System and method for providing wireless internet services

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention comprises a wireless communication network topology having a wireless head end coupled to multiple Internet Service Providers, which are in turn coupled to the Internet. In addition, the topology features a radio transceiver in a tower coupled to the wireless head end via an Ethernet switch for sending and receiving data to and from customer premise equipment, which in turn is coupled to a host computer or a network of host computers. The wireless head end may perform traffic control and forwarding operations for data received from the Network Service Providers and the host computer(s). The wireless head end may also perform security measures to ensure that only messages from valid host computers are forwarded to the Network Service Providers. The customer premise equipment can assign a private IP address range to the computer(s) and perform network address translation.

1 . A wireless communications network, comprising: 
 customer premises equipment to securely provide access by multiple internet service providers to multiple subscriber entities, each of which utilizes a customer premises equipment unit, across a shared/switched ethernet delivery infrastructure using techniques which allow but do not require the use of IP routing or encapsulation of customer transmitted data, and presenting the network capabilities and interfaces to both the subscriber and the ISP resembling that of a DSL network.