- Navini Networks
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Navini Networks 
Former type private Industry telecom Fate acquired by Cisco Successor Cisco systems Founded 2000-01-01 Founder(s) Wu-Fu Chen and Guanghan Xu Defunct 2007-10-23 Headquarters Richardson, Texas, USA Area served world Key people founders Chen and Xu
Alastair WestgarthProducts Ripwave WiMAX Owner(s) Cisco Systems Navini Networks was a company that developed an internet-access system based on WiMAX which was acquired by Cisco in October, 2007.
Contents
Company
In January 2000, Wu-Fu Chen and Guanghan Xu formed the company Navini Networks. They developed a wireless internet-access system. When the company was sold to Cisco Systems in October, 2007 Navini had some 70 customers worldwide[1].
The company was based in Richardson, Texas and was privately funded by several investment-funds.[2] When it was sold in October 2007 for $330 million to Cisco, it had 70 customers all over the world. A Navini customer would be an Internet service provider providing wireless internet access, mainly in areas where there are only limited wired alternatives available (e.g. Docsis access via a cable-TV network or DSL via the telephone network).
Start up
In the first few years, the company won several awards for developing a new internet access-technologies. In 2001 it was awarded the 'Start-Up of the Year' award by KPMG and in 2002 it won some national and regional prizes. Between the formation and early 2003 it attracted $66.5 million from private investors and employed 130 employees.[2]
Products
Navini developed a WiMAX wireless internet-access infrastructure consisting of two main parts: the central headend system with the special antennas and the RipWave modems or customer premises equipment
The main special feature of the Navini product is that it offered a non line-of-sight wireless access system. In normal Wi-Fi systems there has to be an unobstructed view between the antenna of the transmitter and the receiver for a good reception of the signals: when the view is obstructed the signal strength decreaes vert fast and the reach of the signal is very small.
By using a technique called spot beaming, a technique normally used in satellite communications, it was possible to use radio-signals on frequencies that would normally require an unobstructed path between the transmitter and receiver or high-power transmitters.
A Navini system consists of one management-system, one or more base-systems and the user-modems or customer premises equipment
Ripwave EMS
At the heart of a Navini based internet access system is the EMS or Element Management System. The EMS ia an Network management system and can manage one or more base-systems. The EMS is a server application to manage the base-systems and end-user equipment. The Navibi EMS is a Java based IP-network management system and could run on a Windows or SUN server platform using SNMP[3].
Base System
The base system is the head-end equipment to which users within the reach connect to. A base-system can be compared to a base system or GSM-mast in a cellular telephone network. The central system consisted of an indoor unit and an outdoor eight element antenna system.[4] A single BTS could allow up to 1000 end users connected to it. An end-user could connect to different base-systems, depending on which station gave the best connection at that time, but it wasn't possible to 'hop' from one BTS to another without losing the connection: the system wasn't designed for mobile communication. The Ripwave system is based on the TD-SCDMA technology and one of the founders of the company, Dr. Xu, wrote the initial drafts for this standard.[5]
The RipWave system was one of the first land-based systems for private use that uses spot-beaming to realise the non-line of sight connection between the CPE and the BTS. Spot-beaming is used in satellite communications to aim a signal from a satellite to a specific area and so increase the signal-strength in that area.
Originally the base-station was sold as the RipWave MX8 system but after the acquisition of the company by Cisco the base-systems were sold as Cisco BWX 8300 series until it was marked as End of Life in 2008[6]. The MX8 was a Navini proprietary protocol. It was followed up by BWX2300 WiMAX certified systems[7]
Customer premises equipment
To get access to a Navini WiMAX base-system the customer uses a special radio-tranceiver: the customer premises equipment or CPE.
The Navini CPE's or modems introduced since September 2007 are based on the IEEE 802.16 standard[8].The old modems, sold as BWX100 systems are EOL from 18 September, 2009[9]
A CPE consists of a modem, which is in reality a radio tranceiver, and has a built-on antenna. To improve signal-quality it is possible to connect an external antenna to the modem. The Ripwave CPE uses an active antenna Although the Ripwave technology doesn't support the active handover of a call from one base-station to another (such as in cellular networks) it does support nomadic use: a CPE isn't fixed to a specific base-station: if the provider allowes it a CPE connect to any base-station in their network or even allow connections from modems of another ISP's.[10]Sources and references
- ^ NetworkWorld: Cisco buys in WiMax.., 23 October, 2007. visited 7 August, 2011
- ^ a b Company Backgrounder, 24 March 2003, retrieved via archive.org on 7 August, 2011
- ^ Former Navini website EMS System, archive.org, retrieved: 7 August, 2011
- ^ Former Navini website Ripwave BTS system, internet archive, retrieved 7 August, 2011
- ^ Ripwave technology on former Navini website, retrieved 7 August, 2011
- ^ Cisco EOL BWX8300 series, visited 6 August, 2011
- ^ Cisco Product website: BWX 2300 Series, visited 7 August, 2011
- ^ CED website Navini rolls out new modems, 27 September, 2007. Visited 7 August, 2011
- ^ EOL/EOS announcement BWX100 series, 17 March, 2009, visited 6 August, 2011
- ^ Description of the Ripwave CPE, archieve.org, retrieved 7 August, 2011
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