Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

May 7, 2000
Page: 7E

PLAYING THE WIRELESS GAME USING ANTENNAS

By MARGARET HOPKINS

Centre Daily Times

STATE COLLEGE -- Look, Ma (Bell): No wires.

For the past five months, Scott Thompson has been sending video images, voice and data from the roof of his Calder Way office across West College Avenue to the Center for Information Communication Tech-nology Research laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineer-ing.

Nothing physically links the two rooftops.

Instead, Thompson and the lab are communicating with antennas.

is pursuing fixed rather than mobile wireless access.

unlicensed radio airwaves or frequencies.

This differs from cell phones, where the information goes from a stationary antenna to a small mobile antenna within the phone.

The advantages of fixed wireless access are numerous, said Thomp-son, president of the year-old company.

Thompson said.

Fixed wireless systems can be small, reducing the capital investment for infrastructure.

They can be designed to operate within a corporation, among buildings on a campus or between businesses in a community.

What a fixed wireless system needs is antennas at both ends and transceivers that convert the video images, voice and data into micro-waves for transmission. They also need: a line of sight from one antenna to another.

because there are few intervening hills, Thompson said.

Wireless has attracted the giant telecommunications companies as well as regional players.

In Silicon Valley, several small, private businesses have been offering fixed wireless Internet access for several years, Thompson said.

copper and fiber telephone lines.

Rather, wireless is another alternative geared more to businesses and individuals needing customized fixed data services, he added.

Companies doing a lot of video-teleconferencing could take advantage of this technology. Right now that requires expensive high-capacity networks.

Small Business Inno-vative Research money, Anntron engineers are infrastructure had been destroyed, Thompson said.

whose company has a patent pending on its wireless architecture.

of new technology in integrated circuits to eliminate many of the An Anntron system with a price tag in the $2,500 range includes hardware, software, microwave electronics, digital electronics and antennas, Thompson said.

like to see his system in the commercial marketplace.

said.