Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is StreamStar™?
A. StreamStar™ is a wireless Point to Multipoint (PtMP) system. A PtMP system usually consists of a base station and multiple remote units connected to the base station wirelessly. Altogether, they form one large wireless network which then can be used for Internet access, campus/compound networking, and more. A WISP (Wireless ISP) for example, can use StreamStar™ to provide broadband Internet access to customers in a large area of their choice.

Q. On which frequency bands does StreamStar™ operate?
A. StreamStar™ is available for the frequency bands which are designated as free in most countries: 900 MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8Ghz. A licensed 3.5GHz is also available.

Q. Is StreamStar™ yet another 802.11 WLAN system?
A. No, StreamStar™ is not an 802.11 system. 802.11 WLAN systems are designed for indoor, short range use. There are many systems that attempt to use the 802.11 technology for large-scale, Point to Multipoint use by using large antennas, outdoor enclosures, amplifiers and so on, but that is like trying to mount bulletproofing and turbo engines onto a Beetle. For Point to Point connections, 802.11 works well because there are only 2 points involved. However, in PtMP there is one very important thing to consider - the MAC, Medium Access Control - technique, or the way the system manages the communications of many nodes participating in the network. 802.11 WLAN uses CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection), which is a version of wired Ethernet adapted for wireless use. Its wired counterpart works well, but unfortunately wireless medium is more unpredictable than wired media and that results in many inefficiencies in the WLAN protocol, which make it very inefficient in any PtMP network that has more than 20 nodes linked together. As more nodes join, the network begins to suffer from collisions (two or more nodes transmitting at the same time) and performance quickly begins to degrade. At short ranges (up to 200 meters, which WLAN is designed for) this problem is not very significant. However serious WISPs need to cover areas as large as 30km in diameter and serve thousands of customers, and the 802.11 technology is simply unable to cope with this requirement.
StreamStar™ uses an entirely different, much more advanced MAC (Medium Access Control) system to govern the wireless medium. StreamStar™'s MAC is designed around the carefully designed 802.16 MAC layer. This technology was developed specially for high-capacity Point to Multipoint systems and is much more efficient, delivers higher data rates, and can handle much more users at once without performance degradation.

Q. Is StreamStar™ a secure system?
A. Yes. StreamStar™ uses a proprietary scrambling mechanism to secure data transmissions, in addition to the security inherently provided by its OFDM radio technology. Unlike 802.11 systems, StreamStar™'s signal cannot be "sniffed" by similar devices. StreamStar™ is fully authenticated based on layers 2 and 3 and does not rely on WLAN's weak 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption protocols.

Q. How many subscribers can be served with StreamStar™?
A. StreamStar™ is a modular, highly scalable system. The basic building blocks are outdoor Access Units, which serve a certain area (depending on antennas). Each Access Unit can handle 512 subscribers. It is possible to install multiple base stations (cells) and cover large areas with thousands of subscribers.

Q. What bandwidth does StreamStar™ support?
A. Each of StreamStar™ Access Units has a raw data rate of 48 Mbps. However real IP data rates in all systems are less than the raw air data rates because of overheads and other factors. StreamStar™ can deliver up to 25 Mbps usable IP throughput per Access Unit. As an example, a base station made of 4 Access Units will have a total real IP capacity of 100 Mbps.

Q. How is StreamStar™ managed?
A. StreamStar™ comes with complete NMS (Network Management System) software. All StreamStar™ units can be managed from within this graphical, easy to use interface regardless of frequency band, model or type (Access Unit, CPE). StreamStar™'s NMS allows complete management, monitoring, and provisioning of the entire system, including adding/removing customers, managing QoS, viewing reports and RF statistics, faults, and more.

Q. Does StreamStar support Voice over IP?
A. Yes, StreamStar provides native support for prioritizing VoIP traffic. Unlike regular data transfers, VoIP is sensitive to delays and jitter and needs a stable and reliable packet flow. StreamStar provides a built-in bandwidth management mechanism, which ensures that voice traffic has priority over other data and always gets the necessary bandwidth.