White Papers
Broadband Fixed Wireless From CyberLynk Network, Inc.

OVERVIEW
CyberLynk, a Midwest leader in the Internet Service industry maintains a wired network to provide service to customers. CyberLynk has now built a Wireless network to compliment its existing wired network. This new network currently provides broadband fixed wireless connections to the Internet with speeds up to 3Mbps.

This network of fixed cells provide the ability to deliver high-speed Internet connections to businesses that are located within line-of-sight of one or more of our cells. The network has built-in redundancy to provide a reliable connection. Since CyberLynk Fixed Wireless does not use "wires," there are no telephone company installation issues. An appointment can be made within days and the installation of the antenna, radio and router usually takes less than 2 hours.

CyberLynk AIR is a 24-hour 'always on' Internet connection. This makes it an alternative to wired services like T1 or DSL. Fixed Wireless coverage areas are growing as we add more and more cell sites. Contact CyberLynk for current coverage area.

PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY
CyberLynk’s Fixed Wireless service uses a combination of off-the-shelf technology and some good old fashioned engineering to provide higher performance than that of other ISP’s and near 100% reliability! How do we do that? It’s easy - and I’m sure our competitors will be reading this and rethinking their approach to providing Fixed Wireless.

First, let’s talk about how our competition provides Fixed Wireless. There are dozens of manufactures of 2.4ghz Wireless equipment out there. In fact, you have probably purchased some of this equipment for use in your business or at home. It is inexpensive, and in most cases it can be setup within minutes - simply plug it into an Ethernet connection, install some drivers, and you are live. Sounds good doesn’t it? Well, what happens with your cordless phone, microwave and other ‘noise’ producing equipment? It causes interference, in most cases to the point where your network doesn’t work at all. This is consumer grade equipment, and that is what you get.

Now, take this inexpensive equipment and put it in a commercial application like ISP type Fixed Wireless. The competition outfits the radio in a cooler with a heater, or they run hundreds of feet of coax, or they do other things that compromise the performance and reliability of the equipment itself. Ask your ISP what radio equipment they are using. Is it designed to work in the application that they are selling?

Now, here is the biggest problem - all of our competition use radio equipment that should provide 10-11mbps of throughput. In reality, they end up with about 100-300kbps - a far cry from the capabilities of the equipment. Why the poor performance? Signal strength and retransmission rate! This equipment has no mechanism to manage or report either of these, so unless they are equipped with thousands of dollars of test equipment, and they are willing to lug it to your site every time there is a problem, they are shooting in the dark. If the radio is designed for 10-11mbps (Ethernet) speeds, chances are that it does not use spread-spectrum technology. Frequency stepping technology is necessary for the transfer of large amounts of data necessary for Ethernet operation, unfortunately it also makes it prone to interference and more sensitive to line of sight issues. CyberLynk uses equipment supporting Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum technology, which makes it very immune to interference - it also lowers the overall throughput. In our case, the throughput is limited to 3mbps. Although few customers have been able to generate enough traffic to fill this pipe, we can provide a replacement for a wired T1 circuit, which provides 1.5mbps of throughput. The truth is, almost all of our installations support 1mbps or better throughput.

There are other issues to look at which boil down to installation technique. Most of the ISP’s out there doing Fixed Wireless tend to run long lengths of coax, and use excessive connectors, adapters, etc. These all add to the signal loss between the antenna and the radio. The more signal that is lost the lower the throughput and higher the retransmission rate. CyberLynk installations mandate that the radio be mounted within 16’ of the antenna - no installation uses more than 16 feet of extremely low-loss coax. Low voltage power to the radio and the data from the radio travel on cable that can run for several hundred feet without impacting performance or reliability. Since CyberLynk uses low voltage cable that is inexpensive and easy to run, our installations go quickly and event free. The important coax cables are pre-made to speed installation and insure reliability. CyberLynk fabricates the roof-mounted enclosure, which houses the radio, power and lightning protection. These enclosures are NEMA 4 and provide security from vandalism.

CyberLynk utilizes commercially available towers, tripods, flat roof mounts and wall mounts, which allow us to install our equipment just about anywhere necessary to provide service.

CyberLynk’s Fixed Wireless is secure, supporting RC4 based Wired Equivalent Privacy. Additional security is provided by means of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) wireless technology, frequency shift sequences and by requiring an Extended Service Set Identifier (ESSID) for entry into the network.

ALL OF THE EXTRAS
Not only is CyberLynk AIR an incredible connection option, CyberLynk also includes extra services with each CyberLynk AIR connection that make the service unbeatable. All CyberLynk AIR customers receive domain hosting with unlimited e-mail addresses, two analog dial-up accounts for use from home or as a backup from the office, and toll-free access for when you are on the road.

CyberLynk also provides a hardware router with the ability to support any existing IP numbering scheme through Network Address Translation (NAT), or live IP addresses as needed. CyberLynk looks at this service as a replacement for a wired T1, and because of this, all of the capabilities of a wired T1 are included. CyberLynk’s Fixed Wireless service is a serious business connection, just like a wired T1 - with none of the limitations of a DSL connection.

CyberLynk provides, owns and maintains all required equipment - if something breaks, we replace it free of charge.

SITE SURVEY PROCEDURE
So, how do you get started? Easy - just call CyberLynk and say ‘I WANT AIR!’ CyberLynk will use your address to perform a preliminary site survey where we utilize computer-mapping software to check line-of-sight distance as well as topographical clearances. Once we verify that you are a potential Fixed Wireless customer, someone will come to your office to perform a visual line-of-sight survey. By climbing onto your roof, and with the help of a GPS and a set of binoculars, we can verify that there are no buildings or other man-made structures in the way. When everything is verified, we will provide a service agreement, and once executed CyberLynk will schedule installation. Installation will be completed on schedule and CyberLynk will perform complete throughput, signal strength, and retransmission rate before deeming the installation complete.

Per the terms of the agreement, if the CyberLynk Broadband Fixed Wireless service is not everything you expect it to be, you can cancel the agreement. CyberLynk will remove all of the supplied equipment and credit your account. It’s that easy! No risk - we are that confidant that our Fixed Wireless service is the best.

Once your service is installed, CyberLynk will setup monitoring on your connection, which includes real-time monitoring of traffic, signal strength, and retransmission rate. CyberLynk can make adjustments to your equipment that will insure that your connection remains reliable and consistent. Ask our existing Fixed Wireless customers! Upon your request, we will provide contact information so that you can hear for yourself just how good it is… Call us today! 1-800-862-5965

By: Michael Hobach 02/01/2002

To contact a Customer Service specialist:

• call 1-800-862-5965
• send an Email to sales@cyberlynk.net