Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

DoD Dreams of Efficient Spectrum Usage

Posted by michael on from the spectrum-spectrum-everywhere-and-nary-a-drop-to-drink dept.

Unstrung writes "US Military research agency DARPA is sick of all those static-filled cellphone calls and dropped connections too. The shadowy eggheads are working on a way of using the bandwidth available today more efficiently."

3 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. GSM by Zephy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not just convert everything to GSM? it works fine for the rest of the world. You never get static (digital transmission), and the call drop rate is a lot lower than analogue

  2. Re:Doubt it. by PD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me shorten that down a bit for you:

    The efficiency isn't about money, it's about efficiently destroying the enemy, weighed against the expense of our own soldier's lives.

    --
    If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
  3. Must be listening to George Gilder by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Insightful

    George Gilder has been talking about this for years. He gets your attention by making statements like, "available bandwidth is infinite." His basic point is that if the whole spectrum was available and if communicating entities continually adjusted their power levels and frequency to just what's necessary to communicate, the reuse of the spectrum could make it seem nearly infinite. I think he's probably right; I've seen some special radios designed on this principle, and their ability to communicate great distances with teensy power levels was nothing short of phenomenal.