Wireless Networking News Roundup Oct 5-Oct 11

Just in case you missed it, here’s what happened in Wireless Networking Last Week:

Roku announces Roku 4 media streamer with 4K video, 802.11ac Wi-Fi– The media-streamer arms race continues unabated, with Roku taking the wraps off its Roku 4 less than six months after shipping its retooled Roku 3. The Roku 4 joins the ranks of the TiVo Bolt and Amazon’s Fire TV in delivering 4K resolution (with HDMI 2.0) and supporting 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and there’s a new version of the Roku OS that improves features introduced with the Roku 3.

NETGEAR Introduces First Quad-Mode Business-Class Wireless-AC Access Points for Easy and Scalable Centralized Management– NETGEAR is launching two new quad-mode business-class 802.11ac wireless Access Points (AP) that support four different modes of management. The new ProSAFE WAC730 Business 3×3 Dual Band Wireless-AC Access Pointand ProSAFE WAC720 Business 2×2 Dual Band Wireless-AC Access Point for small to mid-sized organizations (SMBs) are on view in Stand 20 of the IP EXPO Europe running today and tomorrow in the ExCeL London exhibition center

Cisco Mobility Aims to Make Wireless Easier– Nico Vibert offered an early introduction to Cisco’s new wireless architecture, Cisco Mobility Express (CME), as an alternative to Aruba Instant. Like Instant, CME is designed to let companies quickly provision a WLAN. Cisco claims a CME customer can set up a wireless network in less than 10 minutes; the package, which doesn’t require a controller, can support up to 25 access points (APs) and 500 clients. Vibert says it’s too early to determine the success of Cisco Mobility Express, but he writes that Cisco built CME with a good mix of capabilities borrowed from other Cisco WLAN products — including the all-important single point of management.

Overnight Tech: Lawmakers get to work on wireless broadband– For Americans in rural communities, access to technological innovation is increasingly dependent on the availability of robust wireless networks,” said Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), in a statement. “This hearing will examine barriers, regulatory and otherwise, to the deployment of wireless broadband facilities, infrastructure, and service.

The Government wants to put wifi networks into classrooms– Plans for a Leaving Cert Information and Communications Technology (ICT) subject and the greater use of electronic devices in class are contained in a long-awaited digital strategy for schools to be published on Wednesday. The five-year plan identifies the rollout of wireless networks within schools as “a key Government priority”. Some €30 million is to be invested in this and other elements of the strategy next year, rising to €50 million in 2020.

NYU WIRELESS and NYU Stern School of Business Awarded Grant for Study of Millimeter Wave Networks– he National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a four-year, $750,000 grant to NYU WIRELESS and the NYU Stern School of Business to evaluate the engineering and economic aspects of millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum and resource management. The mmWave bands are a promising new set of frequencies for next-generation cellular networks that offer orders of magnitude increased data rates relative to current 4G systems. The goal of the grant is to develop new technologies, economic models, and spectrum policy to realize the full potential of these bands.

Asus’ gamer-centric RT-AC88U packs more ethernet ports than any other 802.11ac router– Asus announced a slew of products designed to appeal to gamers this afternoon, but the one that interests me the most is the new RT-AC88U router. It’s a dual-band model that Asus claims will deliver up to 2.1Gbps of throughput on the 5GHz band and 1Gbps on the 2.4GHz band. But more noteworthy, this is the first consumer-oriented 802.11ac router to deliver more than four ethernet ports: The RT-AC88U has an eight-port gigabit switch.

Linksys WRT router gains faster SoC, more RAM, OpenWrt– Linksys has launched a “WRT1900ACS” router that updates the AC version with a faster dual-core, 1.6GHz SoC, twice the RAM (at 512MB), and OpenWrt support. In early 2014 when Linksys resurrected the hackable Linksys WRT54G WiFi router in a new WRT1900AC model, the Belkin subsidiary said the the Linux-based router would also support the lightweight, networking-focused OpenWrt Linux distribution. With the new WRT1900ACS, Linksys is making life easier for OpenWrt lovers by providing full, open source OpenWrt support out of the box.

RS – New 6LoWPAN gateway wireless routers for the Internet of Things– RS Components has announced that it is extending its portfolio of wireless network products designed for Internet of Things (IoT) applications with the availability of the 6LoWPAN IoT Gateway from WEPTECH elektronik. The 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network) IoT Gateway board functions as a border router in a 6LoWPAN-based network and connects a wireless IPv6-based network to the Internet. The board facilitates the routing procedures necessary to integrate an IPv6 mesh network comprising small wireless low-power devices into the global IP network. It enables users to connect up to 32 6LoWPAN child nodes to the network.

New All-In-One Multi-Standard Wireless Network Validation System– Cobham Wireless has announced the launch of the TM500 and E500 Multi-RAT Network Test Solution, which helps mobile operators and infrastructure vendors to validate base station/small cell performance in complex networks where multiple technologies are overlaid, ultimately enhancing the user experience.