Phil Belanger Aligning Infrastructure and Applications Subscribe to Newsletter Tell a Friend Print this Page 06/06/2007 Setting Appropriate Expectations for Citywide Wireless-Network Performance Novarum presented the second “Wireless Networks User Experience Roundtable” at Digital Cities in Chicago on the afernoon of May 22nd. Our goal with this session was to agree on or define more precisely some terminology that we can use to describe and compare these networks. At both of these roundtables so far, we have had wide-ranging discussions about the capabilities of citiywide wireless networks. How well do they really work? What applications do they support? And there was also a lot of dicsussion about problems we have encountered using the early metro Wi-Fi networks. There was general agreement that we would all benefit from using a common set of terms to describe these networks more precisely. The ambiguity in terminology can lead to unmet expectations. For example: What is “coverage”? If the contract for a citywide wireless network requires 95% coverage within the city limits, what does that really mean? How do you know if the network meets that requirement? Is 95% coverage a reasonable requirement to begin with? These are not simple questions to answer. It is important to start by asking what types of applications you are trying to support. Is it indoor or outdoor coverage? What type of wireless client is using the network? RFPs and contracts for citywide networks need more precise language to define these requirements. A network infrastructure designed to support public safety applications may deliver 95% coverage to a high-powered Wi-Fi client with high-gain antennas operating outdoors. That same infrastructure will likely not deliver good coverage for residential broadband, which requires indoor coverage to a low cost Wi-Fi router. The requirements for the network must be clear from the outset — in the RFP — or else expectations of the various stakeholders are likely to get out of sync. We will use this forum to share some of the output and continue the discussions we started at the Digital Cities Wireless-Networks User Experience Roundtable and also share some of our experiences testing citywide wireless networks from the user’s point of view for the Novarum Wireless Broadband Review. Please join in the conversation and post your comments! Wireless veteran Phil Belanger is co-principal at Novarum, a strategic consulting firm assessing the performance of citywide wireless networks. He and the Novarum team chair the Wireless Networks User Experience Roundtable at the W2i Digital Cities Convention. back Related Items: • Beaverton, OR • EarthLink Scaling Back, Focuses Muni Wi-Fi Effort • Spaniards Ask, Is Wireless Internet a Private Business or Universal Right? Comments No records were found. Post new comment: Only registered users can add comments. Please Log-in

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