Nokia WiMAX Base Station for next year

But devices won't be available until 2008.



Nokia has announced a modular WiMAX Base Station due for release in 2007.

It's not surprising the company is being proactive in this area; Nokia is a founding member of the WiMAX Forum and the mobile WiMAX standard; IEEE 802.16e-2005.

The Nokia Flexi WiMAX Base Station will be available for the 2.5 GHz band towards the end of next year and for 3.5 GHz in 1Q 2008. WiMAX-capable Nokia mobile devices are expected to be available in 2008.

Houston orders 750 Wi-Fi parking meters

Mesh networks and WiMax. Impressive.



You’ve heard of Wi-Fi in coffee shops and train stations. But what about in parking meters?

The City of Houston has ordered 750 of them, called LUKE payment stations. And all will use a dedicated 802.11g mesh Wi-Fi network spread over a 1.9 square mile chunk of the city centre.

It’s the first project of its kind that doesn’t have a cellular network. The main parking meter network will then use WiMAX tech to connect to the backbone of the network.

“Using the Mesh Wi-Fi…and the WiMAX overlay for connectivity to the network backbone, puts our City at the forefront in using evolving technologies," said Janis Jefferson, Deputy Director and CTO, City of Houston.

The shape of things to come?

All the meters will accept plastic as well as hard cash. The performance of this pioneering project will be checked regularly to assess if the City can use Wi-Fi in other areas.

"A primary goal of this project is to help make parking regulation, management and enforcement more efficient,” said Liliana Rambo of the City of Houston Parking Management Division. “We are confident the combined solution…can help us meet this challenge."

One of the companies involved in the project, WFI, also recently helped another Houston project, a Mesh and IP network to help surveillance in the city’s Park and Ride car parks.

Opinion: The true meaning of Asus’ Draft-N guarantee

Wow, Draft-N kit might actually be safe to buy.

Asus has announced it has guaranteed the upgradeability of both the firmware and hardware of its Draft-N kit.

While we restrain our enthusiasm for this new announcement from Asus, let’s look at a demonstrative case study.

You go online and buy Asus’ WL-500W Super Speed N wireless router and WL-100W Super Speed N wireless adapter before the end of 2006.

Bear in mind, this is exactly what we said you shouldn’t do. Why? Because of the uncertainty over 802.11n, delayed ratification date, 12,000 alterations to the Draft 1.0 specification yada yada.

You get it home and set it up.

You’re happy, because you benefit from the excellent speeds and range Draft-N has to offer. Even if it does deal with legacy kit like a Mini Metro deals with a hill climb.

Then suddenly, one day, you wake up. (That’s 2008 wireless keenos.) The world has changed. Broadcom has had to make hardware changes to its chipset.

You ring up Asus within three months. The guys send you a brand new router.

This is both good…and bad.

It’s good that Asus and Broadcom are confident in the technology. But it’s bad because, if the technology they’ve thus far created is so right, why doesn’t it work particularly well?

Communication with legacy devices is poor, while interoperability between different Draft-N chipsets is average at best. And us? We’re sticking to our guns. It’s still the case that now isn’t really the time to go out and buy Draft-N kit, even though Asus’ offer is an interesting one.

Asus is obviously trying to pimp its products using a USP that it wants to win praise for. And, to an extent, it should - ratification is nearly two years away. But the fact it is extending its guarantee to hardware has to be seen as a slight embarrassment to the chipset manufacturers and those working on the 802.11n standard.

Can you imagine the boardrooms of other wireless vendors today? The debate whether the same guarantee should be offered will surely run and run.

The comments by Broadcom’s Rahul Patel are, quite frankly, hilarious.

“While we attribute…customer confidence to the maturity of the current draft-n specification we applaud ASUS for going one step further to guarantee future compatibility.”

Mature certainly isn’t a word most would use to describe Draft-N. But then, he is Director of Marketing.

IFA 2006: Netgear’s media player is Viiv certified

Long-awaited player has Intel stamp of approval.

Netgear’s long-awaited EVA700 media player has achieved Intel Viiv certification.

We’ve now been waiting for what seems like eons for this player – previously sold under the DAVE700 name in the US. Netgear demonstrated the player to us back in June, but doesn’t seem very keen on actually releasing it.

The spokesman on the Netgear stand was very coy about the player, so we photographed it on the DLNA stand instead. We’ll bring you a full report on what the DNLA had to offer tomorrow.

The Viiv sticker was also to be seen on Linksys’ Draft-N router. We’re off to quiz them about that in a minute…

Is Draft-N actually selling?

Poor sales reports despite efforts to pre-certify Draft-N kit

Several sources in the Far East seem to be indicating that Draft-N wireless kits aren’t shifting as well as hoped.

Reports say that chipset makers taking fewer orders for the components used in Draft-N products by as much as a third.

This news shouldn’t be taken as a direct comment on the UK market, since most of the kits haven’t yet shipped in any quantity here. It also doesn’t tie in with the views of many networking vendors we’ve spoken to; the party line is, predictably, that the kits have been flying off US shelves.

Early adopters boosted the technology the other side of the pond with sales of around the two million mark during the late spring. However, sales over the summer seem to be a tiny fraction of those figures.

It’s no surprise to us that buyers seem to be holding off – we expect them to continue to do so. Most have stable 802.11g networks that are enough for most current needs. The fact Draft-N enables competent streaming of HD video isn’t yet a concern to most consumers.

Pre-certification planned

These rumours do add an intriguing backdrop to the Wi-Fi Alliance’s recent surprising announcement that it will ‘pre-certify’ kits based on the second draft version of the standard. Draft 2.0 will see the light of day early next year.

What is clear is that the organisation is under intense pressure from vendors. Pressure that the Wi-Fi Alliance, in turn, is passing on to the IEEE – the body responsible for creating the standard.

The approval process for 802.11n was originally supposed to be in early 2007. Almost everyone in the industry is now quoting 2008 as the time that ratification will finally happen.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has previously threatened to ignore the IEEE and push forward with its own interpretation of the standard. That’s unlikely, and will only become a serious threat if the IEEE can not get the required 75 per cent of approval by its members for 802.11n by the time the next draft hits the shelves.

D-Link launches DIR-635 router and other Draft-N kit

Also launches DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player



D-Link has shown us its range of Draft-N kit for the UK market.

The new range, the Rangebooster N 650 includes the DIR-635 router, DWA-645 PC Card DWA-547 PCI card and DWA-142 USB adapter (coming soon). The DAP-1353, a simple wireless access point, is also available.

Next month will see an ADSL version of the router launched, the DSL-2740. A Gigabit Ethernet version of the router will also be available in due course.

The company also introduced it's new media streamer, the DSM-520. It has HDMI and supports XviD and HD streaming up to 1080i - we're going to be testing it over the coming days.

Intel patches holes in Centrino

Leak in wireless drivers and software duly plugged



Concerns have risen about the security of Intel’s Centrino platform after Intel released a raft of updates to device drivers and ProSet wireless management software.

The fixes address several small issues. One prevents attacks via the Wi-Fi connection – even from other wireless-enabled devices while another prevents a would-be attacker from gaining control of the system. The latter issue was with the driver software. However, it’s worth noting that there are no known exploits which would have taken advantage of these vulnerabilities.

You can download the software from the link below but be warned, at 129MB it is rather large, something which has drawn criticism from the security community. The download does contain a completely new version of the software though.

The flaws do give slight resurgence to the continuing debate about just how secure Wi-Fi really is. On a corporate level companies are still often reluctant to deploy Wi-Fi networks because of security fears.

Download the patches here.

Netgear buys SkipJam

Networking giant makes movie into home automation



In a welcome respite from the raging debate about Draft-N wireless kit, Netgear has tied up a deal to acquire SkipJam Corp.

SkipJam produces integrated software for centralised control of entertainment kit in the home. The New York company’s technology enables automation of audio-visual kit and will allow other devices to be built into Netgear’s standard networking products.

Netgear clearly hopes to use SkipJam’s expertise in future generations of entertainment kit such as the MP101 digital music player and the non-UK DAVE700 streaming box.

Commenting on the acquisition, Patrick Lo, chairman and CEO of Netgear, said: “SkipJam has the unique software technology to become the platform for our multimedia product portfolio in the growing category of digital home entertainment and control.”

The agreement will cost Netgear a total of $9m (£4.8m), including an incentive package for the SkipJam engineering team, which Netgear wants to retain.

Networked entertainment and automation has recently sparked interest from several networking vendors, not least Linksys, which acquired Danish Kiss Technology for $61m in July 2005. Linksys makes no secret of its desire to expand its digital home offering.

Mobile WiMax base stations launched

Adaptix boxes will be firmware upgradeable



Apdaptix has announced mobile Wimax base stations reports Engadget. It may be slightly premature, but the boxes are compatible with IEEE 802.16e-2005 and firmware upgradeable for later developments.

Broadcom ships 100 millionth Wi-Fi chipset

54g biggest seller ever. Surprise, surprise



Chipset giant Broadcom has announced it has now shipped 100 million 54g Wi-Fi chipsets. 54g has unsurprisingly been the industry's buggest seller ever, but the figures still provide highlight just how mainstream wireless tech has now become. Note the figures are cited as '54g' and not '802.11g' so the company can include sales of the non-standard chipsets it has prepared in the past.

Broadcom was also the largest supplier of chipsets in the first quarter of 2006, with partners including Belkin, Buffalo, Linksys, Netgear and USRobotics. Several of these manufacturers have also taken Broadcom's new Draft-N Intensi-fi chipset. We've seen it in Netgear's RangeMax NEXT and Buffalo's Nfiniti kits.

Broadcom also partners with AMD on the notebook front as the pair battle against Intel's Centrino processor and wireless combo.

Draft-N in the office!

Our first Draft-N unit, the Buffalo Nfiniti, is here! Here's an over-stylised image!

MIMO and G

Cheap but not so cheerful

As if attempting to confuse and confound the consumer further, Belkin has sent us this brand new kit. It's branded G+ MIMO and is designed to fit in between Super-G and MIMO proper - what Belkin misleadingly calls Pre-N. The object of this kit is essentially that it uses a cheaper version of Airgo's MIMO chipset - therefore passing on the cost savings to the consumer. But this premise isn't quite true. Dixons has listed the ADSL version of the kit for £89.99 which isn't a lot less than the £106 Broadband Buyer is charging for full-fat MIMO. In any case, it only has two antennae, so it's not designed to have either the throughput or range of the full-blown version. Mind you, range is still pretty good (benchmarks to follow) so might be worth buying if you can find a cheap unit, or DSG put it on special...