Re: Locations with no good Internet (was ISP in Johannesburg)

[Charles N Wyble <charles () knownelement com>]

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Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> On 03/01/2010 05:34 PM, Akyol, Bora A wrote:
> > Michael
>
> point-to-point  and ptmp 802.11phy derived tdm gear has been
> outperforming cellular access layers on the throughput and cost
> equations for a number of years. 

Yep. There was a cool experiment in Venuzella with a 237 mile link.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/06/w_wifi_record_2/

The tdm firmware is really interesting stuff. More at
http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/wiki/Wireless


The choice of frequencies and licensed
> vs unlicensed operation continues to proliferate as the radios get more
> flexible and cheaper...
>
> see for one ptp backkhul example:
>
> http://www.ubnt.com/nanobridge

I love the ubnt stuff. It's simply amazing.

> It is now possible to put together a passable community or wisp network
> for what essentially is microcap money. 

Yep.

Unlike rural electrification or
> rural ftfth the prospects of doing such a deployment for the low
> hundreds of dollars per household in aggregate are not hard to imagine.

Exactly. Yay for unlicensed ISM bands.

> As far as I'm concerned someone else with capital can solve the mobility
> problem, the fixed wireless problem can be addressed in many cases with
> sound engineering, sweat equitity, community involvement and a little
> capital.

For sure.

Way to many folks focused on celluar as a solution. *peers over at my 16
node openwrt mesh testing lab*

In my opinion, last mile access is a very mature area, with well
understood operational models etc. Granted all sorts of interesting wifi
related issues pop up on the WISPA list, but so does BGP issues on Nanog
or weird cisco bugs on c-nsp.

The biggest problem is middle mile. That is where the money needs to go.
You need something to back haul to the interwebz. There is a lot of
fiber in the ground already, but there are numerous layer 8 issues with
getting to it most of the time. Solving those is an exercise left for
the reader.

- --
Charles N Wyble
Linux Systems Engineer
charles () knownelement com (818)280-7059
http://www.knownelement.com
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