Intelrecently show a limited 802.11 radio set link with a data pace of around 6 Mbps and a range of more than 60 nautical mile .
Intel reach this extraordinary orbit using off - the - shelf hardware , including parabolical antennas , for its project , dubbed the rural connectivity weapons platform ( RCP ) . The key innovation was a alteration , take over from cellular electronic internet , to the underlie 802.11 medium - admission - control layer that tolerate for a more effective signaling , and translates into longer reach out .
RCP is one of several research undertaking intended to extend the Internet intorural areas , especially in develop commonwealth . The idea is to apply miserable - cost , grim - powerWi - Fi radiosto bridge deck between wired Internet connections in a metropolis and wire and wireless connections in modest , rural Village . RCP ’s unprecedented range minimizes the need for loads of wireless nodes to sweep those distance .
RCP has been in development by Intel Research and Intel ’s Emerging Markets Platform Group for about two years , and has been talked about online for about a year . There are pilot RCP deployment in a handful of countries : India , Vietnam , Panama and South Africa . Earlier this calendar month , the poker chip maker demonstrate the link in operation during an open house at its Berkeley Research Lab in California . Inthe demonstration , user viewed a live picture image streamed over a 5.8GHz RCP connection from a television camera about 1.5 miles away .
Wi - Fi is being used in outdoor preferences , specially in municipal wireless - mesh networks , from such companies asBelAir NetworksandFiretide . Typically , these radiocommunication nodes habituate a combining of high - baron radios and high - gain , directional antennas to start the Wi - Fi signal to reach , at best , a mile or two . ( Comparewireless mesh product . )
As Intel government note , the 802.11 communications protocol becomes ineffective as the ends of the wireless connection get farther aside . In part this is because when one 802.11 radio sends data , it then waits for an acknowledgement from the receiving radio . If it does n’t hear that acknowledgement within a sure amount of time , the station wireless assumes the data was suffer or dropped , and resends it . The longer the distance , the more probable the sending receiving set wo n’t get the acknowledgement in time .
So , Intel researcher changed the protocol , add a technique called time naval division multiple access ( TDMA ) , which is used today in GSM cellular internet . TDMA divide the channel into time slots , then sync between the sending and receiving wireless . In effect , each radio receiver sends and receives on a schedule , so there ’s no look for acknowledgements and no subsequent resending of data .
Wi - Fi vendors , such asMeru NetworksandExtricom , have added a eccentric of centralised scheduling to their 802.11 wireless LAN product , claiming it simplifies deployment ( because all admittance point can run on one distribution channel ) and increases throughput when networks are heavily tight .
In Intel ’s case , the TDMA technique translates into longer range , because it minimizes the wireless overhead and frees up more bandwidth for data transmittal , giving the signal great range of a function . ( We ’re waiting to hear back from Intel on more point , and will update this tarradiddle when we have them . )
RCP is a wrinkle - of - sight engineering science : The antennas on each side of the contact need to be able to “ see ” each other .
The RCP units can be endpoints , on each side of a link , or relay race stations through which the signaling can skip . Both type of RCP devices admit a single - board computer with an engraft Intel IXP 425 electronic internet processor , CompactFlash computer storage , 10/100 Ethernet ports that support Power over Ethernet , and a “ local ” 802.11 access point for client connectivity . The machine draws about 6 watts of tycoon .
Intel has been using 802.11 radios for the long - distance connection ( as many as three are possible ) , but any long - haul receiving set can be substituted including WiMAX radios . RCP works over the 900MHz band and the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands . The Berkeley Research Lab manifestation shows an outside parabolical antenna close to two feet wide .
The ironware is encased in a thickset , rugged , die - cast aluminum shell , and the building block are design to configure themselves mechanically . Intel pronounce it will start selling the devices in India later this twelvemonth , apparently through deals with equipment makers to turn the Berkeley research lab ’s reference pattern into a commercial product . The object damage is less than US$ 500 .
The RCP software run on an operating systems found on theSnapGearembedded Linux distribution . A Web GUI can be used for monitoring and for manual configuration .
In Panama , one RCP equipment was alight on a 15 - story hotel , with an net connection . The other was get on on a tall , minute Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree automobile trunk in a village several miles away . No special tool were need . The tree - mounted RCP whole , powered by a solar panel in the small town , now provides a reliable net connection to the villager , where none existed before .
