[MLB-WIRELESS] ./: Can 802.11 Become A Viable Last-Mile Alte rnative?

Ben Ryan ben at bssc.edu.au
Tue May 14 15:04:49 EST 2002


> On 05/14/02 11:18 AM, Tony Langdon wrote:
--snip--
>>noise), it's a wonder that PLC systems work at all!
>>
> I was particularly thinking of remote access - esp. country.  after all, 
> it seems clear that the biggest hurdle for remote AP's is power supply.
> Also the article was not clear about exactly what they meant by power
> companies becoming telecos.  fibre was mentioned at one point, which 
> makes me wonder if it is fibre optics that are being rolled out with the 
> powerlines.  that would make for an interesting network.  If you have 
> power on you have broadband on.  then you get wireless to dothe last 
> mile stuff.

Yes, bandwidth is the killer here in the country. Housing density though is a
challenge to WLAN - smaller pop density means less possible nodes per sq km :(

Also AFAIK, and FYI, the owner of most of Victoria's power distribution
infrastructure (who inherited it from the former SEC) required a network to
monitor, log, diagnose and manage their resources remotely.
So they had to fibre up at least the substations. I think a lot more than that
is glassed, why wouldn't you do it all in one hit. So yep, they had to lay a
coupla fibres, laying 50 pair isn't much more expensive than running 5 pair....
so I think they did :)
Keep an eye out for commercial carriage services (prolly wholesaled) from this
player soon. Apparently one can obtain E1, 10BaseT, DS3, STM1's, the works.
Ethernet was interesting, dunno what underlying transport technology they're using.

Anyone know anything conclusive on Ultra WideBand?
I've heard the marketroid PR fluff, what about chipsets, etc?
Anyone got a good URL for those unfamiliar with UWB?
It's looking promising, so long as the ACA doesn't stomp on it...


To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo at wireless.org.au
with "unsubscribe melbwireless" in the body of the message



More information about the Melbwireless mailing list