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Gas Plasma Antennas Help Wi-Fi Security
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."
...are nothing new. What is new is that this is a "virtual" arial. IMHO, this has wide-ranging applications. For a start, virtual radio telescopes could be of practically unlimited size, by this arrangement. No physical surface to mess up on.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Queue up the "bah! security through obscurity never works" posts. :)
I agree though, this is really fricking cool. With the right controls, you could make it so that the antenna characteristics change over time according to a pattern known only to those posessing the corresponding private key. Interception is harder and, even if it is intercepted, you could theoretically use this as one additional encryption layer.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
So aside from being, literally, vaporware (laugh here, serious point next.), how does this technology compete with phased array systems such as those by Vivato? I understand the value of phased arrays are that they can focus the output into an extremely narrow beam and send it to just the right place. I Am Not A Physicist, but it seems like solid state electronics are a *little* bit simpler than plasma to work with!
And safer.
While the plasma may disappear when the antenna isn't in use, the housing containing the plasma doesn't. Not too stealthy...
Another minor issue -- what's a plasma? Ionized gas, right? How do you ionize gas? By passing current through it. That gives you a large plasma arc. Gee, I wonder if just possibly that arc might be generating RF on its own? Any guesses on DC to light (literally -- gas discharge lamps give off quite characteristic spectra)? That arc is a very wideband RF source.
You're telling me you're going to hook up a sensitive receiver to a gas arc, and it's going to work? Or you're going to hook up a transmitter to a gas arc, and the extra power from the transmitter isn't going to alter the characteristics of the plasma?
Kind of like playing the violin while sitting atop a foghorn...
Spatial security == the beam goes where you want, as opposed to all over the place
I've got a great new technology for achieving spatial security. It guarantees that my Ethernet frames go exactly where I want, and can't be snooped outside my house.
Spectral security
My great new technology also avoids generating a lot of RF outside its proper spectrum, as well as resists interference from outside.
My great new technology is called CAT 5 cable.
The thing that is exciting about this is the field of research that it opens up. Of course, directional comm antennas have been around for quite some time, but building networks out of them is relatively new. Do a literature search on "active topology formation" and you'll see what I mean -- not a whole lot has been done here, and yet this dramatically changes how you architect networks.
The exact issues involved are what spurred DARPA to recently proclaim that it was time to revise the 7-layer OSI model into something that appears more like a mesh. And that really is what will be required -- for example, waiting 10s of seconds for OSPF to figure out whether a link is up or down just will not cut it when you can form links on the order of milliseconds.