Military Laser/Radio Tech Proposed As Alternative To Laying Costly Fiber Cable

An anonymous reader writes "Californian comm-tech company Aoptix is testing new laser+radio hybrid communications technology with three major U.S. internet carriers. The equipment required can be bolted onto existing infrastructure, such as cell-tower masts, and can communicate a 2gbps stream over 6.5 miles. The system was developed over 10 years at a cost of $100 million in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the military implementation of it is called Aoptix Enhanced Air Ground Lasercom System (EAGLS). The laser component of the technology uses a deformable mirror to correct for atmospheric distortion over the mast-hop, in real-time. The laser part of the system is backed-up by a redundant radio transmitter. The radio component has low attenuation in rainy conditions with large refracting raindrops, while the laser is more vulnerable to dense fog. The system, which features auto-stabilization to compensate for cell-tower movement and is being proposed as an alternative to the tremendous cost p/m of laying fiber cable, is being tested in Mexico and Nigeria in addition to the three ISP trials.

Comments

Yes, it could be much cheaper

[fustakrakich]

And certainly easier to tap. I hear that fiber optic is a bitch..

Re:Yes, it could be much cheaper

[DoofusOfDeath]

Fiber optic is trivial to tap. Almost as easy as analog phone lines.

Anything is easy to tap, at least in the U.S.

Step 1. Mislead a FISA court about the need. After all, those being tapped will never find out, let alone have a chance to contest the evidence. It's a secret.

Step 2. Find some ISP in the communications path, and hit them with a National Security Letter. Because, you know, fuck the Fourth Amendment. Threaten them with going to jail for even bringing up the issue in court. Again, because, well, fuck being the land of the free, since it's no longer the home of the brave.

Step 3. Do whatever you want. If it violates the law, you can count on some combination of sovereign immunity, prosecutorial descretion, and Presidential pardons to make sure you never face justice while on this earth.

Re:Yes, it could be much cheaper

[mlts]

L1 encryption could be quite brain-dead simple. One could use preshared keys and call it done (with an algorithm to use session keys derived from D-H sessions encrypted by the "master" PSK, and change every so often.)

I've wondered why communications lasers are not more often used, especially IR ones.

Re:Yes, it could be much cheaper

[amorsen]

Still, when the NSA wanted access to Google's information, they went for tapping fiber optic cables instead of hitting them with National Security Letters.

The solution is encryption of course, but IPSEC is a royal pain and MACSEC is too limited.

Re:Yes, it could be much cheaper

[Delwin]

IR scatters in the atmosphere fairly quickly. You don't have as much range with an IR laser as you would with an optical one or even just a microwave beam.

That said this system uses multiple types (radio and laser) because when one doesn't work well the other will work fine and visa-versa.

Rain attenuates the radio signal

[duckintheface]

The OP says that "The radio component has * low attenuation* in rainy conditions with large refracting raindrops". I think they mean "high attentuation". TFA says that radio is disrupted by rain.

Re:Rain attenuates the radio signal

[Tablizer]

I think they mean "high attentuation". TFA says that radio is disrupted by rain.

But then they deploy sharks with laser-beams on their heads to swim the signals closer. It's all nicely planned out.

Re:Lasers and deformable mirrors arnt expensive

[neochubbz]

The real beast isn't the labor and cost of laying the line, its the legal nightmare of researching and purchasing the right-of-way. First, you have to run title to determine who owns the right of way, then you negotiate with each property owner, and any one of these property owners can object, causing you to reroute your line.

The Old is New again

[DumbSwede]

45+ years ago when I was a kid and before cellphone towers dotted the landscape there were these funnel shaped microwave repeating towers everywhere that carried long distance phone traffic across the country without wires.

Re:The Old is New again

[Charliemopps]

45+ years ago when I was a kid and before cellphone towers dotted the landscape there were these funnel shaped microwave repeating towers everywhere that carried long distance phone traffic across the country without wires.

I've worked for just about every phone company... We still have them... everywhere. Fibers replaced microwave in most residential areas... but in areas where you can't dig a trench, we use microwave. Communities on islands, on mountain sides... etc... there are a LOT of microwave dishes along the grand canyon for example. Even in sky rises, a lot of companies will setup microwave dishes in an extra conference room and beam a trunk to another building across the way.

The problem with microwave is that it doesn't work well in humidity. Fog, snow and rain make it cut in and out. Basically, imagine your DishNetwork/DirectTv signal... it's got pretty much the same problem.

Re:Lasers and deformable mirrors arnt expensive

[BenFranske]

If it was for base connectivity I would be very surprised if fiber wasn't laid. I am more likely to believe the military use for this was designed for something which can be setup quickly in forward operating locations. Fiber takes time and substantially more infrastructure to install. Theoretically this could be run off a steerable pop-up mast which could be setup in minutes.

cheaper perhaps

[Khashishi]

But it sounds inferior in many respects. Lasers require line of sight, which is obviously a problem. We really ought to be investing in quality infrastructure.

Imminent Domain

[TechyImmigrant]

Most property already has utility easements unless they're very rural, even then it's simple enough to seize with Imminent Domain for "the greater good"

Is the domain about the happen any time now?

(Vorsicht vor den Vögel!) damn birds

[smoothnorman]

A few university set-ups in Germany tried this, (e.g. Hamburg), albeit probably with far simpler specifications as it was some years ago. They had surprisingly frequent problems with birds; birds perching on the towers, birds flying between the source/sink, uzw. Packet loss got enough at one point to contact a local falconer to see if his bird of prey could scare them away. It turned out that the local bakery was too much of a draw. There was whimsical talk of adding a TCP/IP error for bakery janitorial events. I believe they eventually just went with fiber pulled through the sewers ..ja-da

Re:(Vorsicht vor den Vögel!) damn birds

[DoofusOfDeath]

A few university set-ups in Germany tried this, (e.g. Hamburg), albeit probably with far simpler specifications as it was some years ago. They had surprisingly frequent problems with birds; birds perching on the towers, birds flying between the source/sink, uzw. Packet loss got enough at one point to contact a local falconer to see if his bird of prey could scare them away. It turned out that the local bakery was too much of a draw. There was whimsical talk of adding a TCP/IP error for bakery janitorial events. I believe they eventually just went with fiber pulled through the sewers ..ja-da

Simple solution: Verstärken die Laser. :)

So they upgraded the RONJA opensource hardware?

[random coward]

This seems kinda familiar. Kinda like a project I read about over a decade ago. They just added adaptive optics and a radio link for automation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

BT, DT

[bware]

Terabeam Networks, c. 1999. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terabeam
And they weren't the first.

DARPA Work

[braindrainbahrain]

This reminds me of a DARPA project from a while back that sounds very similiar: The ORCLE program. I wonder if this is an outgrowth from the DARPA funded work.

Re:Lasers and deformable mirrors arnt expensive

[Kjella]

Wow it's strange how different the world can be. Here in Norway rural fiber is often a four-way cooperation, the fiber company will lay fiber in a main trench along the public road. The government will typically provide public funding to reach public buildings, schools and so on, businesses will pay to get connected. As for residential homes, if you dig your own foot-deep trench or hire someone to do it at your own cost the fiber company will come put a fiber line in it. And most people jump at the chance of getting state of the art fiber out far beyond where any normal commercial operation would go, typically they see 70-80% sign-up rates. It's a win-win for everyone.

Re:whoosh!

[Nkwe]

The idea behind the "increase power" and "repeat as necessary" parts was that if you increase power *enough*, you'll end up with line-of-sight, even if you didn't have it to start with.

I am glad someone got the joke. I considered talking about two modes of operation ("line of sight mode" and "make line of sight mode") instead of error correction algorithms, but I thought the error correction thing was more subtle and humorous. I guess it was too subtle. I don't plan on quitting my day job.