Alvarion Introduces a New Converged Wimax Wi-Fi Solution

December 07, 2006

Alvarion Ltd. introduced two new converged solutions combining Wi-Fi functionality with both WiMAX and pre-WiMAX products. The BreezeMAX WI2 and BreezeACCESS WI2 enable carriers to capture additional revenues, while moving toward advanced Personal Broadband services, providing a powerful cost-effective, converged network that combines high performance Wi-Fi portability for IEEE 802.11b/g devices with WiMAX quality-of-service (QoS).

Each WI2 solution consists of an outdoor Wi-Fi access point with integrated power module capable of connecting to various commercial power sources, either a BreezeMAX or BreezeACCESS VL unit for backhaul and network management software.

As a fully ruggedized, all-outdoor Wi-Fi access point solution for hot zone applications, service providers now deploying WiMAX networks can extend their BreezeMAX networks in 2.3, 2.5 or 3.X GHz and BreezeACCESS VL networks in 5 GHz with Wi-Fi hot spot coverage. The result is full support in a single broadband network for both WiMAX users and subscribers using standard Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, PDAs, smart-phones, and portable gaming devices.

"Wi-Fi supported by WiMAX QoS answers the many demands of both public and private sector including public broadband access, traffic management, video surveillance, connecting city offices, homeland security, as well as growing number of Personal Broadband applications," said Rudy Leser, Alvarion's corporate vice president of strategy and marketing. "And with both WI2 products, existing broadband wireless operators can now leverage their current infrastructure to capture consumer and business/government segments for bandwidth-intensive applications in a mobile environment. This gives them an early market advantage towards mobile broadband services and the offering of Personal Broadband."