With the release yesterday of the first of a new line of mesh WiFi routers from Tropos Networks Inc. , the tech wars in the mesh networking space entered a new phase.

As foreseen by Unstrung (and spotted in the field by an alert Unstrung reader), the new 5320 outdoor MetroMesh router is the first dual-radio node from Tropos. To date the company has stressed the ability of the software on its single-radio devices to keep up with throughput in outdoor wireless networks, while competitors like BelAir Networks Inc. have been producing multi-radio setups for more than a year. (See Mesh Mash-Up.)

"Mesh vendors without significant outdoor deployment experience throw a bunch of radios in a box and think they’re done," said Saar Gillai, vice president of engineering at Tropos, in a statement. "Providing affordable capacity in wireless mesh networks is less about the number of radios in the system and more about the efficiency with which the system uses the spectrum those radios access."

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— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung