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

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.