[Hidden-tech] WiredWest fiberoptic broadband

[Robert Heller]

At Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:49:23 -0400 ussailis at shaysnet.com wrote:

> 
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> 
> The issue with trees, etc is known as "multipath." It represents signals
> arriving from many directions into your antenna. The many directions are
> caused by reflections from leaves, trees, hills, etc.

I also understand that the leaves also tend to absorb the higher
frequencies, esp. those edging up into microwaves.  That is, some of the
radio signal is being turned into sugars (not a lot or particularly
efficiently). 

> 
> Multipath gets worse as frequency increases. 
> 
> Everyone who drives and listens to an FM radio has experienced it: You are
> listing to a interesting program say you stop at a light. The signal is
> distorted, & garbled. That is a multipath null (where the sum of the
> various signal directions results in a very reduced, or null, signal
> level). You inch forward a wee, the signal & interesting program is back.
> You moved out from the multipath null.

Of course, the FM broadcast band is between 88 and 108mhz and broadcast
FM transmitters are far more powerful (in the kilowatt and 10s of
kilowatt range) then any sort of digital wireless transmitters (which
are about 1/4 watt). The long-distance wireless are 700mhz and 900mhz. 
WiFi (802.11) is in the 2.4Ghz band.  The higher the freq., the worse
the foliage affects it (absorption / reflection, plus the more
line-of-sight the signal needs to be (this is where the hills come in).
 

> 
> One problem with wireless broadband is the antennas are fixed, while the
> mutipath null moves about because the trees, etc move about. This results
> in the null moving about. Since you can't easily move the antenna, you
> can't control it.
> 
> Wireless broadband in the clear works well. Thru the trees doesn't work so
> well. Thru rocks (ie hills) it doesn't work at all. 

One should also note: it won't work well though a "shielded box".  Some
building walls behave like a "shielded box" (metal studs or rebar).  Of
course concrete is mostly rock...

> 
> This is another problem we face here in W.MA. Many "access points" would be
> required to service few customers because of the hills. Each of these
> access points would require a transmitter / receiver and antenna on a
> tower. Some folks don't like that because they think (wrongly) that it
> lowers their property value. This is the NIMBY aspect of it all. In some
> ways the politics are more difficult to overcome than the engineering. 
> 

In some places, politics aside, the number of "access points" would be
so high, that it might be cheaper to just run fiber optic.

Another very important point is that ANY wireless technology is doomed
to becoming obsolescent fairly quickly -- the equipment is very
specialized (as to frequency and signaling methods) and any improvement
in the technology would require wholesale replacement.  Fiber optic, is
pretty much 'future proofed': the bare fiber optic has more bandwidth
capability than the *electronics* currently available to drive it.  As
the technology advances, all that needs to be updated/replaced are the
interface points -- the fiber (on the poles or buried in the ground)
would still be usable as is.

One other thing: wireless technology is bandwidth limited.  

> 
> 
> Jim Ussailis
> 
> jim at nationalwireless.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Reva Reck reva at revareck.com
> Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:17:24 -0400
> To: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] WiredWest fiberoptic broadband
> 
> 
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>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
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> 
> 
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