Wifi Revolution

Cisco will deliver a WiFi mesh network to Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) for the North region of Singapore. SingTel plans to deploy more than 2,400 hotspots by May 2007.

NCS, a Cisco Certified Gold Partner and SingTel’s wholly owned subsidiary, is managing the implementation of the network.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) recently accepted SingTel’s proposal to deliver seamless public-access wireless broadband services. The project is reportedly a part of the Singapore government’s Wireless@SG initiative. The government aims to extend the broadband experience for its citizens outside of homes and offices to virtually every part of the country.

A large number of access points are not physically connected to a wired network in WiFi (News - Alert) mesh networks. Since these access points create a mesh that routes back to the network, this configuration allows SingTel to provide broadband-based services to a large area where no wired network is available.

SingTel can also centrally manage both their indoor and outdoor WiFi hotspots with the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, which includes a broad range of wireless devices and centralized management components. This will enable the Asian communications company to reduce management costs and complexities.

The Cisco Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol plays a key role in effectively running Cisco WiFi mesh networks. Similar to the routers that serve as traffic-management systems for wired networks, the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series access points utilize sophisticated mathematical algorithms to decide the optimal ways to route traffic from access point to access point and back to the main wired network.

The solution therefore helps traffic avoid congested nodes, and provide WiFi networks a “self-healing” capability.

Allen Lew, CEO of SingTel (Singapore) believes the combined forces of SingTel, NCS and Cisco will help enable high-quality WiFi services for their customers. Lew said that they chose Cisco’s WiFi mesh technology since it delivers performance and reliability and is highly scalable and easy to deploy.

“The solution uses well-established standards and offers a substantially reduced risk, cost and time to market,” he added.

“This project further deepens Cisco’s relationship with SingTel and gives us an opportunity to continue to develop our contribution to the Singapore government’s iN2015 (Intelligent Nation 2015) masterplan,” concluded Craig Gledhill, Cisco’s managing director for Singapore and Brunei in a press release.

Cisco is a global provider of networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate.

SingTel is an Asian communications company with operations and investments in more than 20 countries and territories around the world.

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Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering call centers, CRM and information technology. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

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