Hawaii Wi-Fi

wyldchild37 writes "Through all the hype about 802.11b, I haven't seen too many real applications being talked about. Now that's starting to change. Here's a story on a guy who has set up a wireless network covering a good chunk of the Big Island of Hawaii. His network includes base stations wherever he can place them, along with an assortment of amplifiers, antennas, and other gear."

Comments

Wi-Fi like the I-net

[dooguls]

IMHO the most interesting part of the article was the mention of the growth of Wi-Fi for free as a parallel for the growth of the Internet as a medium to freely share ideas and disperse knowledge and understanding. I hope the author's dream does come true. I'd love to see wireless access to the I-net as prevelant as cell phone access is or better for that matter.

Scalability issues

[WTC Survivor]

Things may have changed in recent years, but I recall reading a while back that there is a frightningly small amount of bandwidth between the continental U.S. and Hawaii. Although this guy may be able to share his little T1 with about 30-40 people, I can attest (from personal experience) that 1) he is going to need to start installing more lines to go past that, and 2) the more lines he needs, the higher the marginal cost will get, because the wired links between the U.S. and Hawaii max out at about 36Mbps. That 36Mbps needs to be split amongst all of the 1337 wireless jockeys on the island, as well as all other voice and data telephone traffic. When the population (about 650,000 as of the last census) is taken into account, that doesn't leave a lot of room left for his project to grow. Which is, IMHO, unfortunate.

That leaves the residents of the island who hunger for faster speeds two options: 1) put up with 4.5sec latencies and use satellites to move data between Hawaii and the rest of the world, or 2) beg their sugar daddies in D.C. for a few million dollars to upgrade the island's aging hardwired links. Or 3) route low-latency traffic (games, ssh, etc.) over the T1, and route downloads over the satellite.

I have a question.

[Latent IT]

If he can get a 26 mile range out of 802.11, well, how? I can understand that that's the top range with an amazing directional antenna, and if you amplify it, maybe it doesn't have to be directional. But how does the signal from the laptop (and the amazingly sissy antenna) reach the 26 mile ranged base station?

Flame away, if you want. I'm actually curious now. =)

Probably a stupid question

[Anthracks]

I'm not exactly an expert on wireless internet, but where does the bandwidth to connect this network to the rest of the internet come from? I was under the impression almost all broadband providors don't take kindly to a wireless link providing free access for all to their network. Do these projects just have a very generous ISP behind them, or is it done without their knowledge, or what? I'm curious how this was pulled off at this end of the connection.

The right idea for the wrong place

[SONET]

This guy has a neat idea, but he sure didn't pick a very good place to implement it.

I spent a few months out of every year on the Big Island when I was growing up (my dad lives there) and still visit once or twice a year. For those of you that haven't been there, the terrain is not by any means well-suited for wireless communications. There are hills and valleys everywhere. Cell phone companies have a hell of a time providing decent service there (try being in a car and riding down the road a few miles while on the phone, you often get disconnected). My brother provided the land for a big AT&T tower on his ranch, and the tower more or less covers the northern part of the island. It seems about the only place to get decent reception on the nothern part of the island is on the ranch itself. Taking this into consideration, I would guess this guy is going to need lots of people participating to get this working very well.

I have to point out the that the reporter made an incorrect statement about broadband availability on the island. My dad has had a cable modem for years (so have his friends all over the island), and it seems to work better than mine does in California. And DSL was available to him even before it was at my house or office in Orange County. The only problem is, as others have mentioned, the island chain isn't connected up very well with the rest of the world. But the pipes don't seem to be saturated just yet... he gets good ping times to the mainland and he usually has more bandwidth to different sites around the world than I do (yes I realize there are other variables heh). Whatever the case, I wish reporters could get their facts straight. I guess it sounded better for him to say that nothing else was available there. It may be an island, but it is no longer the boonies (unfortunately) - it is pretty developed there and the place is growing at a very fast rate.

Anyway, still a cool idea... I look forward to checking it out on my next trip over there. Maybe I missed it (I'm in need of some sleep!), but where is he getting the Internet connection to share with everyone? If each base station was contributing... wouldn't that mean that some of these people had broadband in their homes to begin with in order for them to contribute?

--SONET

Re:Aloha Net

[AndroidCat]

Really? Damn, I was forced to learn about it by reading _Packet Radio_ by Robert Rouleau VE2PY and Ian Hodgson VE2BEN, and hanging around the university amateur radio station, VE2CUA.

Of course there was no packet radio at the time in the U.S. because they didn't allow the modulation type.

Bob and Norm later went on to form a company (PacketData?) to do their hobby commercially, and NASA bought some of their units for the Mars Rover to base station links.

Meanwhile what I learned about packets helped wonders on a number of projects. However my CDC-6600 assembler course hasn't gotten me any jobs at all. Go figure!