The Cloud ist derzeit eine der heissesten WLAN-Firmen

FierceWiFi kürt die Top 15 für das Jahr 2006

Ben Frankel

Wahington DC, 08.06.06-16:36 - Das amerikanische Fachmagazin FierceWiFi hat am Donnerstag die Liste der 15 heißesten WLAN-Firmen für das Jahr 2006 veröffentlicht. Firmen wie Extricom, deren Produkte die WLAN-Implementierung vereinfachen, oder Intimac Systems, die Hausüberwachungssysteme anbieten, repräsentieren nach Einschätzung des Magazins einen Trend zu einfachen WiFi-Lösungen für die Industrie und die Endkunden. Und ein Anbieter wie Navini sei trotz fehlendem verabschiedetem 802.16e-Standard Vorreiter und Wegbereiter für mobile WIMAX-Lösungen. Weitere "Gewinner" sind Altair Semiconductor, Axerra Networks, Clearwire, FON, Fractus, MMC Technology, Network Chemistry, PicoChip, TeleCIS, Wavion sowie Wavesat.

Auch den britischen WLAN-Netzwerkbetreiber The Cloud (7.000 Hotspots in Deutschland, UK, Norwegen und Schweden) hat FierceWiFi auf seine Watch-List gesetzt, weil der Provider sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, Europas größtes und flexibelstes drahtloses Breitbandnetz aufzubauen. Über ein Roamingabkommen mit dem Aggregator Ipass können die Kunden von The Cloud mehr als 50.000 Hotspots in rund 160 Ländern weltweit nutzen. Man solle das Unternehmen und seine ähnlich gearteten Vereinbarungen mit anderen Hotspot-Betreibern im Auge behalten.

"Auch wenn zur Zeit niemand genau sagen kann, in welche Richtung sich der WLAN-Markt bewegt, gehen wir davon aus, dass unsere Top 15-Firmen bei den sich entwickelnden WiFi- und WIMAX-Techniken eine maßgebliche Rolle spielen werden", erklärt Chefredakteur Ben Frankel.

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FierceWiFi Announcing the 2006 Top 15

And the winners are: Altair Semiconductor, Axerra Networks, Clearwire, The Cloud, Extricom, FON, Fractus, Intamac Systems, MMC Technology, Navini, Network Chemistry, PicoChip, TeleCIS, Wavion and Wavesat.
 

Washington DC, June 8, 2006 - I'm excited to announce the winners of this year's annual Fierce 15, our list of the hottest, fiercest companies in the WiFi world for 2006. This year's winners differ a great deal in the technology they're developing, but they're all companies which should help to shape the still-evolving future of wireless communications.

This year, wireless broadband has come into its own, with WiFi and WIMAX solutions striding boldly ahead. Public WiFi networks are scaling up to previously unheard of dimensions, with hotspots proliferating rapidly in the U.S. and Europe. Carriers are looking seriously at WIMAX as a means of providing lower-cost backhaul. And equipment vendors are growing more sophisticated at providing infrastructure to support unified WiFi/WIMAX and VoIP implementations. All told, it's a great time to be a broadband wireless company.

And there's no better example of that than our Fierce 15 winners. Companies like Extricom, whose product simplifies WLAN implementation and Intimac Systems, which allows for digital monitoring of homes, are part of a larger movement towards making WiFi solutions more practical for consumers and industry.  And players like Navini, which is plunging ahead with mobile WIMAX solutions despite the lack of a final 802.16e standard, are blazing a trail for others to follow.

While no one knows exactly how the broadband wireless market will shake out, we're confident that the outstanding companies named in the Fierce 15 will play a critical role in the emergence of WiFi and WIMAX technologies. Over time, look for them to lead the way in the high-stakes race to ubiquitous wireless broadband coverage. And keep your eyes peeled--it may come sooner than you think. -Ben
 

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Altair Semiconductor
Based: Hod Hasharon, Israel
Founded: 2005
www.altair-semi.com

Why is it Fierce? Altair was founded 2005 by former Texas Instruments executives who previously helped found Libit Signal Processing, acquired in 1999 by TI for $365 million. Altair is a fabless semiconductor company working to develop silicon solutions which would allow seamless transition between networks based on WiFi and WIMAX technologies. The company probably won't bring its first Baseband chip to market next year, but it has the proven scientific savvy and management prowess to do so. The company appears to base its development plans on the notion that that the mobile version of WIMAX, when finalized and ratified, will offer cellular networks stiff competition based on price and performance.

What to look for: The faster issues relating to wireless broadband standard specifications and spectrum allocation are resolved, and as the economics of WIMAX deployment become clearer, the more appealing Altair's solution will be.

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Axerra Networks
Based: Tel Aviv, Israel
Founded: 2000
www.axerra.com

Why it is Fierce? Axerra is an innovative developer of circuit emulation (aka pseudo-wire) and service emulation solutions over packet access networks. The company's pseudo-wire solutions make it possible for different types of service providers to extend IP and legacy voice and data services over IP and MPLS networks. Axerra's technology allows these providers to convert any packet access network (including Carrier Ethernet, broadband wireless, cable HFC, xDSL, EPON/GPON, and more) into a full-service alternative to TDM access. The company's solutions thus offer providers greater operational flexibility and efficiency and the means to migrate to a single converged network.

What to look for: Telecoms pay about $20 billion a year for backhaul alone. Look for the company to lay claim to some of these dollars.

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Clearwire
Based: Kirkland, Washington
Founded: 1998 (spun off from Sierra Technologies)
www.clairmail.com

Why is it Fierce?  Being led by Craig McCaw is a good start. Before founding Clearwire, McCaw built McCaw Cellular Communications into the first nationwide mobile Carrier in the U.S., later selling the operations to AT&T in 1997 for $11.4 billion. The company provides WIMAX wireless broadband services using licensed spectrum. Clearwire offers broadband service in more than 200 cities and towns in the U.S., Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, and Mexico. Dozens of additional cities and towns on five continents have access to wireless broadband services through networks built by Clearwire's wholly owned subsidiary, NextNet Wireless. The latter company offers evidence of McCaw's vision: McCaw acquired Minneapolis-based NextNet Wireless in June 2004, making the company a Clearwire subsidiary. Founded in 1998, NextNet introduced the first non-line-of-sight plug-and-play system for delivering high-speed wireless Internet services.

What to look for: Clearwire hopes to raise about $400 in an IPO. Look for the company to use the funds to acquire more spectrum in the FCC's Auction 66, establishing itself as even a bigger player in wireless broadband.

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 The Cloud
Based: London
Founded: 2003
www.thecloud.net

Why is it Fierce? The Cloud is Europe's leading WiFi network operator, offering access to the Internet at more than 7,000 Hotspot locations in the UK, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. The Cloud installs and manages Carrier-grade wireless networks in public locations. The company's neutral, multi-service Provider platform allows mobile and broadband operators, ISPs and game console companies to offer a fully-branded WLAN access to their customers. The Cloud also offers sector-specific solutions.

What to look for: The Cloud says the company's vision is to build Europe's largest and most versatile wireless broadband network for consumers and companies. In April the company signed a Roaming agreement with iPass, which offers more than 50,000 wireless hot spots in 160 countries. Look for The Cloud to reach similar agreements with other hot spot operators.

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Extricom
Based: Glil Yam, Heraliz, Israel
Founded: 2002
www.extricom.com

Why is it Fierce? A business interested in deploying a WLAN would typically prepare itself for the costs of repeated RF site surveys, cell planning, and continuous maintenance--and brace itself for the less-than-optimal coverage, low capacity, Security problems and other problems associated with WLANs. Extricom's technology helps the enterprise avoid many of these, as well as related burdens. The company's solution replaces the cellular AP topology approach with what it calls a "blanket" of continuous coverage covering the entire enterprise. The key? The solution uses each WLAN channel everywhere while preventing any co-channel interference. In addition to reducing costs and simplifying deployment, the company's solutions allow easy coexistence of real-time, bandwidth-intensive voice and data services on the same system without degrading capacity, coverage, seamless mobility or Security.

What to look for: As more and more enterprises adopt WLANs, look for businesses to warm up to Extricom's centralized, switch-directed network architecture

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FON
Based: Madrid, Spain
Founded: 2005
en.fon.com

Why is it Fierce? This Spanish company is either a throwback to the 1960s or a harbinger of things to come. Either way, it has an intriguing business model which should be carefully watched to see whether it succeeds of fails. FON has a straightforward proposition: Subscribers to FON (or, as the company prefers, those who join the “FON movement”) allow other people to use their Intenrnet connection. In exchange, they get free access to WiFi networks of other “Foneros” (but only if they want to: Those who do not want to offer access to other people pay $2 a day for the service).

What to look for: The number of ISPs willing to go along with FON's from-the-bottom-up approach. Large ISPs would probably decline and block access to their networks to Foneros, but smaller ISPs may well decide that cooperation may bring them income which otherwise they would not see.

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Fractus
Based: Barcelona, Spain
Founded: 1999
www.fractus.com

Why is it Fierce? A fractal is a geometric pattern which is repeated at ever-smaller scales so that each is a smaller copy of the whole. Fractal shapes are typically self-similar in that segments look like each other and like the whole object and are independent of scale. Lightning and snowflakes are but two examples. Nature offers fractal forms because they provide structural efficiency. Fractus applies the space-filling and multiple-scale properties of fractal geometries in the development of antennas for mobile telecommunications devices and infrastructure. Relying on fractal geometry, Fractus produces maximal antenna performance with minimum antenna space.

What to look for: The three major benefits of fractal antennas are reduced size, enhanced performance and multi-band functionality. Look for more hand-held and portable device manufacturers to integrate the Spanish company's technology in their gear.

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Intamac Systems
Based: Northampton, U.K.
Founded: 2000
www.intamac.com

Why is it Fierce? Most people, when they talk of the “digital home,” refer to the ability of various (mostly entertainment-related) devices around the house--TVs, VCRs, DVDs, PCs, laptops and perhaps cell phones, to share video and audio contents. For Intamac, the digital home means turning the average house into an intelligent home, a home which is safer and more convenient for the whole family but especially for those most in need of added convenience and safety: the old, the young, the disabled and the infirm. The company's solutions offer Internet monitoring and control of everything in the home to make it safer--alarms, flood, fire, burglary, power failure, physical threat and door-step aggression. The solutions also make the home easier to live in, as it monitors garage doors, cooking appliances, medical equipment, infirm family members and more. It also allows for remote monitoring: You can be alerted at work if an elderly relative has fallen in the bathroom, or a parent working in the office can monitor a baby-sitter back home.

What to look for: As more parents work and need to keep an eye on their kids remotely, and as the population ages, the digital monitoring and controlling of homes will become even more in demand. Intamac's product fits the times.

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MMC Technology
Based: Seoul, Korea
Founded: 1997
www.mmctech.com/eng/

Why is it Fierce? This Korean company is an example of the ABC (Always Best Connected) concept. Very much in keeping with the times, its solutions aim to offer easy access to the Internet any time, anywhere. MMC Technology also emphasizes wireless network solutions with better integration capability to wired networks. It has developed a local area communication system which includes WLAN and terminal units for broadband subscribers as well as WiBro/WIMAX products. The company is now working on developing an intelligent home network for VoIP, IPTV and robot services.

What to look for: Convergence, synergy, integration, ease of use, seamlessness--these are the key characteristics of a successful approach to communication solutions, and MMC Technology develops its products with them in mind. We look for the company's gear to make waves this year.

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Navini
Based: Richardson, Texas
Founded: 2000
www.navini.com

Why is it Fierce? A few weeks ago Navini Networks began shipping its Ripwave MX BTS 802.16e dual-mode base station, the industry's first. The first products are in 3.5GHz, and they will be followed by products in other bands during the next three months. The base station is software-upgradeable to 802.16e. This feature, together with other members of this product family which are already available and which support both the Navini pre-WIMAX and WIMAX networks, allow the company to claim that it fully future-proofs any operator deploying its products today. Navini has been active in pre-802.16e from the start. Unwired Australia uses Navini equipment to offer the world's largest portable broadband wireless network, with more than 50,000 subscribers. As we wait for the 802.16e standard to be finalized, the company's solutions today have all the attributes of an 802.16e plug-and-play portable broadband system, allowing customers to have broadband access wherever they are.

What to look for: The 802.16e standard is not yet complete, but when it is, Navini will start the mobile WIMAX race with a running start.

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Network Chemistry
Based: Redwood City, California
Founded: 2002
www.networkchemistry.com

Why is it Fierce? In wired networks, communication travels along copper wire pairs or optical cables. In wireless networks communication travels in open air, utterly exposed to any one and subject to environmental changes and obstacles. The Security and quality of wireless communication is thus more difficult to achieve and maintain. Network Chemistry's proprietary technology offers a comprehensive wireless threat protection solution which integrates with enterprise network, WLAN, and Security systems. The company's family of products offers wireless protection across the enterprise: 24/7 wireless monitoring and intrusion prevention in and around enterprise facilities; protection of mobile devices carried by company employees on the road; network-based vulnerability management offering rogue wireless device detection and remediation; and a laptop-based analyzer for automating site surveys, Security assessments, and incident response. The company also offers free tools, among them the Network Chemistry Wireless Threat Index and more.

What to look for: WLANs are making their way into Security-sensitive businesses and organizations where, until recently, they were banned for Security reasons. Network Chemistry's top-flight Security solutions go a long way toward alleviating some of the concerns associated with wireless communication, and as such will find a wider market in the future.

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picoChip
Based: Bath, U.K.
Founded: 2000
www.picochip.com

Why is it Fierce? picoChip is truly a cutting-edge company, with its multi-core DSP setting the standard for Signal processing performance and affordability. The picoArray is a massively parallel, MIMD architecture linking different types of processing elements. The company says that the processing power of the picoArray beats any of today's leading DSPs by a factor of more than 10. And more than 90 percent of this computing power can be used in real systems with the complex mix of control and datapath processing. The PC 102 picoArray also has substantial amounts of general-purpose MIPs to handle the complex and fast-changing control operations of modern wireless systems, which must adapt rapidly to channel conditions and service demands. The company also offers complete software reference designs for WIMAX and UMTS and last month showed its reference design for 802.16e-2005.

What to look for: picoChip has been ahead of the pack on several fronts and there is every reason to believe it will continue to occupy that position in the future. The company has astutely positioned itself at the intersection of two growth trends--WIMAX and the Asian communication market. 

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TeleCIS
Based: Santa Clara, California
Founded: 2000
www.telecis.com

Why is it Fierce? TeleCIS was formed to produce chipsets for the WLAN market and the company has a portfolio including WiFi, OFDM, and smart antenna technologies. More recently, the company turned to developing a multi-protocol wireless SoC for broadband wireless. Its WIMAX chip offers advanced Signal processing, low power and small size, making it suitable for both  fixed indoor CPE and for equipping  portable devices with wireless broadband capabilities. The company is now developing its WIMAX Mobile plus WiFi chip, which also supports smart antennas. It will provide WIMAX mobility to small mobile devices.

What to look for: Fixed WIMAX is here, and mobile WIMAX will come soon; TeleCIS is well positioned to play a major part in the 802.16e milieu.

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Wavion
Based: Yoqne'am-Illit, Israel
Founded: 2000
www.wavionnetworks.com

Why is it Fierce? Wavion is showing a spatially adaptive AP aiming to optimize outdoor metro WiFi, with the added advantage of not having to make any changes to standard WiFi clients. Wavion's APs use custom-designed ASICs and embedded software to leverage a total of six antennas and six radio transceivers, resulting in increased range, coverage, capacity and scalability. The key to Wavion's solution: Digital beamforming and Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA). Digital beamforming exploits the multiple signals received and transmitted by the antenna array and the multipath phenomenon to improve Signal quality. SDMA enhances beamforming by providing a higher level of processing enabling simultaneous downlink communications with multiple users over the same frequency channel. Wavion's SDMA technology quadruples downlink capacity: It creates up to four downlinks to four different users simultaneously, transmitting one data stream per user. Each stream is "beamed" by means of beamforming in such a way that the Signal is maximized at the target user's location and minimized at the other users' locations.

What to look for: Whether Wavion can avoid Vivato's fate. Vivato, a technology-savvy company with a similar product, went belly up a couple of years ago, proving that good technology and sound equipment are not enough when it comes to wide area wireless deployments. Price (Vivato's was too high), system design, flexibility and adaptability are as important.

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Wavesat
Based: Dorval, Quebec, Canada
Founded: 1993
www.wavesat.com

Why is it Fierce? This Canadian fabless semiconductor developer of WIMAX network chips and development tools has the distinction of being to first company in the world to release a WIMAX chip. The company has three more recent distinctions: First, together with Redline Communications, Wavesat recently demonstrated a portable WIMAX network using interoperable WIMAX products; second, the company announced the next step in its WIMAX Evolutive strategy with its upcoming OFDM basic mobility chip, code-named Shark, targeting WIMAX nomadic and portable applications; third, the company has been named Most Innovative Wireless Broadband Company of the Year at the 2006 Wireless Broadband Innovation (WBI) Awards.

What to look for: The finalization of the 802.16e standard. Wavesat offers an 802.16 PHY chipset which addresses problems associated with legacy BWA implementation, solves the LOS limitations and contributes to lower infrastructure and CPE cost.

 

Nachricht eingestellt: 09.06.2006 - 01:23

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