Ruckus Wireless today announced the commercial availability of a wireless bridge for connection to city-wide Wi-Fi networks.
The Ruckus MetroFlex is an 802.11b/g wireless access gateway that uses the company’s “smart” antenna array technology. Four horizontally and two vertically polarized arrays connect through a high-power amplifier. The integrated smart-MIMO antenna technology can “beam” a signal dynamically, enhancing range and reducing interference.
System software automatically selects the combination of antennas to yield the “best possible RF path” at any given time. Other features include WPA PSK wireless security, 802.1x authentication, dynamic channel selection and Tropos Networks’ Metro Compatible Extensions Specification (TMCX) program. TMCX specifies use of WPA2/802.11i for security as a minimum, and implementation of WME or WMM services for QoS.
The company claims that the Ruckus MetroFlex system is “the most sensitive and reliable in-home Wi-Fi receiver in the world”
Ruckus Wireless claims it has demonstrated the ability in rural environments to sustain “above 5 Mbps at 1 km [0.62 miles] away from the nearest Wi-Fi node”. According to the company, the device is capable of receiving signals down to -100 dBm.
The MetroFlex system is being deployed by several metro-scale Wi-Fi providers throughout the U.S., and will be resold by Expressnets, a customer premise equipment (CPE) supplier and systems integrator. The Ruckus MetroFlex is priced at US $129.00.
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