According to company statements, the unique and powerful digital beamforming technology embedded in Wavion's spatially adaptive APs provides extended range and penetration, minimizes dead spots, requires two-thirds fewer units than other outdoor APs to cover the same area, and supports the variety of applications and services CONXX is extending wirelessly to Cumberland.
The system was installed as a part of a performance contract between Johnson Controls and Cumberland, Maryland, to retrofit several city buildings and utility services -- including replace water meters with wireless models. The project's savings are a major driver behind the county's decision to enhance the network and the services provided to its residences.
"With this purchase, AllCoNet will be able to deliver wireless Internet access to hundreds of homes and small businesses in Cumberland that have no other way to access the digital domain at high speeds," said Lee Fiedler, mayor of Cumberland. "Thanks to Wavion's technology, Johnson Control's service savings and CONXX's network, we're able to bring the economic and social benefits of wireless broadband to our citizens, visitors, municipal workers, and public safety personnel."
CONXX's homegrown network -- a necessity after national telecommunication corporations refused to upgrade services for the mostly rural county -- provides carrier-class communication services to public safety, government, education, commercial, and residential users throughout Allegany County.
"AllCoNet is a literal lifeline for this community," said David Kartchner, president of CONXX. "When Cumberland wanted to add Wi-Fi to AllCoNet, we tested a dozen different outdoor access points before discovering the dramatic improvements offered by the Wavion WS410. We need about 12 Wavion spatially adaptive access points to cover one square mile of Cumberland. It would take three times as many APs from any other manufacturer to deliver that performance."
Unlike other APs in the market, Wavion's spatially adaptive AP is based on six radio transceivers and six antennas, and employs advanced digital beamforming technology. Based on a custom-designed ASIC optimized for the outdoors environment, Wavion's technology significantly improves the link gain and quality to off-the-shelf, 802.11 standards-based Wi-Fi clients -- such as those found in nearly all recently manufactured notebook computers.
"We're honored to help transform Cumberland's municipal Wi-Fi deployment through the world's first metro-scale access points with digital beamforming," said Dr. Mati Wax, Wavion's founder and CTO. "What Wavion delivers today already outperforms conventional APs, and we're not done yet."
