[1st-mile-nm] Intel claims new WiFi radio devices with near 60-mile range.

[Tom Johnson]

FYI, but I remain skeptical.  Perhaps I lived in Missouri too long.
-tj

March 20th, 2008 New WiFi from Intel improves rural
communications<http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1585>

Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 2:51 am

*Categories:* Education Technology <http://education.zdnet.com/?cat=1>

MIT's Technology
Review<http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20432/?a=f>is
reporting on new WiFi radio devices from Intel that drastically
increase
the effective range of bridged routers. Intel claims a range between two of
the $500 routers near 60 miles, although most implementations are expected
to connect wired urban cores with wireless villages within 30 miles.

As the article notes, in many areas, it simply isn't feasible to run copper
or fiber to these villages:

Wireless satellite connections are expensive, [Jeff Galinovsky, a senior
platform manager at Intel] points out. And it's impractical to wire up some
villages in Asian and African countries. "You can't lay cable," he says.
"It's difficult, expensive, and someone is going to pull it up out of the
ground to sell it."

Most wireless routers wait for acknowledgment from other nodes on the
network before sending additional data, drastically reducing bandwidth and
range. The new Intel routers use software to set up specific times at which
the devices are expected to be communicating, eliminating the need for such
acknowledgments.

At over 6Mbps, the links provide adequate speed for videoconferencing, and,
of course, connecting the exurban classrooms and the Classmate PCs that
Intel is rolling out.


-- 
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom at jtjohnson.com

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
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