An IEC panel on Monday, tasked with determining what radio technology would ultimately dominate mesh, came up with a simple answer: All of them.

From all corners of the industry, each panelist cited different reasons for deploying mesh and championed different architectures, but on the fundamental question of whether WiMAX would displace Wi-Fi or vice versa, everyone seemed to agree that both technologies would play prominent roles in the mesh networks of the future.

“The bottom line is we need all of these technologies,” said James Farstad, president and CEO of rClient, a consultancy to municipalities deploying mesh networks. “It’s not a question of either/or; it’s and/and.”

Both Tropos Networks and BelAir Networks executives laid out road maps that incorporated WiMAX into mesh, sometimes merely as a backhaul technology linking 802.11g or 802.11n access points and, in other instances, creating architectures that combined WiMAX and Wi-Fi access radios while still using WiMAX for backhaul transport. Although WiMAX provides better capacity and greater range, the ubiquity and cheapness of Wi-Fi-enabled devices can’t be ignored, said Chari Narasimha, chief architect and co-founder of Tropos.

“Wi-Fi is already built into numerous devices today,” Narasimha said. “That is something we should keep in mind.” Tapping into that growing Wi-Fi user base will be critical to mesh networks adoption, but that doesn’t mean that WiMAX as an access technology should be discounted, Narasimha and other panelists said. There will be needs for tiered services and dedicated capacity for enterprises and other high-dollar users, something WiMAX over licensed spectrum can deliver.

Wireless ISP TowerStream CEO Jeff Thompson said that his company is approaching mesh from the opposite direction. TowerStream originally deployed point-to-multipoint broadband wireless gear and is now launching Fixed WiMAX to provide dedicated fixed broadband to medium-sized businesses. But now TowerStream is investigating both Mobile WiMAX and mesh technologies, as a way to expand beyond business broadband services to consumer mobility.

“It’s not the technology that’s important,” Thompson said. “It’s the business model.”