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Tropos Networks has announced its new adaptive mesh connectivity engine (AMCE), mesh software that provides a quantum leap in a network operator's ability to consistently deliver reliable Wi-Fi connections to a broad range of clients in a metro-scale mesh network. Tropos developed the AMCE software, which runs on Tropos MetroMesh routers, to compensate for the wide variations in Wi-Fi devices that use metro-scale mesh networks.

In addition, Tropos has incorporated new client reporting capability into Tropos Insight that provides network operators with the visibility into client operation and performance that they need to cost effectively manage their networks.

AMCE provides adaptive tuning on each Tropos MetroMesh router that dynamically accommodates the broad range of Wi-Fi clients used to access metro-scale mesh networks. Metro Wi-Fi networks that do not compensate for widely variable, often low-power, clients cannot provide predictable connections, compromising customer satisfaction. Based on knowledge gained while deploying the largest metro Wi-Fi customer base, AMCE enables Tropos MetroMesh networks to uniquely deliver the essentials of reliable client connectivity.

Even traditional, standards-compliant Wi-Fi client devices, such as laptop computers and Wi-Fi bridges used to connect homes to metro-scale Wi-Fi networks, exhibit wide variability in their technical parameters. Power output can range from 10 mW to 200 mW or more. Some clients stick to access points that offer poor connection quality; others wander from access point to access point.

Many clients connect to metro Wi-Fi networks at lower than optimal speeds, dramatically reducing client throughput. Mobility is another area of inconsistent performance on the part of Wi-Fi clients. These variations, tolerable in hot spot environments, cause unreliable connectivity in metro-scale settings, resulting in an inconsistent and frustrating user experience. And, as metro-scale Wi-Fi networks have become more popular, users have connected a wider range of Wi-Fi clients, including PDAs, cellular telephones, gaming devices, meter readers and surveillance cameras, to them, further increasing device variability and lowering reliability.