Tel Aviv, Israel-based Lannet Ltd has formed a company to develop a family of wireless local network and internetworking products, the first of which was announced at the same time. Called Lannair Ltd and based in Tel Aviv too, the new company will focus its efforts on products using frequency-hopping spread-spectrum technology for both Token Ring and Ethernet networks. Few details are yet available, but the company says the products should ship during the first half of next year. The new product, dubbed the EthAirBridge, is a remote wireless Simple Network Management Protocol-manageable bridge operating in the 2.4GHz frequency band. Lannair makes strong claims for the range of the product, saying it can operate at distances of up to 15 miles: for this reason the company is pitching it as an alternative for leased lines, or where cabling proves problematic. Full-duplex throughput of 76.8Kbps is claimed and the product is also said to incorporate an optional 4:1 data compression scheme. Other features are said to include address learning and filtering, while the company says customised layers and filters can be created based on protocol type, network layer address and a library of up to 18 mask statements possible per port. A second optional V.24 or V.35 wide area network link for automatic dial-up back-up has also been incorporated; these are claimed to support data rates of 64Kbps and 2.048Mbps respectively. Lannair says the product has been certified as compliant with European Telecommunications Standards Institute standards by the Swiss PTT and that it has Federal Communications Commission approval for use in the US and the Radiocommunications Agency approval in the UK. There is no word yet on pricing, but the EthAirBridge – along with Lannair’s other forthcoming products – will be available globally through Lannet’s existing distribution channels.
