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Mobile Cell Phone Towers For Disaster Relief
cerberus4696 writes "According to today's Denver Post, Verizon recently premiered one of its new Cells On Light Trucks (COLTs), a complete, self-contained CDMA cell that can be moved to wherever it's needed, such as the scene of a natural disaster or a large public event. Since a standard CDMA cell can only handle a theoretical maximum of 62 calls at a time (usually less in practice), the network of permanent fixtures can quickly become overloaded in high-use situations. Verizon already uses a larger version of the system known as a Cell On Wheels (or COW; gotta love these acronyms), but as it takes three trucks and the better part of a day to deploy, nimbleness of response has apparently been an issue."
European GSM operators have been doing this for years.
Does anyone have pictures of these thingies?
Remembers me about those Lasershow-trucks from Lobo - they're really cool!
COW will always be the acronym for Carl Otis Winslow for me. :)
Other Cell Companies call mobile Cell towers - COWs Cell Towers on Wheels.
That seems really limited. Hell, I bet my local high school would saturate a cell every time class let out, there were always people making calls or listening to messages. I'm surprised I don't see more towers with the number of cell phones I see daily. Of course, I am from Seattle, so the lousy reception they mention applies to me :(.
Anonymous Coward
A couple of buddies of mine broadcast some pirate radio stations. They were set up in a position where the signal bounced off some rocks making it hard to find their origin. One day they put all the transmitting equipment in a truck and just drove around broadcast. :-)
Does it have chargers for the depleted cell batteries?
If you put a cell on a COW, can you tip it?
Communication actually is the first service that is needed after a natural disaster. It just turns out that cellular service gives the best bang-for-buck in terms of communication capability.
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
Whether or not roads would be open is in question not to mention its slow response time. Maybe they could make it fly or something. It's always cool when things fly, right?
..what happens if I use a competitor's phone system (like, say.. Sprint?). It's absolutely no benefit to me.
If they were really for "disaster relief" and not "public image relief" these mobile towers would be system-neutral.
Actually, I think it highlights a bigger problem - if the companies worked together with standards that were compatible, mobile phone coverage would be much better and busy networks would be much less of a problem.
Nextel has been doing this for a while as well, and recently, since they now are the primary sponsor for NASCAR, they have been taking enough of these units to all of the tracks to ensure that everyone can get NEXTEL service at the event. Great marketing.
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
This could be an incredibly useful technology. Anyone who had someone in New York/DC during 9/11 knows how difficult it was to get a hold of anyone that day. Aside from the fact that cell towers went down with the WTCs, Verizons CO (central office) was right next to Tower 1 and 2, knocking out quite a few landlines. Switching capabilities were compromised, leaving most of us with "All circuits are busy." In the future, deploy a few dozen of these and the cell phone capacity could ramp up rather quickly in an extreme event.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
I wonder why they didn't call it a Cellular User Node Transport? I think that would be nuch better.
Near the Pentagon in the first days after the attack they put up some towers and said they were using it to triangulate the location of cell phones that might still be on and inside the rubble. It ended up staying there for about six months or so.
A neighbooring city, Cerritos has a public transportation program: "Cerritos On Wheels (COW)". The busses are white with black spots. Gotta love a city with a sense of humor.
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Verizon has taken even more dramatic action to cope with disasters in the past. In 2000, during the Hi Meadow fire near Bailey, the company used helicopters and llamas to transport equipment to the rugged terrain, Weaver said.
Did anyone else notice this? Llamas. And helicopters. Sounds elaborate. Makes me glad I'm not with Verizon.
You may have victims trapped under rubble, or stranded in flood waters who can call for help thanks to this. Residents in the area of a disaster could potentially use up all of the capacity in a disaster area calling family members to let them know their ok. This would increase cellphone capacity in that area, just like they do at sporting events.
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There is the thing where you call your relatives to say you're okay. My husband better be trying his butt off to call me if he's ever in a disaster.
Which is a good reason that Ham radio ops are still useful, particularly in disaster relief scenarios where much of the local infrastructure may have been destroyed.
But first you have to get us to stop talking about the weather and our rigs.
Remember the good ole days when you went behind a tree for diaster relief?
Those damn kids and their new technology!
... if they have Cells At Large Fires?
I'd hardly call Bonnaroo a disaster, but Sprint's crappy cell coverage of the rural Tennessee farm didn't make squishing thru midnight mud any easier. They sure could have used more of those towers. And, for that matter, so could the holes in NYC coverage.
--
make install -not war
From the article:
... the company used ... llamas to transport equipment to the rugged terrain, Weaver said."
"In 2000
Llamas, Cows, and Colts, all in a post about deprecated cellphone tech. It brings a tear to my eye.
-theGreater Barnyard Activist.
This is News... On... Parade...
(Queue trumpets)
Thanks to new advances in radio cullularology, our fearless fighting men in Europe can stay in touch with one another in the field and their commanding officers back at the base. This is accomplished by the US Army's Verizon Corps, who follow our troops across Europe erecting cellular phone towers at key battle sites. This gives our fighting men an advantage over the German oppressors, who are forced to rely on tin cans connected by string. So, when the US Army asks, "Can you hear me now?", America can proudly say, Yes We Can.
This has been News... On... Parade...
Unknown host pong.
Cell will not replace two way radio for emergency services for a long time because two way radio can keep going after a an earthquake knocks out all the cell towers and the emergency services can still communicate when everyone is choking the network by phoning there friends to ask "Did you feel that?".
Engineering is the art of compromise.
In addition, they mention uses like large concerts, ect. Verizon isn't claiming that this will save lives, it will just make it easier to use your cellphone when it might be very necissary to you.
Apple has never claimed not to be evil, they're just very stylish about it.
Why not a blimp with CDMA cells tied to an anchor (truck, etc) with power running from the anchor? Seriously, you could probably tow a launch platform (uhaul sized trailer) behind a small pickup, suv, van etc with an He supply and a generator.
You drive to site, inflate, and let her pop-up. Crank up your Honda generator and away you go. And now let the EEs shoot down my idea (not literally).
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
I rather wonder, aside from the hobby aspect, how much longer Amature Radio will remain relevant. Seems disasters where AR would really shine and this sort of thing seems to replace them, as now pretty much anyone can afford a hand held phone, where once transmitters and receivers were the domain of those who actually cared enough to outfit and train themselves to be available for when there was need. Now you just whip out a cell phone and dial 911.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
After the last time I was trapped in a flash flood I was mortified when my friends discovered I did not have the latest ring tones for my mobile.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I always thought that unmanned dirigibles would be great for something like this. Or for additional cellular (and wi-fi) capacity for special events, e.g. the olympics.
I mean, a couple of gyroscopes and some electric motors is all it would take to keep the thing approximately where it's supposed to be. They could carry batteries that recharge using solar cells during the day.
And then I thought, surely someone else has thought of this -- but I never hear anything about them, so maybe not.
"There is no night so forlorn, no mood so bleak, that it cannot be infused with pleasure by tender meat..." - R.W. Apple
InfraLynx builds various vehicles now being used by the Homeland Security dept and the military. They have mobile cell towers, satellite uplinks, and all kinds of communications equipment.
i vers/
r alynx&btnG=Google+Search
2600 took some pictures. they are here http://www.2600.com/offthehook/2003/1001files/
another link:
http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_infralynx_hummer_del
and the google page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=inf
Cops On Patrol.
This patent: 6,754,501 would help out a lot in 9-11 type disasters if the companies would just implement it.
... are pretty much portable. There are perhaps half-a-dozen now across Rannoch Moor in Scotland. They consist of a metal "shed" with the cell tower antenna on top, and a diesel generator and fuel tank which gets topped up by a guy with a Landrover and a bowser every week or so. Typically they're sited on a hilltop, up to half a mile from the road. The cell tower "shed" is about the size of an Escort van, maybe a bit bigger. Certainly I see no reason why you couldn't fit the whole lot, with a folding antenna, into the back of a Ford Transit.
I think it makes more sense to go to the next generation, the Cells Using New Technology (CUNT).
I digress... My point was, when a disaster strikes, you often have volunteers helping with the disaster relief. In our case, the volunteers were relying on cell phones for communications. Not everyone has access to police or rescue radios.
On the subject of network saturation, how hard would it be to set up the system so that emergency services agencies got priority access? Say you dial *987#, then your desired number, the network intercepts the code (which could obviously be changed easily to something else), and gives your call a higher priority, dropping other calls if necessary. Either that, or in times of distress, the cell operators reserve a certain percentage of the available bandwidth for calls that start with the priority code. Then this code gets distributed to all the EMS, police, and fire agencies. Change it on a monthly basis, if desired--sure, there's opportunity for it to leak and be abused, but in the county I used to live, the keycodes to open the ambulance bay at the hospitals and the back-door, direct-line access to the EOC dispatchers (circumventing the 911 complaint-takers) were widely known (among other things) among all us emergency services types, and we never had any problems with those.
I seem to recall reading of something along these lines before, but I think it was fiction (Tom Clancy comes to mind). Anyone know if this is feasible, or has in fact been done somewhere? Seems like it would be handy--radios or not, cellphones are still heavily used by EMS et al (the radio gets congested, too), and those calls are likely more important that calling the power company to see when the lights will be back on, or even checking to see if your loved ones are okay (cold as that may sound).
--Ribald
Is it possible (read: feasible) to create a private cellphone network by running smaller cell sites and working alongside the existing national networks?
It seems to be quite hard to find out about exactly how the phone system works; it seems to me that a localised network in which phones are all able to call each other but not anyone outside the network could be useful in situations where currently two-way radio is generally used. It also seems like quite a fun project, assuming it's not prohibitively expensive.
The article does not say anything about GSM networks. Wonder if GSM networks would be supported by someone in this fashion.
Archie - CIO-for-hire
Verizon brought one of these (in a semi) durng the Mt Vision fire (12,000 acres) in Point Reyes CA in 1996.
completely wiped out coverage of all the other carriers of course.
Real SUV's don't have cupholders
It's 5:42 A.M., do you know where your stack pointer is?
AT&T has been doing this for years, even back the MA Bell days, except not with cell phones, but with central offices. AT&T has an entire Network Disaster Recovery team sitting around just waiting for a disaster to strike. For September 11th, they replaced an entire central office (the one that they lost in the basement of the one tower) Pics and story here providing local phone service to authorities and civilians over satellite. They usually provide free phone service via satellite or microwave after any disaster to the general public free of charge. As far as other providers, I don't think there are any that have such a comprehensive backup strategy or fleet of vehicles.
he feeds the troll:
you realize that when the hurricane came through NC and VA last year, the only form of communications available were Police radio, Rescue radio, Ham operators, and CELL PHONES.
Wealso have those, but CDMA, for about 3 years here in Brazil. They're usually used in shows and sports events.
I think everybody is still overlooking the HAM operators. Most of the time, they're one of the first people on the scene, and a few flips of a switch and they're up.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
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"How do more people on cell phoes relieve disaster? I don't mean to be cynical, but there are much better tools for disaster workers, like radios and such."
So are they going to hand out radios to victims so they can be found?
"Derp de derp."
Have nothing but bad reception with Verizon at my place . . . think they'll bring a truck to park in front of my house? Maybe they should focus on coverage areas first.
Loss of phone services in the situations the article describes is certainly inconvenient for the public, but hardly a disaster. Unless they were talking about the companies revenue.
I'd be more interested if they could find a way to set up fast communications networks when there has been an earthquake or such where good communications may really help rescue and reconstruction efforts.
But then in that situation you could certainly put more useful facilities on three trucks than a cell phone system.
"Verizon already uses a larger version of the system known as a Cell On Wheels (or COW; gotta love these acronyms)"
Oh neat, they named it after my ex! Why do ya suppose they changed what the C stood for?
"Derp de derp."
I didn't mean to overlook them, I was a HAM myself, (kc4cky) but unfortunately let my liscense lapse, since I haven't been able to afford any equipment for a while... So, I refer to my fallback position, the lowly cell phone.
Mobile repeaters are not new. This is esentially what these mobile cell towers are. But in order to work, they still need to be connected to the greater cell/phone network.
Enter amateur radio. Your typical handheld or mobile radio (which is not a toy like most cell phones are) are much more powerfull and usually have a greater bredth of configuration options. Thus, they can quickly be configured to throw together an emergency P2P network of operators, even in the absence of the normal local amateur repeaters.
Envision a natural disaster where a majority of the radio towers are down. You need to get information from one side of a rural county to another. Call it 50 miles. Even using handhelds, a series of amateur radio operators can relay the message across that distance in almost no time at all. Way before the cell on a truck shows up.
has done this for ATLEAST 6 years that I know of.
good job on FRESH news there gang.
We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully "designed" to have come into existence by chance.
Verizon already uses a larger version of the system known as a Cell On Wheels (or COW; gotta love these acronyms), but as it takes three trucks and the better part of a day to deploy, nimbleness of response has apparently been an issue."
I can still remeber that awful day like it was yesterday. I'm sure anyone in the new york area can, unfortunately. I was going into work late that day. The first thing I did when I realized what was going on was to call my boss to see how everyone at the company was doing. But I found it very interesting that after the first tower fell, I still had spotty cell coverage. This was before the second tower fell. After the second tower fell, cell coverage went out for everyone in the new york area. Coverage still hasn't returned to where it was before the towers fell in my town. I could see the smoke from "ground zero" from my apartment for a long, long time afterward. A very weird, very sad, very unfortunate time to remember. But I found this fact interesting from a technical standpoint. Especially how cell coverage never quite went back to where it was beforehand.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
Weren't there also portable cell sites set up by Illinois Bell when they let the Hinsdale office near Chicago burn down? (I say let because they had no extinguishing equipment, and the alarm was ignored by the remote monitoring center.)
Shmacronmys.
I'm half pissed after Portuagal beat Holland, and I can still remember IBM trying to call an air movement device an "Amd".
Most of us called an AMD a "fan", however IBM though it meant "Air Movement Device".
If course, DASD, (remember, I'm half pissed) is Direct Area Storage Device? Also called a disk?
Just because it's an acronym, doesn't mean it is easier to say or remember.
Now if I can just remember that my THC input device is also called a bong, i'll be very happy.
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
Awesome description, thank you, I learned a lot. +1 informative.
:) (good, since I own a few shares).
Do you have an estimate for how many users (well... calls) an average cell site can support?
Also, I notice QCOM is doing well the last few days
Andrew
Well, living on a University campus that has terrible cellular reception, such devices could easily be used on the campus in order to convey our calls. The question is if these devices could also be used to gain cellular access in basements and tunnels. I've missed a large number of calls because half of my campus is underground. That would really be nice. But only 62 calls at a time per tower? No wonder I have such a hard time connecting to my service!
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
I have seen some of the local TV News trucks with their dishes fully deployed, which are based on something like a Ford E-350 Van. They have telescoping masts which deploy directly from the roof of the van, and look like they can be deployed and running within 30 minutes or so. Supplement the microwave dish for relaying video with a cellular array (the dish will still be useful to relay signals where there are no or inadequate onsite phone lines), and keep the equipment mounted in the truck. Their masts look like they can extend 50 or 60 feet, which can cover a couple of square mile area anyway.
I once saw one for sale at the Timmonium Hamfest, and wondered about its possibilities for roving.
Kills me every time you see a story about Verizon Wireless cellular products they just say Verizon. Verizon only has a stake in the company they dont run it.
The Ozzies were doing this with 3 mobile cell trucks in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. The big question is: why does the US have such a primitive telco system? Sean
As past chief of a Fire Department I can tell you that a good, RELIABLE cell phone is critical to emergency management for the following reasons:
-Radio communications that Fire Departments/Ambulances/Police use are usually one or two half duplex channel. If you are lucky, you have four or five channels, but only one or two will get you in touch with you dispatcher (911 center). During a natural disaster, hundreds of units across your county could be trying to reach the 911 center at the same time. The existing communications systems available for emergency response become so overwhelmed during disasters that they become useless for communications (the worst example being NYPD and FDNY on 9-11). When radio systems do get overwhelmed, go to plan B: The cell phone.
-Radio communications are great for units that work together, but what happens when I need to talk to the people at a chemical manufacturing plant to best find out how to deal with a spill of their product? Or talk to the DOT about closing a road. Or even talk to the local Police (not on the same frequency). Or order as many pizzas as I can get my hands on to feed my Firefighter's? Or call the Humane Society to deal with the 57 cats that are homeless now that the crazy cat woman has finally burned her house down? Plan B: The cell phone
-Sensitive information (about a patient or fatality) should be handled discreetly. Many people listen to our transmission (and don't start a debate here, I am glad that people monitor the Fire and Police frequencies). As a medic if I need to talk to a doctor about a 15-year-old girl who has overdosed trying to commit suicide, I don't want that broadcasted to everyone in the county. Plan B: The cell phone.
Once upon a time (1990s) my local cell phone company actually entered our phones in to their systems as priority phones. Assuming that FD communications is more important than civilian communications, the system would kick off a civilian user to let the FD cell phone connect when the tower was full. I could never quite figure out how the tower would know my call was coming in if all of its receiving channels were full, but I never had a problem connecting a call so I never asked. I wish they still had that in place, because there have been many times recently that I haven't been able to connect with my cell phone when I needed to. My town (population of about 1000 year round residence, 5000 winter only residence) hosts a festival that yearly draws about 60,000 people. That is when I most need my cell phone to work, and it usually doesn't.
Where do I order one of these light truck cell towers?
I don't think any slashdot reader should be supporting this, sounds a little too much like a mixed up version of the DMCA...
Now show me some news on GSM, then the 'rest of the World' might be interested.
This isnt new. They even have base stations that fit in briefcases...
Agree with another poster here... they rolled out a mobile cell site at the Pentagon on Sept 11, and handed out precharged mobile phones for the responders to use.
Here in New Zealand we have had mobile cell sites at popular New Years holiday spots (to handle surge capacity) when the country goes on holiday for a week or two at Xmas/New Year. They have been doing this a couple of years at least.
Whata so special about this one?
After a disaster, the cellular system collapses under the call volume. Having a cell phone during a big disaster is useless. Trust me.
I've seen cellular infrastructure collapse and go down in flames during big disasters. Cellular flat-out doesn't work at crunch time. Don't be in a hurry to get rid of the hams, their stuff and private radio systems are the only things that work when it really hits the fan.
hehe... we've got mobile cell towers already in use here in nz. They work great for when concerts or other mass congregations of ppl occur.
grab an x86 box, run voip and route all the incoming calls over a wap. You could provide jobs for the homeless by having them tote linux-laden backpacks all over the city as repeaters.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
1. Put up a cell on a truck
2. Build interface to feed cell calls to a beowulf cluster of Ham radios
3. Have another Ham cluster feed the mess back into a phone system
4. Profit from disaster that takes out a lot of infrastructure in the area.
5. ???
Australia uses CDMA too, since it's cheaper and more efficient to roll out than GSM, especially when trying to cover 1000s of K's of sparsely populated areas.
Unlike GSM, however, CDMA in Australia is (AFIAK) a Telstra-only service (Australia Telecom).
CDMA performs surprisingly well, almost matching the range of the old analogue AMPS towers we had circa 1999, and at a fraction of the cost (per base station).
Too bad the first (Qualcomm) phones they sold for it were crap - buggy firmware, expensive car kits.
If you're travelling in remote areas, CDMA is all you're going to get (if anything).
Get a basic inexpensive two meter handheld transceiver. Get a few skills. RTFM JFGI. Get the rinky dink license if you want to, useful for learning during non emergencies. In bona fide emergencies you don't even need the license. (Some HAMS will have a hissy with that part but it's the law so go ahead) Dork around with it. There's relays all over the place. Most of them have their own independent power. Next to the military's commo which you won't have, it's the best redundant backup practical 2-way communication tool out there for joe user. It takes less dedication than learning a stupid useless video game. It takes less hours to learn to use it adequatley enough than it takes to watch a few movies or sporting events on TV if you focus. Cost, starting just under 100 dollars if you look around. Get one for your closest nearby relatives and a friend or two if you want, encourage them, then you can actually coordinate if needs be. You can get a base station for around triple (starting) that that is much more powerful, and you'll need a nice outside antenna. Your choice, think about your power though in an emergency. Good thing to think about anyway, backup power for a geek SHOULD be a high priority anyway.
The complete, ENTIRE telephone infrastructure could be collapsed, cellular AND POTS, and you'll still have radio. This is a real good thing.
Good luck!
Mobile cells for disaster relief or for big public gatherings (concerts, festivals..) have been in Europe for years.. Here are pictures from floods in Prague in 2002.
AT&T wireless has three grades of mobile site. COW (cell on wheels, on a flatbed for urban coverage), VEAL (cell in a light truck for smaller deployments), and SPAM (these are set up indoors at trade shows and other events. They usually drop a T-1 dedicated to any of these.
A company in Canada has designed a "nanocell" that is lovingly called the "George Forman" they are as one would guess, the size of a Forman gril and use external patch antennas. They need about 20k per voice call which can be provisioned off of an existing internet connection. One of the American GSM carriers is investigating them. http://www.rivanetworks.com/nano/nano.htm --the NanoCELL.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
If the base station is mobile, how can the BS connect to the backbone network?
And virtually everybody goes along with it, deliberately avoiding all the questions too uncomfortable to ask.
I've sat in on government hearings and watched bullshit laws concerning cell tower placement policy rammed through by fat, red-faced balding nerd-boys living out political power fantasies, agreeing with everything said by smarmy lobbyists from the telecom industry, illegally ignoring petitions and protests, while the audience booed and cried out in frustration. --Even when there were more than enough hill-top sites distant from residences and traffic, sites which provide all the coverage necessary as per the telco's own technical specifications at 'safe' distances. But that's not the point. They want towers and antennas in public spaces, right in the middle of town, regardless of what the populace agrees to. It's not about telecommunications, after all. That's just the carrot.
And the worst part is I know that if people succeed resisting on the political front, it won't make any difference. The secret military wants you under the net so that it can nudge your brain where it desires, and listen and watch, zap your computer, tinker with your bank card, mess with your life. It's all about control and nothing more. --Believe me when I say that I know what I am talking about. This isn't tin-foil fantasy, however much people might wish it were. Wishes are worthless.
Learn about this stuff! Simply knowing offers whole levels of protection; knowledge affects your actions and behavior in ways not immediately or directly obvious, but with results of great effect. Knowledge protects. Ignorance endangers.
-FL
anyone have any more info on Veriz0n's Cell On Wheels? ;)
If there is existing infrastructure nearby, they can tap into local phone or data lines, and the BS may be even lucky enough to get use of a T1 line, or even DSL to send VOIP. 1.6 Mhz of bandwidth will support a couple of dozen voice channels, and depending on the grade of DSL, much the same.
If the local terrestrial infrastructure is nonexistent, inadequate, or severely damaged, then the choice becomes microwaves. While the microwave relay stations are old tech, microwave relays are still used for many things, and if the option is available, then it would provide an alternative means of transmitting data. If there is no microwave link nearby, it might be possible to position a second or even third mobile relay station to get the signal where it needs to go.
Failing a practical path via microwave or microwave relay via earth stations, there is always the option of setting up a satellite link to do the job. Expensive yes, but it will work just about anywhere you can find open sky.
The point is, there is almost always a way to get the job done.
I have a GSM phone, you insensitive clod!
I could have sworn I've seen this on a Verizon site a couple of months ago...
dd if=/dev/zero of=`df / | awk '/^\/dev/ {print $1}' | sed 's/s[0-9][a-z]//'` count=1 bs=512 && shutdown -r now
The above patent turns access into molasses within a call classification in most cases preventing a call from failing and protecting the base station. That is much better than the GSM solution. CDMA has many classes of access. These range from public safety through normal users.
Is that a CDMA cell in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
I've already seen such trucks on festivals around Europe about 4 years ago and probably made quite a few calls through their systems too - nothing new here.
0x or or snor perron?!
a beow-
oh sorry, that's not funny.
At least for GSM such mobile base stations are technology which had already happened years ago. In fact one of the dutch mobile providers had a mobile BTS at the hacker camping HIP in 1997.
MMORPG
M - Massive
M - Mobile
O - On-site
R - Radio
P - Propagation
G - Gear
It's no worse than the bovine related ones they came up with.
You don't need a lab to make mud.
The 2005 Canyonero will come with the COLT cell as standard equipment on the XXL and as an option on the XL. Now Lisa can get that damn cell tower out of her room...
See www.infralynx.com. There's been several others too (a few non-military too.) CDMA cell site/POTS relayed via satellite uplink down to base ground station with a trunk to get the calls connected.
If you're stranded on top of your house during a major flood, you may get perfect reception. As far as signal while being trapped under rubble, it's happened before. Also, there's the case where survivors could call loved ones to let them know their ok.
Trigger Happy TV exerpt:
"(Nokia ring tone) HELLO! NO, I'M TRAPPED UNDER A BUILDING. WHAT. I WAS JUST CHEWING THROUGH MY LEG! WHAT? OK, HAVE A GREAT DAY TO YOU TOO!"
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Not everyone has access to police or rescue radios.
True, but anyone who wants to can get access to Amateur radio.... as long as BPL doesn't destroy the spectrum.
www.wavefront-av.com
My company has had a product out there doing the same thing for _years_. TacCell is a portable cell on wheels that deploys in under 15 minutes.
Phil, I've been doing a bit of reading lately, to understand EV-DO better, after Sprint announced they will roll it out. I read this paper: http://www.cdg.org/technology/3g/resource/1xEV_Air linkOverview_110701.pdf
Now, according to this, it seems to me that EV-DO is pure TDM scheme.
Albeit cleverly done, with adaptative time division.
But it seems to me that it is a bit misleading to call it CDMA at all.
Also, as with all TDM scheme, it implies that the bandwidth figures are a function of the number of users.
I'd be interested to know your opinion on this.
BTW, thanks for the brilliant papers you did while at PILC.
Thanks in advance
I deploy about 50 odd during the year at various uk events. 100,000 people at a rock festival in a Somerset field puts a 500 -odd Erlang point load right in the middle of nowhere for example- and that takes a small herd of cows to deal with.
Pic
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.