Motorola Canopy

Motorola Canopy is a fixed wireless networking system designed for wireless Internet service providers to provide Internet access. It uses relatively large antennas suitable for long range 900 MHz communication, typically over 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long and 30 centimetres (12 in) or more wide, and these are subject to vibration in wind or due to motion, so this is not a true mobile technology.

Products are available in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. It includes both the original Motorola-designed products using the Canopy protocol and the PtP backhauls that were rebranded from Orthogon Systems which Motorola acquired in 2006.

Cambium Networks was created when Motorola Solutions sold the Canopy and Orthogon businesses in 2011. Cambium Networks has evolved the platform and expanded it to three product lines: Point to Point (PTP) (formerly Orthogon), Point to Multipoint (PMP) (formerly Canopy) and ePMP.

The technology competes with WiMAX, LTE and other long range mobile products, but not effectively with wired Internet, which is capable of much faster speeds and does not have wireless relay round trip delay. Competent Canopy implementations such as the Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative however have demonstrated VoIP, gaming and other low latency applications work acceptably over this system, and in areas of challenging weather including high wind conditions (which cause antennas to move and affect connections).