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Non Line of Sight Broadband

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wouldn't-it-be-nice dept.

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."

13 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. getting my life back by orcldba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally I can take down my tent under that tower and move in with girl I really love.

  2. Noone wants broadband? by Enry · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What if you built a network and nobody came? The February 2002 FCC report also cited a survey from the Strategis Group (Washington, D.C.) that found that only 12 percent of on-line customers were willing to pay $40 per month for high-speed access, a number that rose to only 30 percent when the price was dropped to $25 per month.

    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?

    1. Re:Noone wants broadband? by fruey · · Score: 3, Insightful
      When offering staff here a better webmail client, more than 50% said they would rather stick with what they have than to change. With training included, and additional features explained, I might add.

      Saving $5 a month but having to learn a new interface, change email, or any other impediment, will stop a large number of users who read maybe 2 sites a week and read email on a non-daily basis. Broadband as a business model is shaky to say the least. Those consumers who want it happen to be those that are least wanted as consumers by the ISPs. Their cuddly minimal use people will be tying up modem pools for decades to come.

      --
      Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
    2. Re:Noone wants broadband? by scott1853 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I work for an ISP in a rural area. People call up all the time because they signed up for AOL and then they got their first phone bill and... you know the rest. But quite a few actually insist on keeping their AOL service even though we provide the same thing but without the flashy software with the "you got mail" WAV file. So they're will to pay us $18/month and whatever AOL is charging for an outside ISP account now ($10?).

  3. Am I the only one that's tired of radiation? by green+pizza · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Am I the only one that's tired of radiation? by jandrese · · Score: 5, Funny

      Better not go outside. There is the daystar thing some people refer to as the "Sun". This Sun emits tremendous amounts of radiation all across the spectrum. Fortunatly the stuff in the high spectrum is absorbed by the Ozone layer, but most of our radios operate at much lower frequencies than that. Be careful though, if you spent too much time in line of sight of the sun, it can actually burn your skin!

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  4. This is good news(great if you're in the sticks)! by dlur · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
  5. Re:ordinary radios ...are non line of sight by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not. not by a long shot.

    FM is Frequency Modulation. it is a mode of transmitting. what you are talinkg about FM or the 88-108Megahertz broadcast band, is not line of sight. that low of a frequency has both ground waves and sky-waves. this is how in west michigan I can recieve WLUP Chicago on 97.9MHZ easily by swinging a directional gain antenna in that direction. Also, Frequencies from 88MHZ up past 450MHZ also can take advantage of tropospheric ducting.

    Line of sight doesn't start until past 1.2 GHZ 802.11 equipment at 2.4ghz act like line of sight outside because of water vapro and water bearing items (leaves, squirrels, children) suck up large amounts of signal..

    so NO FM is not line of sight. not in the correct term nor in your definition.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. Re:ordinary radios ...are non line of sight by Muad'Dave · · Score: 3, Informative

    Modulation schemes have nothing to do with whether a particular transmission is line-of-sight or not. Carrier frequency does. I assume by "FM radio" you mean commercial broadcast FM as in 88-108 MHz. Why then was I receiving 96.5 WFLB (which is in Fayetteville, NC) in Richmond, VA the other morning (which has a 96.5 of its own)? Hint - Tropospheric Ducting (or tropo-ducto, as I call it, since it's nearly indistinguishable from magic - presto-chango and all that).

    In general, as frequency increases, so does the line-of-sight nature of the RF. Light, being extremely high frequency RF, is very much line-of-sight. AM Radio, being between 540 kHz and 1600 kHz, can span the globe because of groundwave bending and ionospheric ducting. Amateur radio operators deal with lots of different propagation modes all the time.

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  7. TV by wowbagger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:TV by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 3, Funny

      But shooting at it shuts it right up.

      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  8. WTF? by uslinux.net · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The February 2002 FCC report also cited a survey from the Strategis Group (Washington, D.C.) that found that only 12 percent of on-line customers were willing to pay $40 per month for high-speed access, a number that rose to only 30 percent when the price was dropped to $25 per month.

    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.

  9. I want MURS by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.