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Non Line of Sight Broadband
gfilion writes "IEEE Spectrum has an
article about nifty wireless adapters that don't require LOS. At first, NLOS wireless may not sound like a big deal. After all, ordinary radios and cellphones are non-line-of-sight devices. But they don't carry broadband data. What makes the latest generation of NLOS wireless technology worth talking about and having is that it delivers data at high rates over substantial distances."
Actually, FM radio is line of sight.
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This is especially good for people like me, who reside in rural areas. One of the biggest bottlenecks on geting broadband up in the mountains is the fact that trenchs are expensive to dig (damned granite) and that there is no line of site.
Hopefully something useful is done with this and some committee in congress doesn't deem it a threat to 'homeland security'.
Linux is dead.
LU
Finally I can take down my tent under that tower and move in with girl I really love.
That's really strange. Doesn't AOL cost $30/mo already? What this apparently says is that even though users can have 24x7 net access at a higher speed that doesn't tie up their phone line for a lower cost, they'll stick with what they have.
Who paid for the study, Disney?
Ok, I'm not scared enough to wear a tinfoil suit... but I'm somewhat worried about the rapid growth of wireless gear, especially those gizmos that brag about their ability to trasmit thru almost anything. Is there a point where our wireless usage will begin to cause some damage to the human body? That's a lot of energy zipping around every which way.
I know nothing about this field... but I am curious.
Wow, now I can blow the dust off of my Antron-99 and 40 foot mast. And during the day, I may be even able to lower my routes with skip!
Per household reached, its always cheaper for a wireless solution than a wireline system. Of course that return doesn't start happening until you've got quite a few people buying your service.
It costs on average about $1000-$5000 per home passed by cable. So you can start out building your network small. Or you can spend several hundred thousand dollars to over a million to build a TV station and reach a whole city.
Michael
--
The opinions expressed above are those off one side of my brain, the other side and my employer may not agree.
The opinions expressed above are those off one side of my brain, the other side and my employer may not agree.
My house is encircled and enshrouded by a dense cover of mature mapple and walnut trees, such that I'm unable to mooch off my company's wireless internet because there is no line of sight and the trees degrade the connection so badly that it's not even worth trying if there were.
Once this comes down in price(I'm guessing it's still semi-expensive since it's newer technology) it will be great for all the rural areas out here in the sticks.
A friend that owns an ISP in this area already has plans in the works to create a 802.11x grid in the areas surrounding my town in order to provide high-speed access to the farmers and very small towns(less than 50 people) that don't have any form of cable or dsl. So far the only hang-up has been the construction of towers in the void areas where there are no grain bins or elevators tall enough out in the areas where an access point and repeater is needed. Judging by the information provided in this article he may be able to skip out on some of these towers due to the greater distance provided by the NLOS technology.
Duris MUD - The best pkill MUD. Ever.
And of course the WONDERFULLY INTELLIGENT AND FRIENDLY CUSTOMER SERVICE/TECH SUPPORT REPS have NOTHING to do with the lack of people getting/staying with broadband. I know when MYcable modem was going out DAILY from 2pm-6pm they rushed right out to fix it!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Excuse me, but TV is non-line of sight, and moves a lot of data (precious little INFORMATION, but that's another rant).
www.eFax.com are spammers
"maintaining an adequate signal-to-noise ratio would require a service provider to install a transceiver base station every 50 meters, a proposition that would appear to be prohibitively expensive"
50 meters? Hmmm...
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Huh? I pay $21.95 for 40Kbps dialup access and $22/month for a second phone line. I'd sure as hell pay $40 a month for HIGH SPEED access. In fact, I'd pay double that without blinking. Right now I'm looking into frame and 802.11 solutions, but I have trouble stomaching $550/month for T-1 speeds, and I've had only minimal luck finding people who are interested in $50/month colo (hey, if you're interested, e-mail me). All I want is high speed, no restrictions on running VPNs, and low latency (so I can use ssh).
And frankly, it seems MARKETING is the real problem. If you offered $20/month dialup users access which was 2.5 times their existing speed for the same cost, they'd be crazy not to take it. So, MARKET it at 128kbps for $20/month, $30/month for 256kbps, $40 for 512kbps, etc. Bandwidth is like a drug - once you realize what you can do with it, you always want more. Maybe people aren't interested in paying $40/month when they spend $20 and use a computer 30 minutes each week, but if you get them in the habit of sitting down whenever they want to look something up, find a recipe, phone number, etc, they will soon *realize* what benefits a permanent, high speed connection have. Heck, think how many trees the phone company would save if everyone used the internet to look up phone numbers, and they stopped printing phone books.
From the article:
Outside of playing interactive games, which is hardly a universal activity, no broadband "killer app" has yet emerged.
I don't know about you, but isn't quickly pirating movies and music a KILLER app? If I had broadband connection like my brother, I would probably have a collection of 200 some movies too.
So what's the real reason? You have a killer app, and a low price in some areas, yet only a fraction of people are subscribing to it? Something is fishy...
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
Wiredog's right.
FM broadcast radio, as well as cell phones, and broadcast television work in the VHF and UHF bands.
Because of the frequency of the carrier wave, these bands propagate using line of sight which means that the signal's means of propagation are not by reflecting off of something such as the ground or sky.
Lower frequencies, such as local AM broadcast use ground wave propagation, because the signal reflects off of the ground.
Short wave radio tends to propagate using sky wave propagation, because the radio signal bounces off of the earth's ionosphere. This is often refered to as "skip" and can cause signals to travel across the globe.
I hadn't thought of that. Compensate for insecure WEP with a bunch of maple trees. Restrict the signal to your yard.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
The highlights: non-line of sight, near symmetric T1 speeds to the home user, VOIP, low latency, and adaptive beam-forming. If you're too far for DSL or cable, check us out.
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
Turn on a radio or television where you normally hang out. If you get a signal you are in the RF field of that broadcast station. Wireless communication works by generating a very small voltage in any conductive material in the RF field....so anywhere you can pickup radio, television, or cell-phone signal, you have a voltage being generated in your body.
As a comparison, the voltages generated by the human nervous system are much higher since you don't lose motor control every time you enter one of these RF fields.
You probably want to avoid standing in front of a Megawatt radar station on an Aegis class destroyer, and sticking your head in a running microwave....but other than that I wouldn't worry.
-ted
I have a better question for you, what is a fast PCI slot? All the PCI slots I have are the same. I suppose you could mean a 64-bit PCI slot, heh that'd be overkill for a modem.
Dontcha think he meant a 'fast modem' in a PCI configuration? I haven't been able to find the reference you mentioned so I can't read the context.
On a side note: Would a 64-bit PCI slot be better suited for a Video Card than an AGP port? Just curious, I'm not very knowledgable of such things.
"Derp de derp."
You aren't very clever then. Raise an antenna over the top of the trees somewhere, either a small one bolted to a high limb somewhere, or if the trees aren't so tall, put up a 30' pole or so. Run a line down from it, and buy some conduit to put it inside the house.
Only the antenna itself has to be outside the blockage.
Sprint has field trials going using technology from IP Wireless and Navini Networks [Annoying Flash].
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'm no expert, but if you get the antenna even a few feet above the canopy, that would be enough, wouldn't it?
As for defeating the purpose of wireless, I think you may have missed the point. The point is getting broadband access, not the fact that you can get it wireless, right? Personally, wireless is only good for my iPaq, and to a lesser extent, my laptop. Put up your own cheap WAP, if that's what you want.
Someone addressed the whole lightning risk thing... again, I'm no expert, but aren't there decent ways to fix this?
Signal loss is a big issue, not sure how I'd handle it. If you're talking cat5, that means you're within 100 meters, which is plenty close to not worry about this. If it is indeed too far for cat5, it's still unlikely to be too far for whatever coax is appropriate for this, is it not?
As for running conduit, you're only talking $1.50 per 10ft... I just checked at Home Depot the other day. It's shitty work, but only ever has to be done once.
Unlicensed NLOS with a range up to 20 miles. Only supports 14Kb/sec or so, but that's all CDPD supports, and it costs $30/month. Now why hasn't anyone come out with cards running on MURS frequencies? I sure would buy one.
TV is LOS... But I can still pick up the signal THROUGH MY WALL?!? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?!?! Obviously you're just a bit clueless yourself since non LOS reception is based on the density material being transimitted through. I can't see much problem in the reception part. But transmitting? Whoa. Depending on where you are relative to the tower, you're going to need a huge signal just to get the data there in one piece. What's the average output of a TV/Radio antenna? How many thousands of watts? Steak won't be the only thing well done at your house. Neighbors will love yas.
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I've been a big fan of NLOS wireless for a couple years now. I wish the article had mentioned my favorite wireless vendor, a Canadian company called WaveRider. They have been designing and building LOS and NLOS systems for several years, including ones that are customer-installable (no "truck roll" cost). Their staff is friendly and their service is first rate, and no I don't work for them.