What does Accel Net do?

Accel  Net provides high-speed wireless dedicated Internet access and TCP/IP communication services to large, medium, small businesses, home offices or serious residential computer users.

Accel Net is the first true alternative to the copper-based telephone company monopoly.

What is the connection speed?

Our system provides a minimum of 3.5 Megabits per second bandwidth, fully symmetrical, of dedicated Internet access. The system connects via 10baseT (RJ-45) directly into an Ethernet LAN or PC. The protocol is TCP/IP.

We can offer almost any connection speed from our base rate up to 100 Megabits per second.  Some of our bigger customers have contracted for speeds from 10 to 20 Megabits per second.

Our customer access equipment consists of a small antenna and a fully two-way capable packet radio transceiver.  Customers are required to provide some means of isolating their LAN traffic from our over-the-air traffic by utilizing a managed Ethernet router.  Accel Net requires that this demarcation router or gateway be SNMP enabled and MIB-2 compatible.  Accel Net can help you select the right product for this application or can provide the customer a DSL router at a minimal cost.

No other special interface equipment is required.

What is Accel Net’s service area?

Accel Net serves a very large area in Seattle and is expanding to the rural areas in and around the Puget Sound region. Distances between our major hubs and a customer may be up to 20 miles.

If the customer is within 1 to 5 miles of a hub site, service can often be established through building windows, walls and through trees. If you live outside this range or do not have line of site to our hubs, often we can arrange for a special relay link that will bring service to your neighborhood at a slightly higher installation rate.

Outside of this close-in region, line-of-sight is generally required between the hub and the customer antenna. In most cases, rooftop mounting of the antenna and radio is generally recommended for best performance.  Many options exist for mounting the equipment; roof tops, vertical walls, peaked roofs, chimneys and even in the tops of tall fir trees.

What is the technology?

The Accel Net system utilizes an advanced type of radio technology known as Spread Spectrum and has adopted the type known as direct sequence.  Spread Spectrum was developed by the military to be extremely reliable and immune to RF interference or jamming by other signals.

What is the network reliability?

Our system uses very low frequency, point-to-multipoint microwaves and is totally immune to the effects of weather.

Typical circuit availability for our service is 99.95%, which is comparable to any wireline or optical fiber system.

What is the network security?

A router is required at the customer interface providing ultimate security for the customer’s LAN traffic. Only packets bound to and from the Internet ever get sent over-the-air thus safe-guarding the customer’s local LAN traffic.

As an added bonus of Spread Spectrum technology, over-the-air communications are extremely safe and secure from eavesdropping. The signal is authenticated, frequency scrambled and data encrypted so that even if someone were to use the very same radio equipment, they would still not be able to gain access to the network or any customer’s data.  If a customer is concerned about sending sensitive data over the public Internet, a variety of encryption software is available as well as virtual private networking or VPN services.

Any unauthorized attempt to break into the system will signal an alarm and an automatic refusal of service.

How is the system managed?

The system is fully managed and monitored on a 7x24 basis. Accel Net’s management system is a state-of-the-art SNMP system, fully alarmed and maintained by highly trained professional communications personnel on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Traffic activity is automatically monitored and reported in 5-minute intervals. This information is graphically available to each customer on a private Web site. Each customer can know exactly how much bandwidth he is using at any time.

How is a typical installation done?

The system is extremely simple to install and requires no waiting period for permits, provisioning, FCC licensing or frequency clearances. Typically a customer can be up and running in just a few hours.

The antenna and radio and router are very small and unobtrusive. Typically, the antenna is no more than a foot square and the radio box is even smaller. The physical installation is very similar to installing a DBS digital satellite television antenna.

The cable connecting to the customer’s LAN or PC is nothing more than a CAT 5 Ethernet cable with an RJ-45 connector. A small indoor plug-in transformer supplies power to the radio equipment through the same cable.  The router is usually located indoors with the power supply.

Total power consumption is generally less than 40 watts.

Return to the top of this page.