Jun 27, 2007 12:20 PM, By Donny Jackson

Mobile broadband systems vendor BelAir Networks this week introduced the BelAir 100T, a three-radio mesh-networking node designed primarily to support public-safety applications operating on 4.9 GHz spectrum.

Expected to be deployed primarily in municipal networks, the 100T expands customers’ node options beyond the dual-radio BelAir 100 and the company’s four-radio 200 node, said Jim Freeze, BelAir’s senior vice president of marketing and alliances. The 100T was developed because so many customers wanted to be able to support 4.9 GHz operations using the BelAir100 platform, which typically enables 2.4 GHz access and 5.8 GHz backhaul, he said.

“And they didn’t want to do it by taking the 5 GHz or the 2.4 GHz [radio out] and putting the 4.9 in,” Freeze said. “They wanted to have that same compact, cost-effective dual-radio platform and add 4.9 to it. So, that’s essentially what we developed.”

Available immediately, the 100T already has been shipped and is being deployed by some unnamed large municipalities, Freeze said. Complementing BelAir’s single-radio, dual-radio and quad-radio nodes, the three-radio 100T gives the company the “broadest portfolio in the industry,” he said.

In addition, the fact that all BelAir nodes have a modular architecture, network designers can use the same infrastructure to support 802.11-based communications at 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz or 5.8 GHz, as well as WiMAX communications at 2.3 GHz or 2.5 GHz by swapping radio modules, Freeze said.

“And it’s all under the control of the BelAir operating system, which makes it by far the most flexible platform on the market today,” he said.

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