working on a farm, but one of the disadvantages is that broadband Internet access is harder to come by. No, DSL and Cable broadband probably aren’t in your future. But there are options available at reasonable prices right now.

It’s true that DSL and Cable are popular with independent professionals, small businesses and home-based occupations. You get a decent amount of bandwidth at a reasonable cost. The one hitch is that these services are distance limited. DSL signals decrease rapidly as you get a mile to two from the telephone company central office. Cable is a wired service that goes only where the Cable company has decided that there is enough population density to justify stringing the coaxial cable. Unfortunately, those factors keep Cable and DSL within or close to the city limits.

What you really want are either line services that don’t have distance restrictions or wireless services that don’t require stringing or burying cable of any type. There are several options that meet this description.

First is T1. This is a telco digital line service first used between telephone company switching centers. The beauty of T1 is that it is designed to be provisioned on two pair of ordinary telephone wires, available just about everywhere. The second advantage is that it was designed to work with regenerator boxes that clean up and boost the signal so that it can go another mile. You can generally get T1 line service miles from the nearest town, although it gets more expensive as you get farther out in the country.

Second is satellite. Satellite broadband service comes from above and needs no wires. All it requires is AC power that can even come from a gas generator or solar panels and an inverter. Disadvantages include the need to get a professionally installed two-way satellite dish installed on your roof and a half-second or so of latency due to the long path up to the stationary satellite. For many email and Web uses, this slight delay from issuing a command to getting data back is no big deal.

A third option is wireless terrestrial Internet service. Many communities have WISPs or Wireless Internet Service Providers. These tend to be locally owned and have a very limited service area. More often than not, WISPs target rural subdivisions and small towns to get enough customers to justify the cost of the equipment and bandwidth.

One of the most exciting new services is fixed wireless or cellular broadband. This service uses the data channels that every cell phone carrier has available for mobile phones and laptop computers. Accel Networks is a leader in this field and has contracts with the major carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) to connect with their broadband data channels. By combining the coverage areas of multiple carriers, Accel can pretty much blanket the nation except for mountainous and remote areas of the West where there is no cell phone coverage. If you can get a decent cell phone signal, you can probably get fixed wireless service.

The way this works is that Accel Networks customizes their standard interface box and antenna to optimize the signal strength for your particular location. That gives you a really good chance of getting a solid signal that will deliver decent bandwidth. How much bandwidth? This service is competitive with T1 lines with a minimum rate of 750 Kbps download and 250 Kbps upload, bursting up to 1 Mbps on downloads. This is more than adequate for most farm uses, such as getting agriculture reports, using email, general Web surfing and even watching video clips. It’s not intended for high intensity usage like downloading HD movies or running a server.

What makes fixed wireless broadband service so popular in rural areas is that it is readily available and costs half the price of a T1 line or less. Is this the right service for your farm, ranch or rural business? Get pricing, availability and complete details on fixed wireless broadband now. Installation is fast, often within a matter of days.