I Want My Metro Wi-Fi

Making the Most of Metro Wi-FI Networks from Home

The Meteoric Rise of Metro Wi-Fi Networks Driven by Wi-Fi Economics

Over the past few years there has been dramatic growth in the number of metro Wi-Fi networks being deployed. The market is still in the early stages, but it is clear that many more cities and service providers will embark on metro Wi-Fi projects. Although the 802.11 standard was initially intended as a short range indoor technology, the tremendous success of Wi-Fi and the availability of low cost client devices led to this expanded use of the technology. Early metro Wi-Fi networks have already demonstrated that the technology will work on a city-wide scale.

Wi-Fi networks deliver enough bandwidth to support multiple applications and most metro Wi-Fi networks can support several different applications with different security and Quality of Service (QoS) policies on the same physical network. Typically a network is installed to support a single application and then grows to support additional applications and services over time.

Clearly one of the most important applications for city wide Wi-Fi networks is residential broadband. Service providers and cities are using unlicensed Wi-Fi to deliver broadband to the home as an alternative to DSL or broadband over cable. Wi-Fi is an attractive broadband solution because the infrastructure cost is lower. It is not necessary to bring a wire to each subscriber and Wi-Fi uses unlicensed frequencies, so it is also lower cost than wireless broadband based on cellular technology.

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