Quarterly Newsletter 09 Issue 4
	Product Update - Order Altai C1 Online! Product Update - Altai Launched 3G Data Offload Solution Company Update - Colombian School of Engineering Deploys Altai Super WiFi Solution for its Campus-wide Network Deployment Case - Urban WiFi Case Study: Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong White Paper - The Magic Behind the High Performance of Altai Super WiFi
	Product Update       Order Altai C1 Online!   The low cost, high performance Altai C1 WiFi CPE can be ordered online via the Altai company website www.altaitechnologies.com now! The Altai C1 can be operated in CPE or access point mode. It is designed to be used in Altai Super WiFi systems to extend outdoor range and enhance indoor coverage. The C1 WiFi CPE has a high capacity 2.4GHz broadcast radio to enable it to convert the access coverage from a A8/A8E/A8-Ei to a standard Ethernet connection for desktops. Furthermore, it as a key component in wireless broadband access provisioning. The C1 can be installed for both indoor and outdoor areas. Moreover, the C1 can be used as a standalone Access Point for smaller systems with Fast Ethernet backhaul. Don’t miss the opportunity to buy the Altai C1 online!   Back to Top
	Product Update       Altai Launched 3G Data Offload Solution   Altai has recently launched another new A-series Super WiFi product – the A8-Ei in addition to the existing products. The A8-Ei is specially designed for 3G operators to quickly expand their data network capacity by co-locating with their existing 3G cell sites. Therefore most of the site acquisition costs, wired backhaul costs and radio planning works can be saved. Altai’s patented data flow control algorithm allows large numbers of concurrent video streams and VoIP applications without eating up all the bandwidth for data. One unit of A8-Ei can support over 250 concurrent users. In urban environments, the Altai A8-Ei can provide 2,600 feet (800 meters) of non-line-of-sight signal coverage where iPhones and smartphones can direct connect to the base station with fast uplink and downlink WiFi performance. For rural areas, the range can increase to 2.5 miles (4 km) when used in conjunction with Altai’s C1 CPE. For details, please contact our Sales Team directly.   Back to Top
	Company Update       Colombian School of Engineering Deploys Altai Super WiFi Solution for its Campus-wide Network   ESCUELA COLOMBIANA DE INGENIERIA (Colombian School of Engineering) at Bogota of Colombia has deployed Altai’s Super WiFi products to provide ubiquitous high-speed wireless internet access to its students and staff. This campus-wide network was built by Web2Phone, the leading system integrator in Colombia and powered by Altai Super WiFi Solutions. The Colombian School of Engineering is located on a 70-acre (280,000 sq.m.) campus in a beautiful natural environment in the northern part of Bogota, it has over 8,000 students, teachers and staff. The campus has very limited sites for installation, therefore the Altai Super WiFi products can only be installed on the rooftop of the buildings to provide 100% coverage in the indoor and outdoor areas. The long range technology of Altai’s Super WiFi Solution was one of the key success factors in the selection process. Altai offered a robust, cost-effective and scalable wireless broadband network that provides the Colombian School of Engineering reliable and high-speed internet access. The Altai Super WiFi Solution is widely deployed in Colombia such as Bogota International Airport, AXA office, high tech research institutes etc.   Back to Top
	Deployment Case     Urban WiFi Case Study: Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong   Background   Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) is the downtown area of metropolitan Hong Kong. It is the home of a range of businesses, shops, restaurants, and residential complexes. Moreover, half of the museums in Hong Kong are located in the area. Residents, businesses, and tourists in TST have access to a range of communications technologies including 3G networks, multiple hotspot networks, as well as fixed line networks such as cable and ADSL. TST is characterized by dense, high rise buildings, thus making WiFi deployment extremely challenging.   The Challenge   Our partner, a local fixed line operator, was looking for ways to extend their business scope; in particular, they were looking for a business which had the following attributes: Addressed the growing demand for high speed wireless connectivity. Required little capital to start the business and could quickly become self-financing to support growth of the business. Potential for significant business success, not just for a downtown area like TST, but could be extended to city-wide coverage for metropolitan Hong Kong. Our partner recognized that the Altai Super WiFi Solution addresses the coverage and capacity issues associated with most WiFi systems; moreover, when compared to other wireless technologies, Super WiFi requires a much lower capex and opex. Subsequently, a trial was conducted in the heart of TST.     The Base Station Site   Three A8 Super WiFi base stations were installed on top of a high-rise commercial building that is 100m in height. A number of buildings of similar height and taller surround the base station site. As expected, site surveys showed considerable RF shadowing from these structures. However, buildings also proved to be a strong source of reflections, which often filled in coverage holes that were blocked from direct signal paths. Field tests using a CPE with directional antenna revealed multiple usable NLOS paths from the base station site to each field test point. Signals were often found by pointing the CPE at reflections from buildings, especially in locations otherwise shadowed from RF coverage. Using a typical WiFi client (such as a laptop or mobile phone), the base station site provided a coverage radius of 300m.     The Conclusions   The trial demonstrated that urban city WiFi is a reality with the Altai Super WiFi Solution, with the following guidelines to bear in mind: Use sites with various heights for different objectives: high-rise rooftops for roads and in building coverage, and podium level sites for street level coverage. Use multiple sites to achieve macro diversity, which in turn reduces RF shadows within a coverage area. Use A8-E base station if better indoor penetration is required. Use A3s or C1s to extend signal for RF shadows such as inside or behind buildings. Altai’s patented smart antenna and interference avoidance technologies allow the A8 base station to provide high speed wireless connectivity to a large number of concurrent users, even in WiFi congested environments. Needless to say, it is the perfect solution for mobile operators for offloading data traffic from their already taxed 2G or 3G infrastructures.   Back to Top
	White Paper     The Magic Behind the High Performance of Altai Super WiFi   By employing multiple-branch smart antenna technology, the Altai A8/A8-Ei super WiFi base station can attain an improvement of more than 21 dB in antenna diversity gain over a single antenna access point (AP). This significant improvement in diversity gain allows more flexibility in the link budget engineering. For instance, the Altai A8-Ei can give 16 dB and 13 dB improvements in uplink and downlink link budgets when compared to a 500 mW standard AP with two antennas. The A8-Ei also provides link budgets similar to cellular systems such as PHS. The significant improvement in link budget provides a number of benefits including longer range, higher throughput at distance and higher user capacity. When comparing with a standard AP, the A8/A8-Ei provides on average three times the range, two to four times the throughput, three times the user capacity, ten times the coverage area and significant improvements with interference mitigation.   The Magic Behind the High Performance of Altai Super WiFi   The multiple-branch smart antenna and multiple-radio design of the Altai A8/A8-Ei offer a lot of user benefits. The reasons for the high user capacity are explained in this paper: 2 to 5X the range 2 to 4X the throughput at range 3X the user capacity Better interference mitigation and causes less interference 4X the vertical beamwidth   Higher User Capacity   One of the important benefits of using multiple antennas with independent, coordinated radios is to minimize the harmful effects due to packet collisions from hidden nodes, as explained in the figure. Packet collisions from hidden nodes happen very often in NLOS environments. For instance, when two hidden clients send signals to an A8 at the same time but from different directions, the A8 can receive both signals using multiple antennas and radios, and therefore both signals can be processed without collision. In this way, the lost packets and transmission retries are substantially minimized, meaning more time slots are reserved for other clients or additional packets. This is a key reason why the A8 can handle two to four times the user capacity of a standard AP, or even of multiple standard AP’s collocated but not operating in a coordinated manner at the baseband and physical RF layer. Each A8 typically supports 80 concurrent users and up to a maximum of 256 users.     Less Affected by Interference   Another important aspect of improving the user capacity is reducing the effects of co-channel interference. As is well known, in WiFi there are only three non-overlapping channels in the 2.4GHz spectrum and it is highly likely that there will be other users sharing the same channel. Therefore, there is a reasonable probability that there will be other users transmitting on the same channel which will cause interference and reduce capacity. With a standard AP this will affect its reception for the entire cell, but with the A8 only the relevant direction of the interfering source will be affected.     Back to Top
	For full version of this document, please contact sales@altaitechnologies.com