Demand Led Deployment

Network Upgrade Path

Network nodes can be located and commissioned with WiFi with additional air interface standards such as WiMax or 3G being added as required. This is made possible due to the unique backplane architecture of the Airborne Networks network node, with each air interface standard being abstracted to a common IP format for transmission across the forward/backhaul. Nor is the upgrading of each node either a skilled or expensive manpower exercise, radio cards are preconfigured and can be installed by relatively low skilled individuals, with final configuration settings/tuning being carried out remotely via the Airborne Networks network management system (NMS).

Another crucial feature is the ability to service any community or cluster with dedicated services; for example one industrial estate might require high capacity WiFi (802.11n for example) and another area might have a blackspot in cellular provision whilst the town centre might require the use of WiMax due to congested WiFi spectrums. All of these services are capable of being supported on the Airborne Networks nodes, and reconfigured as required.

Each node has up to four radio slots reserved for service provision, however even this is no longer a limitation, due to the introduction of node stacks (to increase capacity of air interface diversity in particular locations). Dedicated channels and air interface cards can be set aside for specific traffic requirements such as VPN, VoIP, multi-media content including video and GSM backhaul services.

Deployment - Demand Phase 1	Deployment - Demand Phase 2
New entry into a geographic market where demand starts out low rollout a thin layer of coverage over a wider area supporting high speed services for an initial low number of subscribes	Establishing market share enable easily upgrade of capacity on existing infrastructure to provide more bandwidth supporting more users
Deployment - Demand Phase 3 Established market share with large number of subscribers - easily provide infill with additional wireless street furniture to cope with increased capacity driven from customer demand