I don't know if you all have been following what is going on with Qualcomm and their acquisition of Atheros, but I think you should be watching this carefully.
http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2 ... -solutions

Qualcomm sells carrier cellular components and owns the CDMA and LTE world. They are a juggernaut that will not stop. When they acquired Atheros it was to add a "complimentary" product offering in the Wi-fi space. I think this is really bad news for all of the WISP world that depends on Atheros components to deliver flexibility (ns2, nstreme, frequency flexibility, quarter and half channels, etc).

It is not in Qualcomms interest to continue to allow the WISP community to develop products that compete with LTE, EVDO and other data oriented carrier services. We have already seen Atheros start to scale back on the product line and I would guess that the days of the HAL are numbered. Qualcomm will neuter the Atheros products so that they can no longer compete in "private" wireless networks. It is only a matter of time. I fear that it will be a short time.

I have been looking at alternatives and the one that really seems to come forward as having close to the features and functions of Atheros is RaLink.

I would really like to see Mikrotik consider broader support for competing chipsets like RaLink that would mitigate the significant risk that the change of ownership of Atheros poses to all of us.

Having a number of options, rather than having all of our eggs in the Atheros basket would be a prudent idea.

Comments?

Nobody has any comments on this?

I fear this as well... I have a buddy that works at Q in that area and I will ask him if he knows what was the goal was.

Don't think that it will be an issue for the next time. They spent a lot of money to aquire Atheros ... Big affiliated groups are working very slow. Beware that the products of Atheros are consumer products. Indoor AP or WLAN for Notebooks do not really compete to LTE.

I have more concerns about the direction MT will go ... The open to many working sites. They should so a variants optimation of the routerboard portfolio and spend their manpower into the development of wireless (f.e. FDD in 5GHz or professional networking (f.e. real full mpls implementation or switched Metro Ring Protocol)

It is all about Linux kernel support for those different brand cards. If it is not there then that is it - no support possible.

The dependency on Linux support is understood. Ralink seems to have to closest level of openness to Atheros. What is needed is for someone like MT or Compex to start a strategic discussion about migrating to the Ralink chipset in order to mitigate risk and foster competition. The problem I see is that there is no Sam Leffler working with other chipset manufacturers, so there are no equivalent alternatives.

While Qualcomm may market Atheros chips (it would not make sense for them to stop this given how much they paid for them) it does make sense for them to close up the HAL, take away the openness and make the chips less competitive to LTE. "Complimentary" means that 802.11 devices will be relegated to short range indoor applications with LTE and femto cells based on LTE taking up the "last mile" WISP space. Qualcomm's entire world is based on large carriers and enabling their business. WISPs are a distraction that I am sure they would want to do without.

If LTE becomes the only game in town, we will all struggle to figure out a new business model, and my guess is that we won't be able to compete with the big guys very effectively.

Now is the time to find alternatives. If not Ralink, then someone else. Broadcom and Intel certainly aren't it. Intersil is dead. Realtek has proven to have poor quality.

The RT28xx chipset is pretty open and there are several people developing driver support. I have no preference other than this become a strategic roadmap item for MT.

It may be a way to also steer around Ubiquiti. It will be painful and take time, but it would be worth the effort.

The Dog