The first member of the new product family is the Tropos 5320 outdoor MetroMesh router, a dual-band Wi-Fi mesh router. Other products in the MetroMesh router family will include multi-radio routers combining a variety of wireless technologies including MIMO, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz, 3G/4G cellular and more. Tropos Networks also announced the Tropos Metro Wireless Development (TMWD) program, which enables carriers, service providers, spectrum license holders and others to add custom radio interfaces to Tropos MetroMesh routers.

 

Tropos said that its 5320, which features 802.11a and 802.11b/g radios, is a mesh router that can dynamically create multi-band paths through a mesh network. Both radios can be used simultaneously to form both client and mesh connections. The Tropos 5320 is completely interoperable with the entire family of Tropos MetroMesh routers. Tropos also noted that it has enhanced its MetroMesh OS, which is embedded in every Tropos MetroMesh router, including the ability to identify dynamically the combination of links within the mesh that forms the highest performing end-to-end data path from clients to the wired connection to the Internet, even if those links are in different frequency bands.

 

The enhancement for metro-scale wireless mesh networks allows service providers and municipalities to use spectrum in the 5 GHz band with the flexibility of dynamically shifting to the inherently more reliable 2.4 GHz band for mesh connections in areas where poor 5 GHz propagation causes performance or reliability problems, the company said. "Mesh vendors without significant outdoor deployment experience throw a bunch of radios in a box and think they're done," said Saar Gillai, Vice President of Engineering for Tropos Networks. "Providing affordable capacity in wireless mesh networks is less about the number of radios in the system and more about the efficiency with which the system uses the spectrum those radios access.

 

That's why Tropos has focused, and continues to focus, on enhancing our mesh protocols to make the most efficient use of spectrum, no matter how many radios are in the system." Tropos Networks also announced the Tropos Metro Wireless Development (TMWD) program, designed to enable carriers, service providers, spectrum license holders and others to contract with Tropos to add custom radio interfaces to Tropos MetroMesh routers. The Tropos 5320 will begin shipping in October.