TechWatch: Alvarion wires India for wireless

TechWatch takes a closer look at some of Israel's leading WiMAX and WiFi players.

By MATTHEW KRIEGER
Tech Watch 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Tech Watch 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Following all of the recent news from Alvarian - one of the world's leading WiMAX providers, this week's TechWatch takes a closer look at some of Israel's other leading WiMAX and WiFi players, demonstrating that the country's entire contingency of wireless companies, and not just one company, is continuing to push its innovative solutions into the global market at breakneck speed. In 2006, Alvarion deployed Airtel's first WiMAX network across major cities of India for service enterprise customers. Based on their experience, Alvarion was awarded this expansion order. Airtel plans to provide additional enterprise customers the advantages of the technology by offering last mile connectivity for MPLS/VPN/Internet leased lines and other data services. Alvarion, based in Tel Aviv, is the largest WiMAX pure player, ensuring customers' long term success with fixed and mobile solutions for the full range of frequency bands. Based on its Open WiMAX strategy, the company offers superior wireless broadband infrastructure and an all-IP best-of-breed ecosystem in cooperation with its strategic partners. Alvarion boasts over 200 commercial WiMAX deployments worldwide. DesignArt Networks, based in Ra'anana, unveiled this month a groundbreaking solution to the most pressing issue of broadband wireless deployments - the staggering cost and operational complexity of backhaul. DesignArt's highly integrated system-on-chip (SoC) platform architecture integrates high-capacity backhaul capability with standards-compliant WiMAX and LTE base station functionality, delivering zero-cost backhaul solutions. The company also announced its first product, the DAN2400 open SoC platform for WiMAX base station and relay designs. The DAN2400 is an open WiMAX SoC platform, based on a software-centric, purposebuilt multi-core architecture, designed for high-performance, carrier-grade networks. The DAN2400 provides a complete single-chip PHY and MAC solution for mobile WiMAX base station designs. It integrates a powerful DSP controlling a 6-channel smart antenna module, an embedded high-capacity network processor and several control plane CPUs to enable the most compact design architecture for any type of WiMAX base or relay station on the market. Runcom Technologies Ltd, based in Ra'anana, unveiled the first Internet TV Set Top Box (STB) at last week's WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2008. The new WiMAX-TV solution integrates, for the first time, all the necessary components to quickly launch a mobile Internet TV service, from advanced encoding and streaming capabilities to middleware embedded in a HD-grade STB. WiMAX-TV solution is fully integrated with a range of third party technologies such as content management, content security and new-generation CDN's Peer Station. WiMAX-TV targets service operators who need sound and economic basis for their innovative Mobile Wireless Internet video services.