Uses and Limitations of Fixed Wireless Broadband

A fixed wireless broadband is a type of broadband connection, which provides high-speed internet access to the users via radio signals in place of physical cables i.e. without wired connection. There are many different types of wireless broadband connections available to both business-class and residential customers.
A Brief Note on Fixed Wireless
Fixed Wireless is actually a part of a large wireless LAN infrastructure. In this type of internet connection, the networking devices are interconnected through a wireless media including radio signals, or a laser bridge. The main objective of the fixed wireless internet connection is to facilitate proper communications between any 2-sites/buildings.
It is a cost-effective alternative to installing cables or optical fibers between any 2-sites or buildings. There is no need for local telephone service or satellite feeds, as the point to point signal broadcast in case of fixed wireless connection is done via air-medium or through global microwave platform rather than through optical fiber or copper.
Fixed wireless connection has turned out to be one of the most viable solutions for internet access, with the budding infrastructure of the present generation GSM wireless networks. Using the reliability and speed of 3G technology, homes and businesses can deploy fixed wireless antennas equipment to access layer 2-netwoks and broadband internet using fixed wireless broadband.

Fixed Wireless Broadband
Equipment and Installation Details
Fixed wireless broadband connections generally make use of transmission towers (referred to as ‘ground stations’ sometimes) that converse with each other and with the user’s location (referred to as ‘customer premises’ sometimes). Like cell-phone towers, these ground stations are also looked after by internet suppliers.
Subscribers set up transceiver equipment on the top of building in order to converse properly with the fixed-wireless ground-stations. Commonly, a transceiver consists of an undersized rectangular/dish shaped antenna, and connected radio transmitters.
Dissimilar to satellite internet structures that converse into outer space, all fixed wireless dish antennas and radios converse only with ground-stations.
Benefits of Fixed Wireless Internet Connection
Areas that are deficient of optical/fiber cable, DSL, and cable television lines, can still gain access to internet with the help of fixed wireless broadband connection. Even though, they have a tendency of offering lower speeds when compared to wired internet connections, they can still support a download speed of anywhere in between 1 and 10 Mbps of networking bandwidth.
Other major benefits of this type of broadband connection include:
  • Convenience
  • Accessibility
  • Speed
  • Affordability
  • Security
Confines of Fixed Wireless
In comparison to other traditional forms of broadband high-speed internet connection, fixed wireless facility involves 3-major limitations, and they are as follows.
  • The wireless internet connection often requires Line of Sight (LOS) access between the ground station and the subscriber, which is not a practical condition in all cases. In some cases, the connection itself can’t be set-up due to obstructions from trees/hills. The service quality will be considerably affected during rainy and foggy climatic conditions.
  • It is relatively costlier when compared to other forms of internet connections, when it comes to cost/Mbps of network bandwidth.
  • Generally, this type of connection is fixed to only one physical access point/each subscriber, and hence it doesn’t support roaming, unlike other mobile internet facilities including WiMax or cellular.
Most of the internet users are under a wrong misconception that the fixed wireless connections are always prone to suffer from networking latency issues, and thereby result in poor performance. But, in reality, this doesn’t have that particular limitation, while the satellite internet normally suffers from high-latency problems.
It is most commonly used and also ideal for VoIP, online gaming, and many other applications, which demand low-network latencies.
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