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All of the wireless LAN and WAN which EEI has installed are based upon a technology which had it's inception in the military - namely spread spectrum technology. Spread spectrum is a method of communicating via radio which carries with it a high inherent privacy. It is also very resistant to interference. Indeed, it resists interference so well that the FCC has authorized bands of frequencies for which no specific user license is required.
EEI is an independent company, and therefore free to use the best equipment available for a particular application. Over the past six years we have worked with many different equipment vendors.
Spread spectrum technology is available for both indoor and outdoor use.
INDOOR: In this application one or more "Access Points" are connected to hub or switch positions of the wired Ethernet. The radio portion of each Access Point would create a radio-cell of a few hundred feet radius (depending upon the construction material of the building) within which appropriate "Wireless Adapters" could be used to connect PC's or laptops into the network. By judicious location of Access Points it is possible to achieve any desired coverage area. Suitable equipment is available for either 3 megabit/sec or 11 megabit/sec operation. Equipment designed to the 8.02.11a specification has started to appear which allows higher speed operation (40 megabit/sec or higher). A wider bandwidth can be achieved by installation of redundant Access Points, which then share the load on a packet-by-packet basis. Further detail.
EXAMPLE: A school which has an asbestos problem would be a logical place to install an indoor wireless network, in that it would minimize or eliminate disturbance of the asbestos.
OUTDOOR: In this application wireless equipment is connected to outdoor antennas in order to connect computer networks in separate buildings. creating a Wide Area Network (WAN). This approach has been used to good effect in order to obtain higher speeds and lower cost than is usually found with rented T1 circuits; or lower costs than usually found with dedicated fiber links. Other situations occur in which just one, or a few outlying buildings need to be connected to the main network.
Further detail.
EXAMPLE: It is not uncommon for the Field House to get overlooked when installing fiber between buildings. Wireless provides what is usually a cost-effective solution to this problem.
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