Network Features and Products

Network Features and Products
Traditional wireless solutions typically attempt to create a mobile broadband network by overlaying some
IP equipment onto a circuit-switched, voice-centric system. An ad hoc peer-to-peer network offers an endto-
end, IP-based, packet-switched, mesh architecture that mirrors the wired Internet's architecture and its
resulting advantages. In peer-to-peer technology, the users are the network in that they add mobile
routers and repeaters (or picocells) to the network infrastructure.
Because users carry much of the network with them, network capacity and coverage is dynamically
shifted to accommodate changing user patterns. As people congregate and create pockets of high
demand, they also create additional routes for each other, thus enabling access to network capacity
through neighboring APs via multihopping. Users will automatically hop away from congested routes and
APs to less congested routes and network APs. This permits the network to dynamically and
automatically balance capacity and increase network utilization.
The Advantages of Ad Hoc Peer-to-Peer Networks
Ad hoc peer-to-peer networks offer a number of exciting advantages for new market entrants or
municipally owned and operated networks. First, the permanent, fixed components such as APs and
wireless routers are small and unobtrusive relative to the cell towers found in third-generation (3G)
architectures. This provides the advantage of much less expensive deployment both in terms of physical
plant and legal issues (leasing roof rights, for example). The time needed to deploy service in a given
market is also greatly reduced.
Secondly, when enough subscriber devices are present in a given area, the reach of a network is
instantly and inexpensively increased. By virtue of using a subscriber device as a router or repeater, the
service provider is spared the expense of APs and wireless routers. Furthermore, a network is
established among subscriber devices where there is no intelligent access point (IAP) or wireless router
to connect the subscriber devices to the Internet or other networks.[10]
In ad hoc peer-to-peer mobile architecture, all nodes in the network, including subscriber devices, act as
routers and repeaters for other subscribers in the network. This enables users to hop between any
number of devices in the network to achieve the desired connection. As a result, user devices can also
act as wireless routers. That is, they can act as routers and repeaters for other users. This increases
network robustness while reducing infrastructure deployment costs. Ad hoc peer-to-peer networks make
it easy for two people to directly share files, e-mail, music, video, or voice calls. Network infrastructure is
not needed. Therefore, users can form high-speed voice and data networks anywhere, anytime. Instead
of wireless operators subsidizing the cost of user devices (handsets, for example), users actually
subsidize and help deploy the network for the operator.