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

Aloha Net

[spotter]

This is somewhat interesting, as a lot of the research that went into what became ethernet was originally developed at the university of hawaii, as a wireless network, called Aloha http://www.nightflight.com/foldoc-bin/foldoc.cgi?A loha

Bob Metcalf (of xerox parc, later founding 3com) went on and basically took the protocol's and put them on a wire (instead of wireless), and this led to what we know of ethernet today.

what 802.11 adds to ethernet (that aloha didn't have) is the request to send/clear to send protocol which prevents the "hidden sender" problem from appearing. This problem is, wireless cards only have a certian range, card "a" might want to send data to card "b", and card "c" might want to send data to card "b", but "a" and "c" can't see each other, so their can be collisions which they will never know about because they can't see the collision. (unlike in ethernet, or in aloha, where all the hosts are assumed to be able to see each other)

Yes but....

[JoeLinux]

Do you really want to go to Hawaii to be geek'd up? Isn't the purpose of Hawaii to have a place where Geeks' take their wives so they will stop complaining? ("I want a week without you in front of a screen, where we will actually sit and talk" "Can I PLEASE just take my palmpilot? I won't even take the charger. Promise") Where a geek might actually see the daystar?

JoeLinux

Don't you mean

[backlonthethird]

Hawaii Wi-Fi-OH?

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.

Also on Maui

[Overcoat]

Wiecking's project to bring wireless net to the island Hawaii has gotten a lot of support from the University of Hawaii and the Maui High Performance Computing Center, which is also working to impelment wireless on Maui. The MHPCC has a site here with some nice info pages, including some helpful coverage maps. A lot of the areas the MHPCC's project covers are way out in the 'boonies (Honokaa, Kohala), so any geeks who are interested in doing the whole hermit-in-paradise thing might want to take note.

How To Do It Yourself

[hyrdra]

What this guy has accomplished here would really be a no-brainer for most on Slashdot. The only thing I can see stopping one is the financial aspect -- an even that's not high. $1000 will create a 256 user, 5 mile 802.11b omnidirectional network or a 25 mile PtP. Myself and three others are setting up a public network in Athens, Ohio. You would be amazed at how many cities will allow you to co-locate antennas on public service towers and buildings when you bill the service as non-profit and for the community.

Here is a low-down of the basic equipment needed for a high-range, omnidirectional base station:

- 15 dB 80" Omnidirectional Antenna
- 1W AGC Amplifier
- Linksys WAP11 (or your favorite AP here)
- N to N male Connector (amplifier to antenna)
- BNC to N male Connector (AP to amplifier)

All of the above cost under $800, and when situated in an area with good radio horizon, you can expect 11 Mbps for at least a mile, and 2 Mbps up to 10 (in some cases). Please note that it's against FCC regulations to operate a 2.4 GHz link at 1W with a 15 dB antenna. I doubt anything would come of it since it's not a huge increase over the limit in this area of the spectrum, however for the paranoid you should use an automatic gain control amp that adjusts power automatically to keep you legal.

Other than that it just depends on how much money you have to invest in these base stations to provide wireless roaming. What we have found is that two stations located near enough each other that they overlap tends to increase the power somewhat and allow more users on the system.

This is really the future. Once enough cities grow their own public wireless networks and the technology gets up in the 100 Mbps range (802.11a is not applicable as the range is very limited) at the current distance and power, we can say goodbye to the telecommunications giants for most things.

Re:How To Do It Yourself

[Skuld-Chan]

15 db omni directional antenna? Am I missing something here? In all my years an Amateur radio I've never seen an omni directional antenna that could do 15 db.

I think the reason why the fcc limits it to I think 6db is the effective radiated power for a higher gain antenna is in some cases (not if you're losing most it over the feedline, or that right angle adapter for the connector or whatever) exponential or in other words 1 watt becomes 10. You're probably losing a lot of gain on these cheap access points anyhow - just out of the way they are manufactured. But also 2.4 ghz is resonant with water and can make you blind or affect your eyesight at a high enough gain/power - and unlike amateur radio no-one makes you take a test to know that.

Re:How To Do It Yourself

[hyrdra]

Here is a link to one of the many 15 dB omni's available for the 2.4 GHz spectrum:

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2415u.html

Yes, it really does 15 dB. I've tested it.

Re:I have a question.

[hyrdra]

The 26 mile quote in the article was probably regarding a directional antenna on a base station. Of course, Hawaii doesn't have the buildings and urban sprawl of most other places in the US (or world for that matter), so it may be resonable to assume an amplified antenna on a high peak or mountain would receive such omnidirectional range. At least I would suspect Hawaii would have better range than in the states where there is a lot more RF in the air.

Or it could just be that the news article had it's wording wrong, and that he's actually operating 26 miles from his T1 land line via an array of 802.11b base stations.

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

What we use

[JoshuaDFranklin]

We've got a wireless network set up in two small towns here. We just hooked up a guy about 6mi. outside of town. It look a 40ft. antenna, but I digress.

We use antennas and amplifiers from Fleeman Anderson & Bird Corp.

We use antenna masts from Radio Shack.

We've found that the most reliable access points are Cisco Aironets, 340s or 350s. They can cost $1000-1500, though, so go with Linksys/SMC/Netgear if you're not that worried.

Also make sure you tie up cables on masts with something, like guy wire or metal cable ties, that doesn't disentigrate in a couple months. Always tape up the ends of the cables with electrical tape or use that rubbery stuff for protection from the weather.

And have fun!