Wireless mesh networking

Wireless mesh networking: an old idea that is finally emerging. Formerly developed for military applications, wireless mesh networking found its way when using 802.11 standard and some clever routing algorithms. Key demand is emerging for infrastructure deployments in metro, public-safety, campus, and enterprise markets.

Two big trends for products in these markets: built-in multiple radios (to overcome scalability and to reach more predictable network throughput and lower latency; each radio serving specific access or backhaul requirements) and modularity in order to upgrade and include future technologies (802.xy standard evolution). Up to now, only a group star-ups were active on this market. Nortel, Motorola and Cisco are joining them, highlighting larger vendors are now entering the game. Nortel is partnering with PacketHop; Motorola has bought pioneer MeshNetworks, and Cisco has purchased Airespace. Is the market mature? Difficult to say, as huge challenges still remain. But wireless mesh networking is at least a good market opportunity to explore.