Branners Posted March 15, 2008 Share Posted March 15, 2008 Hi fellow IT people, Im currently looking at WIMAX solutions for my London offices. WIMAX is the latest incarnation of microwave networking and its provided by people like Pipex and Urban Wimax. Im comparing 2 services at the moment and trying to decide the best option, so thought some of you may have some thoughts. I have 2 options 1) 2mb WIMAX solution, with a built in 4mb burst speed, but with a possible 10:1 contention if the other companies on the same access point use all their bandwidth. Coming in at around £200 per month 2) 2mb WIMAX solution, no burst speed but a guaranteed uncontended 2mb solution as the overall bandwidth of the users on the access point is split and set to 2mb max. COming in at around £350 per month. Am I being too picky about the contention ratio, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? The line will be used by a number of clients running things like video conferencing, VPN back to their home servers, web connections to training servers etc. It will run alongside existing ADSL connections for clients and a 2mb SDSL for our own use. So what recommendations do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted March 16, 2008 Author Share Posted March 16, 2008 blimey, is WIMAX that cutting edge that nobody has any experience of it? JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robin Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 If you plan on using video conferencing over it I would suggest going for the dedicated bandwith product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 I've not had any contact with it. I'm guessing it's something only available in the big smoke at the moment? I thought leased lines were cheap as chips down there anyway? Or even SDSL? I'd be happier with a hard wired solution. 10:1 contention shouldn't be too bad - depends who you end up sharing with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted March 16, 2008 Author Share Posted March 16, 2008 Hi Pete, we have a 2mb SDSL connection plus up to 4 ADSL connections per venue. However if we get a JCB digging through the lines we are knackered as not only can we not work but our clients cannot either. WIMAX would give us a truly wireless solution outside of the BT Openreach system so no matter what happens we have a connection available to us. Im hoping that contention wont be a massive issue but would still like to mitigate that where I can. JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 Ah I see. That makes sense then. If it's that important you really need to just check out their SLA. If it does go down what is the guaranteed response time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 In the end I couldnt decide. I got the prices down a bit from each supplier and Im going to get them to do 1 venue each and then run tests to see how well it works. JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Would be interested to hear your feedback on it John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 If you plan on using video conferencing over it I would suggest going for the dedicated bandwith product. Rather than just provisioning the necessary bandwidth I would also recommend looking at the latency. For realtime apps such as voice and video, this is very important. And if the link is going to be used for data, then QoS is paramount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 I will get some more info on latency and post it up, and post up my experiences with the technology as it seems to be quite cutting edge for all of us. JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozz Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I'll follow this with interest, I have offices in central london and a refinery in Acton that I'm looking at diverse routing for DR/business continuity. I'd only thought of bolstering the MPLS with a cable provider but this sounds even better. That seems pretty good value as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 indeed, considering it avoids the BT Openreach network then its great. BT can be right numpties sometimes and can take days to fix a line. Its also adjustable up to 30mb for short periods if required, and with only 48 hours notice. Try that with BT and hear them laugh before putting the phone down Ordering the services on Monday so will update as we go along. regards JB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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