Slashdot Mirror
FCC Approves 802.11b Phased Array
n6zfx writes "802.11b Networking News is reporting that vivato received FCC approval for the 802.11b AP that has a range of 4 miles... This was discussed recently here on slashdot -- There were comments that it might not be totally legal. Hopefully, this paves the way for more WISPs, bigger hotspots, and replacement of outdated wireless technology that seemed to be the only competitor to DSL and tv-cable for the last mile."
With a long range like that I guess your brain will be pretty fried if you sit close to the AP, no?
Martin
This will be especially relevant for Bandwidth co-ops.
The biggest obstacle to creating a co-op is having enough potential subscribers to convince the telcos that it will be worth their while to run the dry pairs the "last mile" from the DSL POPs to the houses. I am guessing that this technology will begin to allow metropolitan bandwidth co-ops to have an effective solution outside of the telco's control. Please, oh please, let broadband not suck forever.
Interesting...... Gives rise to lots of new avenues for hacking too. Imagine to not have to be PHYSICALLY wired in. Instead... use your laptop to connect to your target server's airport and VOILA! Maybe companies will sheild their office complexes, so that a guy sitting outside the fence can't mess around with their data.
Exciting possibities....
|/________
|\A|ALYS|
I'm afraid killing people takes precendence over informing them. The Pentagon reports that wi-fi networks interfere with their radar and further rollout of the technology must be curtailed. Read this article.
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
4 miles? That's all fine and dandy, but think of the implications aside from being able to connect in "pocketed" areas.
Too many "off-limits" zones in the suburbs of major cities for this to be any good. Considering the fact that upwards of %80 of the people that'd benefit from this live in such suburbs. PD's, FD's, Hospitals, etc. are all considered to be zones absolutely off limits to any such interference this would cause (suburbs are totally PACKED with these, There are 3 PD's and 2 FD's, as well as 2 Hospitals within a 4 mile radius of my house). That's FCC regulation that's been around since the '30s, and they're sure as hell not going to change them now.
Given the method they'd have to use to make sure they aren't broadcasting in that area, you end up with 1 or 2 degree swaths of no service areas eminating from the tower. May not sound big, but after a mile or so it gets to be the width of a city block.
I'm all for this, but a better solution would be to use smaller and cheaper arrays. Just find a way to lower the latency and it'd be even better.
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
802.11 has been shown [1] to be completely insecure... have these security issues been fixed? From my reading of the paper, all that really needed to be done to fix most of the issues was to switch from OFB mode to CBC or CFB [1] Nikita Boristov, Ian Goldberg, David Wagner. Intercepting Mobile Communications: The Insecurity of 802.11. SIGMOBILE 2001. http://www.berkeley.edu/isaac/mobicom.pdf
Given the qualifications and history of Ken Biba listed in the article
Biba started in security and networking R&D 30 years ago with Mitre Corp. and was a member of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Working Group
I wonder if he is the same Ken Biba that worked on/devised Mandatory Access Control (MAC) and the Biba Integrity Model.
There is a good description of MAC here, and an explanation of the Biba Integrity Model here.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
An AMPS phone may be limited to 600 mW in the systems in Australia, but the actual limit on a Power Class 1 Phone is 5 watts. That is one of the reasons that replacing the AMPS system with (CDMA|TDMA) systems in the US has been very slow - a Class 1 phone can contact a base station many tens of miles away, which is IMPORTANT in much of the US - when you are in western Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Utah ... you get the point.
That was part of why the old phones where so large - a 5 watt 100% duty cycle power amp isn't tiny. (the other reason was that since AMPS requires the phone to transmit and receive at the same time, the phone had to have an RF duplexer in it - not a small item, even at 800MHz. TDMA phones don't transmit and receive at the same time, hence they don't need the duplexer).
That's one of the reasons I tell people to look for the old phones at garage sales - get the phone and you have a dandy 911 phone - you WILL get a connection!
www.eFax.com are spammers
Makes sense that you can build a big-ass AP that will provide a large 802.11 blanket, but how is my laptop's little antenna going to talk back to it?
indierock / punkrock band photos and more... http://www.digitaldefection.net
I'm a helios man myself. Once they get those puppies finalized, you'll see small towns able to cover footprints larger then most states. Specifically, this will be much more practical in mountainous areas or simply those with lots of deep ravines.
In Montana they've had trouble because people tend to build in narrow valleys (more water, less wind, etc.) and thereby are choosing the areas with the *worst* possible radio wave accessability. The higher you go, the less that matters.
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Your microwave doesn't put "out" a kilowatt. The kilowatt stays inside the microwave. Actually, the energy is being transferred only when there is some food containing water inside the microwave. And even then, you have to apply extra effort (rotate the food and the tranceiver) to transfer more energy to the food.
The radiation is shielded on 5 sides of the oven box by the metal case and the door also has conductive shielding. So, even if you place parts of your body next to the microwave, you won't be exposed to the radiation.
I read somewhere that they placed people inside big microwave ovens and applied moderate amounts of power. The test subjects experienced a warm fuzzy feeling...
- Over the same area, it should actually reduce interference compared to trying to cover the same area with regular access points.
That's a pretty accurate analogy. Having been program director at a (day time) 50kWatt AM radio station with directional restrictions I've seen powerful radio frequency radition effectively "spotlighted" to cover a quite-convoluted coverage map. Some areas being well lit and other, nearby areas being practically dark. It took four hefty antennae to accomplish the coverage pattern carved out by the FCC restrictions on our signal, but it worked very well.Think of it this way. With a normal access point, it's like lighting a stage with diffuse lighting: there ends up being light everywhere. This access point is intended to be like a bunch of spotlights on a dark stage: only the areas where it is aimed are actually lit up; the rest of the stage remains in darkness.
As an aside, I also saw the sad effects of this directional power on a new apartment bulding constructed on a hill less than 400 yards from the antennae in the direct path of the focused radiation. First, realize that once the FCC grants approval the radio station has a right to the frequency, more so than those who experience interference from the signal. Especially more so than new developments begun well after the station has been approved and begun broadcasting. Anyway, the poor schmucks could hear our broadcasts on the toasters (!). CD players wouldn't play (but they worked in the stores a couple miles away), forget cordless phones--forget corded phones! These people were living in the spotlight, alright. Before the apartments were completed, the foreman came to visit me at the station--the fire alarm couldn't call out to the alarm company due to interference. I called my broadcast engineer (a local area college professor who loved radio and worked more for the fun than anything else) as I hummed the tune "The Fool on the Hill." Dave came out and helped the construction crew insulate and filter the building so people wouldn't die and he even helped the toaster problem. Dave helped other nearby businesses and schools located in the direct path of the signal to filter there systems--one school couldn't use their public address system because it just played our station when activated. . .Dave fixed it.
Boy, I miss those days! Sometimes. . .
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello