Taipaei looks set to be a wireless cybercity as its Mobile City (M-City) project nears completion this year.
Making use of an advanced form of Wi-Fi technology called Wireless Mesh, a swarm of about 10,000 wireless access points is being set up in and about the city to provide wireless broadband Internet access to the city's residents. The access points will be placed in strategic locations around the city and will be hung from street lamps and traffic lights.
The mega wireless zone will provide wireless access to 90 per cent of Taipei's population.
Areas covered include the MRT stations and downtown commercial areas, with both indoor and outdoor coverage available.
According to Mr Danny Ng, Nortel Networks' Wireless Mesh expert, this is a world's first for a wireless cyber city of this magnitude. Nortel's Wireless Mesh equipment and technology are powering the M-City project.
Mr Ng added that the main aim of the M-City project was to provide wireless access to e-government services.
But quite apart from the fast 'anytime, anywhere' Net access for Taipei residents, the M-City project will also open up a slew of exciting commercial applications including a GSM-VOIP combo phone service that lets users seamlessly switch between the traditional GSM cellular networks and the new wireless Internet networks.
Wireless Mesh is an advanced version of the very same Wi-Fi broadband routers and access points that we use in our homes to enable multiple users to share a single broadband Internet line wirelessly.
The problem with normal Wi-Fi access points is that its range is very limited.
Many public buildings combine tens of these Wi-Fi access points to enable wireless coverage over a larger area.
Traditional Wi-Fi, however, is very expensive, explained Mr Ng, as each access point needs to be connected to a broadband line. Wireless Mesh technology, on the other hand, enables a single broadband line to be shared by multiple access points.
This lowers the cost of setting up a wide area wireless network, cuts down substantially on messy cabling, and enables easier setting-up of access points in traditionally hard-to-reach areas, Mr Ng added.
The wireless access points also interact with each other intelligently and have 'self-healing' capabilities. If one access point goes down, another can take over its function to ensure that the entire wireless network continues to work.
Autor: Oo Gin Lee
Quelle: The Electric New Paper, 19.08.2005
