Nortel Networks announced plans to trial a new public wireless LAN architecture aimed at lowering the costs of backhaul links by 70%. The new technology, which will be tested by MIT and BT, is an outgrowth of ‘peer-to-peer’ and ‘ad hoc’ networking research at Nortel Networks Ottawa Wireless Technology Lab. The new public wireless LAN architecture includes a peer-to-peer access point architecture – with smart antennas, integrated routers, and adaptive routing and security capabilities – to backhaul data wirelessly to wired broadband networks. This minimizes the need for expensive wired backhaul connections like T1 lines. One of BT’s leading enterprise customers will test the technology. The MIT Media Lab will also set-up a trial network.
Nortel Networks Tests WLAN Mesh
Share this article
Help others discover this reporting.
Explore More
From the Graveyard
You just read about Nortel Networks. One of the companies whose work it now carries:
Promatory Communications built ATM and IP service switching. What became of it?
Promatory Communications brought ATM and IP service switching to Telecom. That work was distinctive enough to lead to its acquisition by Nortel Networks for US$778M. The standalone name now passes into the archive — but the team and technology continue inside Nortel Networks today. One of 430 names here whose work outlived the company.
From the Technology Graveyard
You just read about Wi-Fi. Here is what it replaced:
Wireless USB (UWB) served 2005–2010. What ultimately replaced it?
Wireless USB (UWB) carried USB over ultrawideband radio (3.1-10.6 GHz) at short range, spreading signals across a huge bandwidth at low power for cable-free peripherals. Its job passed to Wi-Fi — but the problem it solved, and the ideas it proved, live on in what replaced it. The standard rests here in the archive. One of 198 technologies here that opened a door and then held it for the next.
On this day
October 28From 25 years of the Converge Digest archive.
2004 FCC Approves Sales of New Skies Satellites to Blackstone 2013 NTT Com Expands Global Cloud Vision with 2 Investments: Virtela and RagingWire All 2018 IBM bets $34 billion on Red Hat as its pathway to multi-cloud All 2025 NVIDIA Sees “America’s Next Apollo Moment” — NVQLink, ARC for 6G, and AI Factory Quantum