Facebook Developing Radio Wave Mesh To Connect Offline Areas (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: As part of its wider Internet.org initiative to deliver connectivity to poor and rural communities, Facebook is actively developing a new network technology which uses millimetre wave bands to transmit data. Facebook engineer Sanjai Kohli filed two patents which outlined a 'next generation' data system, which would make use of millimetre wave technology deployed as mesh networks. Kohli's patents detailed a type of centralised, cloud-based routing system which 'dynamically adjusts route and frequency channel assignments, transmit power, modulation, coding, and symbol rate to maximize network capacity and probability of packet delivery, rather than trying to maximize the capacity of any one link.'

Comments

does it have to be poor AND rural?

[turkeydance]

there are urban poor and rural rich communities.

Re:does it have to be poor AND rural?

[Jack Griffin]

By 'generally', you mean in your limited experience? I used to work for Case New Holland, their business is selling million dollar machines to farmers, and they're doing well.
I've also been on a few wine tours where entire regions have been covered in multi-million dollar vineyards.
A friend of mine at school was from a farming family. They're the only people I ever knew who owned a plane.
I'm not sure what you perception of rural is, but I can assure you that among the peasants there are plenty of rich people.

How nice of them

[penguinoid]

Facebook wants to spy on people who don't have internet access, too. Wouldn't want them to feel left out.

Re:Ham radio has been doing this already

[fred911]

AMPRNet is significantly older than 2012. I had nodes running on an STB 4COM (RS232) running under Desqview on a 386 if I remember correctly. Nodes were 1/2 duplex at 300baud with many hidden transmitters, running on 2 meter. If I remember an old FTP to UCSD of a wopping 300k took 8 hours:-)

So yes,, it's by no means new.

Sounds about right

[AndyKron]

So basically they got patents on something that already exists? Sounds about right.

They blew it and said the magic word

[fustakrakich]

"Centralised"

If it's centralized, it's not mesh. Though it is good to see more development in this area. Once we can make it decentralized, we'll have an internet that nobody can turn off. And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be a great thing.

Re:They blew it and said the magic word

[drinkypoo]

Isn't decentralized internet really messy?

I don't know about that, but it is really meshy.