PUBLIC WI-FI NETWORKS

Today's wireless access controllers are ill-equipped to meet the demands of tomorrow's public Wi-Fi networks. Based on software architectures and general purpose processing platforms, these highly distributed devices were designed to meet the requirements of a small number of [or typically just one] lightly utilized hot-spots. As public wireless networks are deployed to create seamlessly interconnected regional hot-spots that potentially span the length and breadth of a city, so the requirements of the wireless access controller fundamentally change.

The Wi-Fi access controller must now provide centralized aggregation of thousands of users, potentially spanning hundreds of wireless access points. Moreover, the access controller must be capable of delivering augmented network services such as those already planned for the DSL marketplace. These include tiered IP classes of service and session-level bandwidth on demand. Within the public wireless arena, these differentiated service offerings may be employed for both 'home' and 'roaming' users to deliver quality of service guarantees to subscribed customers while providing only best effort, walled-garden content to visitors.

As a platform specifically designed for edge aggregation of subscriber services, net.com's SCREAM^® is the logical choice for the wireless access controller component of an emerging public wireless LAN infrastructure.