Starting up a WiMAX ISP

Tue Apr 27 15:16:59 UTC 2010

Firstly, there's a lot of "WiMAX specific information" to learn, so don't skimp on that. Beyond the basics of the protocol, you need to be familiar with RF engineering, installation and troubleshooting, along with FCC rules and regs.  I'm a WiFi engineer by day, and I've found that my understanding of it has greatly eased my introduction to WiMAX, so you may want to check out the CWNA primer if you're unfamiliar with things like EIRP, dB math and/or modulation/coding schemes.  As for equipment suppliers, we're currently evaluating a product from PureWave. Two other vendors would be Alvarion and Huawei.  As for towers, you may want to look at collapsible winch-based towers or similiar, if finding a climber in the sticks proves difficult. 

Running an ISP is a little different from an enterprise net. You need to think about things like billing, CALEA compliance, your support model, and the basics of running a business. WISP margins tend to be rather low, so you may find yourself wearing many hats. If you're not comfortable running a business, you can try finding a local entrepreneur, preferably who can fund you, to run that side of the house. 

The core network of your WISP should be as simple as possible while remaining robust. Think carefully about your needs and how to elegantly address them. This is critical to financial success. 

If you're in an environment with hills and nice lines of sight to many customers, you really should look at WiFi-based PTMP systems instead. They offer you a significant throughput enhancement at much-reduced cost, but do require LOS. Ubiquiti Networks makes some very low-cost gear that works amazingly, and they have some knowledgeable people in their forums. Alvarion also has an offering in this sector (BreezeAccess VL) but it's older, rather cumbersome and quite 'spensive.  You are more susceptible to interference with these systems, but you also have more channels to choose from. 

Finally, if you're out in the sticks and dialup's really the only option, you need to know about the Rural Utilities Service - USDA.gov/rus/

Adam Henson
adam at nasa.gov
________________________________________
From: Charles Bronson [packetgeek at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 7:00 AM
To: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Starting up a WiMAX ISP

Looking for advice...

I live in central / western New York state (think villages and farms). There are a good number of hills but no mountains. I have solid LAN experience and experience facing a smaller network to
the Internet. I was network admin for a medium size enterprise network (I.e. design and implementation including LAN, Internet connectivity, VPN, routers, DNS, mail, webservers, physical servers, etc). I would like to build a local ISP that can serve high speed internet access to the more rural areas whose only option is dial up access, well away from the CO. It would also be nice to compete with the cable company and DSL for customers in the villages.

I have been researching information for design / implementation of WiMAX, equipment suppliers, contractors to help with installation of tower equipment and acquiring tower space, but have been coming up empty handed.

What resources are available to help me bridge the gap from where I am to what I need to know to get started and what specific technologies would you recommend I bone up on? I know beyond the WiMAX specific information, I will probably need to cozy up to BGP, maybe MPLS for traffic between the core and towers? Also do you have any suggestions on where I can find suppliers and service vendors in this field? Networks are my passion and am willing to dig in, but I need some direction.

Thanks for you help an insight.

 Charles Bronson