Intel Tinkers With 60 Mile Wi-Fi$500 devices aimed at improving rural access ( old news - 08:51AM Tuesday Mar 18 2008) tags: business · wireless · bandwidthIntel says they've developed a new Wi-Fi technology aimed at extending existing Wi-Fi networks into rural under-served areas around the world. Dubbed the rural connectivity platform (RCP), the node consists of a processor, radios, specialized software and an antenna -- and is capable of offering 6.5Mbps Wi-Fi connectivity over 60 miles to another unit. The antennas are relatively standard; the software makes the difference: There is nothing particularly innovative in the antenna technology and the router hardware, he says. The trick, he explains, comes in the software that the radios use to communicate with each other. "If you take standard Wi-Fi and focus it," Galinovsky says, "you can't get past a few kilometers." The reason is that one radio will send out data and wait for an acknowledgment from the other radio that the data was received. If the transmitting radio doesn't receive the acknowledgment in a certain amount of time, it will assume that the data was lost, and it will resend it.
Intel's RCP platform rewrites the communication rules of Wi-Fi radios. Galinvosky explains that the software creates specific time slots in which each of the two radios listens and talks, so there's no extra data being sent confirming transmissions. "We're not taking up all the bandwidth waiting for acknowledgments," he says. Since there is an inherent trade-off between the amount of available bandwidth and the distance that a signal can travel, the more bandwidth is available, the farther a signal can travel. Intel hopes to sell the devices (which consume about five to six watts and therefore can be solar powered) to developing nations for around $500. One wonders if such a development might run into trouble with Intel's marketing department, which obviously wants the world to embrace WiMax as the longer-range wireless technology of choice. A little more detail is available at the Intel research blog.
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 openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA | Ask The WISPs Yes, 60 miles is a decent distance, but I don't know that this "great feat" is all that special. With the right radios, good antennas, and enough height, this is doable by just about anyone. | |
|  | shashinka
join:2000-09-16
West Boylston, MA
| Re: Ask The WISPs This is meant to be used in a 60 mile radius it looks like from the diversity antennas they have on the AP. yes if you use higher gain directional antennas (and make sure your AP can extend the time to wait for returning acknowledgements (cisco ap's have a setting for this) then already people have been using them at great distances. 20-30 miles right now in flat land maybe. Good luck for WISPs in the hilly areas of new england. | |
| | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Ask The WISPs said by shashinka  :Good luck for WISPs in the hilly areas of new england. Yep, I don't think Intel will be resolving LoS issues  | |
| | | Hollaway
join:2001-11-29
Salinas, CA
| said by shashinka : Good luck for WISPs in the hilly areas of new england. Don't count on Intel doing anything for the US very quickly. The article stated it was to be marketed in "developing countries". Typical of Intel, they put WiMax down the Amazon river but not down I-40! I guess that wouldn't produce any PR... | |
| | | | moven
join:2008-02-25
Huntsville, TX
| Re: Ask The WISPs Don't count on Intel doing anything for the US very quickly. The article stated it was to be marketed in "developing countries". Typical of Intel, they put WiMax down the Amazon river but not down I-40! I guess that wouldn't produce any PR...
Agree 100% on this one !!!! Would be more than happy to sign on, but don't live in a developing country, just the USA of A. | |
| | | | | 
Iridium
Premium
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Ask The WISPs said by moven :Don't count on Intel doing anything for the US very quickly. The article stated it was to be marketed in "developing countries". Typical of Intel, they put WiMax down the Amazon river but not down I-40! I guess that wouldn't produce any PR... Agree 100% on this one !!!! Would be more than happy to sign on, but don't live in a developing country, just the USA of A. Same here, I would gladly pay the $$ for one of those on my roof.
Can the 2 technologies be used together, this and WiMax?
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My next laptop will be an Apple, I am fed up with PC's and Windows. | |
| 
Meh37
@verizon.net | Just the ticket... for those Maryland wetlands. (BBR news item a few days ago  ) | |
|
LMOA
@rr.com
| Intel can do 60 miles? Wow. from a dual radio with two 9 db antennas. Its a PCB board in a case. Does thier new invention fix wifi? think not. It uses slicing, which was here before wifi was even thought of. Several companies go beyond slicing and use polling to syncronise units. less . | |
| 
NJxxxJon
something good. or your mom.
Premium
join:2005-10-22
00000
| Tinker Tinker Ha. Except I wouldnt like putting my router (If I needed too) outside my house. Maintence to it would be a beeoch. 60 Miles would be perfect.
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___________Post a VIDEO...or it DIDN'T HAPPEN_____ | |
| ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
 ·AT&T CallVantage
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
·AT&T Southeast
| It's not WiFi Technically speaking, this is not WiFi since the signaling scheme they are using would be incompatible with off the shelf equipment. This sounds more like a trunking scheme where they can repeat to remote locales and rebroadcast the link locally using standards based equipment. Sounds like WiMax to me.
Perhaps Intel should contact the wizards at ParkerVision. Didn't they get all of the patents for signaling WiFi over long distances? | |
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