America's Heartland Become Early Adopters of New Smart Wi-Fi

Ruckus Wireless, an innovator in next-generation smart Wi-Fi technology, today announced that Pioneer Telephone Cooperative (Pioneer), the third largest U.S. telephone cooperative and a leading provider of commercial IPTV services, is beginning a customer trial of its new in-home "smart Wi-Fi" system to enable subscribers to stream picture-perfect digital TV content to any corner of the home using standard 802.11g Wi-Fi technology. The Ruckus trial gives Pioneer a significant lead over other U.S. IPTV providers in offering subscribers a way to reliably move new digital content around the home over standard Wi-Fi.

The Ruckus smart Wi-Fi system is based on patent-pending technology that selects the best path through the air at any given time for a specific type of multimedia content, and directs Wi-Fi signals over that path to a given receiver instead of broadcasting it in all directions. If, however, that path experiences interference, the Ruckus system automatically steers the traffic over another path in real-time and ensures up to 20 Mbps of consistent bandwidth to every location in the home so there is no interruption in Wi-Fi transmissions.


The Pickup Truck Test

During its lab and trial phases, Pioneer rigorously tested the Ruckus Wi-Fi system to ensure it could handle virtually any and all types of interference. "We turned on microwave ovens, tread mill machines, dishwashers, variable speed fans and even grinders to see how the system would handle interference," said Ulsaker. "To our surprise, it worked flawlessly, since so many other Wi-Fi products we tested just couldn't deliver a consistent link in the face of interference."

According to Ulsaker, the ultimate test was placing a Ruckus access unit upside down in a file cabinet in a completely metal building. "We put the Ruckus receiver in a pickup truck and began streaming IPTV signals from the access unit to the Ruckus receiver. Then we drove the pickup truck off to see how far we could get before the stream stopped. To our amazement, we got nearly a block away before the video stopped."

Pioneer is planning a phased rollout of the Ruckus Wi-Fi system as part of its popular broadband services throughout this year.