Wireless Mesh Network Solution

Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a secure, and highly scalable Wi-Fi solution that delivers low-cost wireless broadband for outdoor or expansive indoor areas. Using an enhanced public WLAN architecture which extends the reach of WLAN technology via wireless backhaul, this new technology addresses the market requirements for standards-based networks that are highly scalable and cost effective, offering end users secure, seamless roaming anytime, anywhere. WMN makes outdoor Wi-Fi viable and is designed to enable a new revenue opportunity for service providers or to enable enterprises to extend their private WLANs to outdoor areas.

Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network Solution features:

• A cost-effective method for extending WLAN coverage more broadly into business and end user markets.
• A secure platform for WLAN access that is highly flexible in terms of capacity, coverage, and availability.
• The latest security standards to protect user access and the network by providing security on the wireless transit links between access points.
• Self-organization and auto-configuration capability, and the ability to increase capacity, coverage, and/or availability by simply deploying more Wireless Access Point 7220s or 7215s.
• The most cost-effective way to deploy wireless broadband services without requiring investment in expensive radio spectrum.
• The ability to leverage consumer devices (wireless handsets, personal communications devices, etc.) that are inexpensive, readily available, and already exist in large numbers in the market.
• The use of wireless links for backhaul, which keeps the amount of new or additional Ethernet cabling or other backhaul facilities required to a minimum. In the case of service providers, this means a reduction in the ongoing costs of leasing facilities for data transport.
• The ability to expand WLAN coverage to areas where network limitations or cost made it prohibitive with other solutions.

The Wireless Mesh Network features three main elements -- Access points, Wireless Gateways and the Wireless Mesh Management platform.

• The Access points perform client access and traffic distribution functions. The dual-radio APs feature a unique inter-AP wireless transit capability with adaptive wireless mesh routing. Client access is 802.11b/g in the 2.4 GHz spectrum and transit is carried over 802.11a in the 5GHz spectrum. Two models are available:
  
  
  • The Access Point 7220 can be deployed indoors or outdoors and features a rugged, weather-proof housing with integrated smart antennas. A Duo-mode option allows two 7220s to be co-located and cross-connected for a 4-radio co-coordinated configuration that doubles radio resources for both transit and access links to improve throughput and lower latency.
  • The Access Point 7215 is a cost-effective indoor access point that can be deployed for Mesh-based broadband wireless service, or as a seamless indoor extension for enterprise deployments. The WAP 7215 can connect to the network via a wired Ethernet connection or wireless transit link with other Mesh APs.
• Wireless Gateways logically connect the Mesh network IP Subnet(s) to the enterprise wired network, or service provider's distribution network, and are responsible for routing, mesh transit link security, stateful firewalling, user data path security, and wireless user mobility.
  
  
  • The Wireless Gateway 7250 features security acceleration hardware, dual 10/100 Ethernet interfaces with expansion slots, and support for up to 90 Access points.
  • The Wireless Gateway 7240 features dual 10/100 Ethernet interfaces and supports up to 10 Access points.
• The Enterprise Network Management System (ENMS) is an enhanced version of Nortel's ubiquitous Enterprise Network Management System -- a common management platform shared among a wide breadth of Nortel wireless and wired networking products. The system provides a centralized utility for monitoring and managing wireless mesh network operations including:
  
  
  • Discovery and visualization of Access points, Wireless Gateways and Wireless Bridges
  • Visualization of mesh routes
  • AP status monitoring, event logging and alarms
  • Fault management, including capturing and logging of traps and faults
  • Real-time performance metrics logging including utilization, error rates
  • An intuitive user interface for monitoring and reporting.