Carrier-Grade Wi-Fi on Any Access Point or Gateway
Malmö, Sweden, December 17, 2014: Anyfi Networks has announced the general availability of their Carrier Wi-Fi System. Developed in close cooperation with several of the world’s tier 1 operators over the last four years the system enables carrier-class Wi-Fi services on an unprecedented scale.
“For the first time operators can now deploy Wi-Fi services with strong QoS guarantees across millions of access points and residential gateways, even from different vendors” said Johan Almbladh, CTO of Anyfi Networks.
At first glance the feature set looks much like that available from several competing vendors in the carrier Wi-Fi space: radio link-level admission control, airtime fairness, optimized handovers, advanced traffic prioritization and an analytics platform for near real-time quality of experience monitoring. The system is delivered as virtual machines, fitting nicely into the growing ecosystem around network functions virtualization (NFV). Standards conforming interfaces should make integration into an existing Wi-Fi or 3GPP core network straightforward. According to the company what sets this product apart is its scalability and support for a wide range of access points.
“Carrier Wi-Fi is typically about expensive access points coupled with be-all, end-all management systems. We’ve taken a very different approach: Our customers typically already have thousands if not millions of access points installed in consumer homes and small businesses, and that equipment is already remotely managed e.g. with TR-069. What they want is to deploy a carrier Wi-Fi service across that infrastructure, and extending it with lower cost access points where needed. Our system lets them do that, without sacrificing quality of experience or negatively impacting their fixed-line subscribers” explained Björn Smedman, CEO of Anyfi Networks.
According to the company the system supports nearly all access points and gateways based on a Broadcom, Qualcomm Atheros, Ralink or Realtek platform and on-site integration assistance is provided worldwide as part of agreements with operators. An evaluation version for lab trials and proof of concepts is available for download from the company’s website.