TecHnoLoGy - Broadband Properties

MDU/MTU TECHNOLOGYNew Optionsfor Big BroadbandProperty owners looking to supply residential and commercial tenants withhigh-speed Internet access now have more choices than ever before.By Masha Zager ■ Broadband PropertiesScaling broadband services is achallenge for owners of multifamilyand multitenant buildings. Demandfor bandwidth and reliability continuesto increase, and high-bandwidthservices command premium rentals inmany areas. But building owners are reluctantto invest in expensive infrastructureahead of demand – especially if thatdemand takes time to materialize, as intoday’s slow real estate market.Building owners need the flexibilityto add or subtract bandwidth quickly inorder to meet fluctuating demand – andto pay only for the bandwidth that isactually used. Several new offerings attemptto meet that need with a variety oftechnologies. Two vendors we’ve spokenwith recently are Mushroom Networks,which creates scalable bandwidth bybonding together multiple small broadbandconnections, and Rainbow Broadband,which takes the opposite approach,dividing fiber’s enormous bandwidth.Mushroom Networks creates scalablebandwidth by bonding multiple smallbroadband connections; RainbowBroadband takes the opposite approach,dividing up fiber’s enormous bandwidth.Meeting theMushrooming DemandEarlier this year, Mushroom Networks(www.mushroomnetworks.com), astartup company spun off from theUniversity of California at San Diego,released its Truffle broadband bondingnetwork appliance, a device that aggregatesInternet connectivity. The Trufflelets building owners combine multipleDSL, cable modem, cellular broadbandor T1 services to provide higher-speedand more reliable Internet access fortenants. For around $3,000, a buildingowner can aggregate as many as six Internetsources with a combined throughputof up to 65 Mbps. Truffles are stackable,so owners can add more boxes tomeet higher demand. Mushroom is alsowilling to custom-build appliances forhigher throughput.On the back of the Truffle, a fourportLAN switch provides aggregatedthroughput that can be distributedwithin the building via Ethernet, WiFi,Cat 5 cable, coax, or any other medium.The device can be installed in a few minutesand is managed via a simple Webinterface. Building owners can eitherbundle the service into the rent, or billtenants directly.Cahit Akin, Mushroom’s CEO,says the device offers several benefits tobuilding owners. First and foremost, itenables them to scale bandwidth to thebuilding as it is needed. “You don’t haveto pay for the big pipe before you havesubscribers,” Akin says. “You can growgracefully.” Second, they can add valueto their buildings by providing faster Internetservice than is available elsewherein the neighborhood. Each tenant canhave access to the full bandwidth if thereis no contention for it. (However, quality-of-servicefeatures are built into theTruffle, so that VoIP, for example, takespriority over file downloads. Buildingowners can even restrict certain types oftraffic to specific ports and lines, so thatpower users’ P2P traffic doesn’t slowdown traffic for other users.)Another important advantage ofbonding multiple access lines is that itincreases the reliability of the connection.“It’s better than having a singleline, because if that fails you’re in panicmode,” Akin says. “You’re still able toconnect to the Internet [if one line goesdown] because the box can use the upand-runninglines.”New Services via MushroomMushroom also markets the Truffle toservice providers, who can use it not onlyto provide high-speed services withoutputting additional hardware into thecore network, but also to develop newservice offerings such as “boosted T1” –a T1 line bonded to a DSL line. Combiningthe reliability and upload speedof a T1 with the cost-effective downloadspeed of DSL could create a packagethat is attractive to small businesses.Another new offering for serviceproviders might be aggregated T1 lines.96 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | July 2008