[MLB-WIRELESS] auto-tracking antenna follows users

[Clae]

Anyone want to try building an auto-tracking recycled galaxy?


>To: <BarrelfullofMonkeys at yahoogroups.com>
>From: Rak Razam <shazaman at netspace.net.au>
>Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002 23:04:40 +1100
>Subject: [BarrelfullofMonkeys] Mobile WiFi arrives 2002
>Reply-To: BarrelfullofMonkeys at yahoogroups.com
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,56166,00.html
>
>Wi-Fi That Follows You Around  By Paul Boutin
>
>Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,56166,00.html
>02:00 AM Nov. 04, 2002 PT
>SAN FRANCISCO -- Vivato, a startup company packed with industry 
>veterans including Wi-Fi Forum founder Phil Belanger, will announce 
>new base station technology that can provide wide area coverage for 
>existing Wi-Fi laptops and other computers.
>Using a computer-controlled antenna array, Vivato's prototype bases 
>can reach large groups of users on existing laptops and other 
>computers, with an operating range up to 7 kilometers outdoors, the 
>company claims.
>In a recent demo, Vivato employees demonstrated working wireless 
>coverage inside a five-story building in San Francisco from a single 
>base station across the street.
>The base transmits about 30 milliwatts of radiation, less than many 
>consumer base stations.
>The key element is the antenna -- more specifically, an 
>electronically steered, planar-phased array of hundreds of antennas 
>connected to a high-speed processor running Linux.
>Vivato's prototype panel is about 2 feet by 4 feet and a few inches 
>thick. Resembling a cubicle half-wall left lying around the office, 
>it contains the array of antennas, a one-unit high rack mount server 
>(or at least the components of one), and sports only a power cord 
>and gigabit ethernet jack on its exterior.
>Software controlling the antennas detects Wi-Fi clients in the area 
>and adjusts the signal across the array many times per second. The 
>goal is to create directed beams of radio waves rather than a large 
>spherical coverage area.
>By directing radio energy in small beams, the base station can 
>support two-way TCP/IP connections more than four miles away in 
>outdoor tests without violating FCC regulations, according to 
>engineers at the company.
>Most amazingly, Vivato's array controller follows individual users 
>as they walk around using their laptops, adjusting the direction of 
>its beams many times per second to keep users connected.
>To demonstrate how this works, one Vivato engineer launched a live 
>audio stream from the Net on a laptop, then cavalierly carried it 
>out of the meeting room, into the elevator, down to the first floor, 
>across the building's lobby, out into the street, and three doors 
>down to the nearby McDonald's -- without the live MP3 stream pausing 
>to rebuffer during several minutes of constant motion.
>Belanger joked, "Just wait. That sucks compared to the product."
>Supporting many roaming users from a single base point is the goal 
>behind those products, targeted for release in the first half of 
>2003.
>"We think it'll work reasonably well at pedestrian speed," said CEO 
>Ken Biba, a veteran of the original Advanced Research Projects 
>Agency TCP Working Group that developed the transfer protocol used 
>on the Internet.
>Biba said the company's approach was to apply the ethernet local 
>area network model to roaming wireless access, rather than the 
>cellular wide area network model used by cellular carriers.
>The company's primary target will be corporate and collegiate 
>buildings and campuses where employees or students are highly mobile.
>"The irony of Wi-Fi is that you need to run a lot of wire to go 
>wireless," Belanger said, referring to the short range and often 
>spotty coverage of current base stations.
>Glenn Fleishman, editor of 802.11b Networking News, agreed that 
>replacing multiple access points with a single, user-tracking base 
>could result in huge gains in productivity.
>"In any organization, you have some percent of people who are always 
>mobile," Fleishman said. "Instead of providing limited areas of 
>hotspot service, it addresses all of the mobile users."
>"Look at the Microsoft campus: They have hundreds of access points. 
>They can't have their people only be able to access the Internet 
>fully from a certain desk. However many millions of dollars they've 
>put into it, they've got a multifold return in productivity."
>

-- 
-the lord is my shepherd, I shall not want - aum namah shivayam - 
allah u akhbar -
          - in memoriam for the people of all nations and faiths 
killed in Bali -

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