Reniassance Networking, Inc. (RNi) announced the availability of its new RNi 2400 Wireless IP (WIP) Router. According to the company, its RNi 2400 WIP Router offers a low-cost, fully functional router for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that need to deliver broadband connections. The product is specifically designed for ISPs that do not have access to, or do not want to pay the high costs associated with other wired broadband connections such as DSL or cable modems.
The RNi 2400 WIP Router provides service via a high-speed data connection that sends and receives signals from a wireless transmitter to a wireless router located at the customer’s premises. Data travels through the air from the transmit site in Radio Frequency (RF) format to the customer’s site, where the wireless router converts the RF signal into Ethernet. Customers should be able to use the wireless service to bypass telecommunications charges for expensive local loops and costly equipment usually needed to establish a T1 (1.5 Mbps) or faster connections.
The RNi 2400 WIP Router currently is tailored for 802.11 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) standards and can deliver theoretical throughput of 11 Mbps second. The router is designed with a modular radio interface that provides a simple migration path to future standards such as 802.11a and a wide variety of wireless radios utilizing 2.4, 2.5, or 5.8 GHz spectrum. The routers are designed to be compatible with most DSSS gear such as Cisco’s Aironet and Agere’s (Lucent) ORiNOCO wireless broadband product line.
The router features two backup capabilities for redundancy. Each router contains slots for two wireless radios that can be associated with two different wireless points-of-presence and can have up to four Ethernet ports. The router has a backup battery for dealing with brief power interruptions. In the event that power fails completely, a battery is designed to provide auxiliary power and send an alarm upstream to the network operation center.
The router has a footprint of 3.25″ x 6″ x 2″ and is housed in a weatherproof, NEMA 4-rated enclosure. This allows the unit to be mounted very close to the antenna, which minimizes the radio frequency signal loss between the antenna and the router.
The RNi 2400 WIP Router’s intelligence is provided by the Renaissance Networks Internet Operating System (RNIOS), which provides 99 percent of the functionality of a typical commercial router. According to RNi, the solution manages fully segmented networks and provides many important network management features such as SNMP, Quality of Service, and Virtual Private Networks, which should be attractive to business class customers.
It also means that there is no limit to the number of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that can be served by the router.
Pricing and availability
The RNi 2400 WIP Router is available now in limited quantities for beta customers, with full production runs beginning January 2001.
Pricing is currently targeted for as low as $300 per subscriber in volume quantities.