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Gas Plasma Antennas Help Wi-Fi Security

Posted by michael on from the hearsay dept.

mindless4210 writes "Markland Technologies has developed a new gas plasma antenna technology which could help to secure wireless networks. The technology allows for highly directive and electronically steerable digital data transmission via solid-state semi conductor based plasma generators. A plasma antenna can reposition itself at very high speeds, as well as change it's beamwidth and bandwidth, creating spatial and spectral security features which are not presently available with conventional WiFi antenna technology."

6 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Now you see it...... by erick99 · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is a very cool technology. This antenna essentially "disappears" when it is not being used, making it fairly "stealthy". And, while a traditional metal rod or dish antenna is "cut" to a specific or very narrow range of frequencies, it would appear that the gas plasma antenna can essentially reconfigure itself to rapidly change frequencies. As a ham radio operator, I can really appreciate how useful that could be.

    Happy Trails!

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  2. Re:My brain hurts by erick99 · · Score: 5, Informative
    They do a pretty good job explaining it here.

    Happy Trails!

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  3. Re:Directional arials... by pclminion · · Score: 3, Informative
    Why do you say "virtual?" The antenna is just as real as a metal wire, the only difference is that the positive charges in a plasma are free to move, whereas in a metal the positive charges are locked in the lattice.

    Just because it's not a solid doesn't make it spooky or virtual...

    virtual radio telescopes could be of practically unlimited size, by this arrangement.

    Not really, since the plasma has to be kept "hot" and at low pressures in order to prevent it from recombining back into "normal" uncharged matter again. A device capable of maintaining such a large plasma would require enormous amounts of power and maintainence.

  4. Re:creating spatial and spectral security features by pclminion · · Score: 4, Informative
    Just because you don't understand the "big words" doesn't mean they're meaningless.

    Spatial security == the beam goes where you want, as opposed to all over the place.

    Spectral security == the edges of the beam spectrum are very well defined, with very little "spill" into neighboring frequencies.

  5. Re:Vaporware by Tlosk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because of the speed with which they can revert to nonplasma state they can prevent ringing and other artifacts inherent to metal antennae, increasing the fidelity and reliability as well as the signal processing logic on the receiving end.

    There's also the weight and size issue, with the plasma coming in both lighter and smaller to an equivalent conventional one.

    But you're right of course that it will be a while or perhaps never that it will be just as easy or easier to work with plasma. So you might not see one on a $10 walkman, but that's not to say that there aren't a lot of applications where the benefits would afar outweight the difficulty.

  6. Re:My brain hurts by pluvia · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dangit, I forgot to correct the link in my previous comment, sorry.