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Testing Municipal Networks

Novarum, today launched a consulting and testing service for municipal wireless networks, integrators, service providers, carriers and municipalities.

Novarum is conducting an ongoing survey of wireless networks in North America using standard client equipment and commercially proven tools and methodology. The Novarum Wireless Broadband Review will provide objective information on the performance, service availability and ease-of-use of next generation wireless networks based on real world testing.

Today they announced the immediate availability of the first installment of its review covering six cities for Q3 2006, based on the firm’s current research.

“Novarum will provide the first standardized testing of wireless networks from a user’s perspective,” said Ken Biba, Novarum’s Co-Founder and Managing Director. “We are cutting through the industry hype and gathering data about these networks to help cities, service providers and vendors make informed decisions about the deployment of wireless networks. We will help them evaluate wireless networking technology alternatives and validate the performance of existing networks.”

Novarum’s ongoing multi-city survey evaluates the performance and availability of networks based on Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G cellular technologies. The Q3 2006 edition of the review is available now and includes reports on wireless services in Anaheim, Galt, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Cupertino California.

They use IxChariot to measure packet loss and network performance. Initial Novarum findings for their first six cities include:

Metro Wi-Fi, on average, was more available than true 3G and delivered twice the performance of 3G data services
Cellular data services are more mature, easier to use and deliver a more consistent user experience than Metro Wi-Fi today
The EarthLink Feather service in Anaheim was the best Metro Wi-Fi Service in Q3
The HSDPA cellular service in Santa Clara provided the best 3G data service in Q3

The Novarum Wireless Broadband Review is available on a subscription basis or as a custom set of reports. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and was founded by wireless industry experts Phil Belanger and Ken Biba who have held leadership positions with innovative wireless and networking companies Xircom, Aironet, Wayport, Vivato and BelAir Networks.

WiFiPlanet reports on their results. WiFiNetNews says two other companies do similar work; Unplugged Cities a Minneapolis owned and operated Internet services company, and Uptown Services a Boulder, Colorado, company, offers WiVerifi. Using a notebook PC with GPS and custom software, Uptown gathers performance data every 100 feet across the advertised service area, according to PC World. Parameters include coverage, data throughput, delay, packet loss, and loss of entire files. Testing takes one to five days.

MetroFi is building a wireless network for the City of Portland. It will provide free citywide Internet access for people within the city limits (with banner advertising). The city put out a bid for monitoring and testing services last week.

Caleb Phillips, a member of PersonalTelco’s NetworkOperationsTeam posted the Unwirepdx Testing RFP and is planning to bid on the project with PSU computer science professor Bart Massey and some of Bart’s students.

MetroFi is still testing its service. Parts of the city are expected to be online by the end of the year.

In related news, Maravedis has surveyed country regulators in 100 of the world’s largest economies to provide a comprehensive list of BWA/WiMAX spectrum license holders and technical regulations worldwide. ClearSpectrum is the result of that research and is composed of two separate databases: the Licensing Database and the Technical Database (PDF).

SkyPilot’s Sky Extender uses an eight sector switched antenna array for backhaul (pdf). Unlike its competitors, it uses synchronous protocols to create a 5-GHz directional and deterministic mesh. Each of the sectors is configured as a point-to-point link with TDD and GPS used to manage coordination between sectors. The Sky Connector is their high gain client.

Cellular Experts’ software (above) can ride on top of a GIS so that propagation patterns can be seen against actual geography. You can see the impedances to propagation, such as buildings, roads, bridges, etc. Beyond the visible impedance of a structure, the software can account for the building materials that comprise the structures and adjust the propagation pattern to reflect the nature of those materials. For example, brick may impact UHF signals differently than concrete or wood. The result is a more accurate projection of the propagation pattern.

Related DailyWireless stories include; Does Google’s Mountain View Network Fold Under Pressure? and Municipal/Community WiFi Interference?