U.S. Army's Fort Dix Selects Proxim's Platform for Wireless Backhaul Network

Fort Dix, a major training and mobilization center for the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard, is using Proxim's TeraBridge point-to-point and Tsunami MP.11 point-to-multipoint products to connect 17 separate sites and two transportable towers. Deploying these has enabled Fort Dix to substantially increase the range and extent of wireless coverage on the Base. Booz Allen Hamilton, a global strategy and technology consulting firm, assisted Fort Dix in the wireless network design and deployment.

Fort Dix, which is located in Burlington County, New Jersey, covers an area of 11.3 square miles and provides regional base operations support to on-post and off-post active and reserve units of all services. A daily average of more than 13,500 persons live or work within the garrison and its tenant organizations.

"As a major government installation with responsibility for training hundreds of thousands of service personnel each year and supporting daily base operations, the availability and reliability of our wireless network is critical," said Donald C. Rhodes of the Directorate of Information Management Office (DOIM), Fort Dix. "The Proxim equipment that we have deployed as the foundation of our backhaul network -- including those on our transportable towers and trailers -- has met our most stringent requirements and helps us deliver high-speed connectivity and information access to all those we serve."

Accoring to Proxim, its TeraBridge series is a highly cost-effective and reliable license-free family of products optimized for backhaul of Ethernet or traditional telecommunications converged voice and data networks. These point-to-point, high-capacity, all-outdoor radios feature radio operation in the UNII or ISM 5 GHz bands with a choice of either DS3 or 10/100 Base-T digital interfaces. Full duplex operation with near-zero latency allows "daisy chaining" together multiple point-to-point links without degrading voice quality or reducing data rate by adding TCP delay.

Proxim's Tsunami MP.11 is a field-proven point-to-multipoint product line including ruggedized base stations, indoor and outdoor subscriber units, and accessories. Operating in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, this OFDM product offers WiMAX Quality of Service (QoS) for voice, video and data applications; roaming with seamless handoffs at speeds up to 200 km/hour for mobility and consumer-in-motion applications; "listen before talk" using CSMA/CA; dynamic frequency selection (DFS), which has already received EN 301-893 v1.3.1 certification; state-of-the-art security including AES encryption; and extended range.

.