In the end of 2015 there were 3.2 billion people online. 67% of Americans now have broadband at home, compared to 70% in 2013, and 13% connect via smartphone only vs 8% in 2013; smartphone penetration in US at 68%. The share of Americans with broadband at home has plateaued, and more rely only on their smartphones for online access. We can see downtick in home high-speed adoption has taken place at the same time there has been an increase in “smartphone-only” adults – those who own a smartphone that they can use to access the internet, but do not have traditional broadband service at home. The American broadband market is notoriously oligopolistic with the majority of citizens offered limited choice, especially at the high-speed end, complete with high monthly fees.
Fixed Internet speeds increase – even without fiber to every house. We will start to see more 1Gbps Internet connections – and not all of them need fiber (2014 was the year of “fiber everywhere”). For example Comcast ‘rolls out’ ‘world’s first’ DOCSIS 3.1 modem, pumping 1Gbps over existing cable. It should, in theory, be quick and easy to get 1Gbps broadband to your home using DOCSIS 3.1, but I expect we will see only very few experimental roll-outs of the service in 2016. The beauty of DOCSIS 3.1 is that it is backwards compatible.
Mobile networks continue to lead the way when it comes to connecting people for the next generation of communications: Mobile subscriptions are now at 7.1 billion globally, and more than 95% of the world’s population are now within reach of a mobile network signal. Mobile cellular subscriptions have overtaken fixed phone subs, mobile broadband subscriptions and households with Internet access. This development most probably causes expectations that Network jobs are hot so salaries are expected to rise in 2016 as especially wireless network engineers, network admins, and network security pros are needed.
There are still some 350 million people globally who have no way of Internet access, mobile or otherwise, and there will be some race to get connections to at least some of those people. High stakes in broadband satellites race as building a satellite network and associated ground-based facilities and user terminals to provide Internet access to even the remotest and poorest parts of the world will be a huge technical, regulatory, and business challenge. Data versions of low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite networks started appearing in the late 1990’s, followed with mobile telephony via LEO satellites, but never managed to deliver on the hype—partly because of technology constraints or poor business models. Over years there have been huge technology advances in satellites: they can now be made much smaller and lighter, so launch costs are significantly lower. Also component costs associated with the different terminals and handsets have plummeted. These factors have clearly helped the business proposition, but there are still challenges.
There will be new radio frequencies available for wireless communications thanks to WRC-15 Spectrum Decisions: In addition to confirming the use of the 700 MHz band (technically 694 to 790 MHz) for mobile broadband services in ITU Region 1, which includes Europe, Africa, the Middle east and Central Asia, delegates also agreed to harmonize 200 MHz of the C-band (3.4 to 3.6 GHz) to improve capacity in urban areas and used in small cells, and the L-band (1427-1518 MHz) to improve overall coverage and better capacity. So the mobile broadband sector now has, at least in the short to medium term, three globally harmonized bands. There was also decision for spectrum to be used for wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC).
5G gets started. Just five years after the first 4G smartphone hit the market, the wireless industry is already preparing for 5G: cell phone carriers, smartphone chip makers and the major network equipment companies are working on developing 5G network technology for their customers. There are still many challenges as 5G infrastructure must be able to serve the billions of internet-connected objects of small appliances in addition to large consumers of information.700MHz harmonization is a key feature in operators’ plans to begin rolling out 5G services and C-band is also likely to be used for 5G. After 2016 to get the fastest promised 5G speeds very high frequency bands that will need to be deployed for 5G services, mainly above 24 GHz.
5G will not only be about a new air interface with faster speeds, but it will also address network congestion, energy efficiency, cost, reliability, and connection to billions of people and devices. Many believe that a critical success factor for 5G will be a fully revamped TCP/IP stack and a group of major vendors has put forward an open source TCP/IP stack OpenFastPath they say is designed to reinvigorate the ancient and rather crusty protocol. Cyber security research will be important important in 2016 as 5G networks will be critical infrastructure, on top of which for example. transport, industry, health and the new operators set up their business around 2020. Growing network virtualization functionality and programmability are both an opportunity and a threat to security. Keep in mind that everything connected to the Internet can, and will be hacked.
Heightened interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) and of Everything (IoE) will continue in 2016. IoT networks heat up in 2016 as low-power wide area networks for the Internet of Things have been attracting new entrants and investors at a heady pace with unannounced offerings still in the pipeline for 2016 trying to enable new IoT apps by undercutting costs and battery life for cellular and WiFi. There are many competing technologies in this field, and some will turn out to be winners and some losers. Remember that IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, so there is lots of business opportunities for many IoT technologies.
2016 will be another booming year for Ethernet. Wi-Fi is obviously more convenient than wired Ethernet cables for average mobile user. But Ethernet still offers advantages — faster speeds, lower latency, and no wireless interference problems. Ethernet matters a lot with desktop PCs, laptops at desks, game consoles, TV-streaming boxes, and other devices – like when building backbone networks and data centers. Assuming it’s easy enough to plug the devices in with an Ethernet cable, you’ll get a more consistently solid connection. Yes, Ethernet is better.
The augmented global demand for data centers is the key driver for the growth in Global Ethernet Switch and Router Market 2016-2020.25G, 50G and 100G Ethernet is finding it’s place in in the Data Center. Experts predict that the largest cloud operators will shift to 100G Ethernet fabrics while cost-efficient 25G and 50G will remain the workhorses for most of the other well-known data-center companies.The increasing usage of advanced technologies, such as 10GbE ports, by enterprises and universities for educational and official purposes, is a significant factor in the enterprise and campus segment. The key players in this segment will be Arista Network, Brocade Communications, Cisco, Dell, HP, Huawei and Juniper Network. The 2015 Ethernet Roadmap shows a roadmap for physical links through 2020 and looks into the future terabit speeds as well.
I expect 2016 will be a year of widespread product adoption around 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) bandwidth over twisted-pair copper cabling (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T) as transition to next generation 802.11ac Wave 2 access points will drive significant demand for 2.5G ports. Enterprise operators are looking to fill the gap between 1G and 10G over this legacy unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling (Category 5e/Category 6) that is installed all over. IEEE 802.11ac is 3x faster and 6x more power efficient than its predecessor, 802.11n, while remaining interoperable with 802.11n. Rapid adoption of 802.11ac is run by fact that tablets and smartphones are becoming ubiquitous in the workplace.
Driven by IEEE standards, Ethernet hits the road in 2016: A new trend emerging in the automotive market in 2016 is the migration of Ethernet, a tried-and-true computer network technology, into connected cars. The proliferation of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features in many vehicles is also expected to expand Ethernet use. The completion of IEEE 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1 standards are both expected. The emergence of the 1000BASE-T1 standard in mid-2016 provides a roadmap for automotive Ethernet evolution. Ethernet, starting in 2016, will be seen as the dominant in-vehicle network backbone.
Prepare for the PAM4 phase shift. PAM4 (four-level pulse-amplitude modulation) will be coming to wider use in 2016 because we all the time need faster communications links between ICs inside devices. NRZ won’t work at 56 Gbps and it seems that PAM-4 is the way to go as PAM4 doubles the bit rate for a given baud rate over NRZ. At 56 Gbps, 400 Gbps Ethernet can be realized with four lanes of PAM4 but might require eight 28 Gbps lanes with NRZ. PAM-4 is also gaining traction in 28 Gbps links. The bad news is that PAM4 trades off bandwidth for SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) meaning it is more sensitive to noise and timing skew than NRZ. PAM4 does bring SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) to the forefront of design issues. With four voltage level and three eyes, PAM4 requires new design techniques for recovering embedded clocks and for identifying bits in symbols. PAM4 will be used mainly on copper links, but it can be also used with fiber optic links, which has it’s own set of challenges. These and other issues are forging new techniques for how to measure and simulate PAM4 signals.
Cloud Scale Networking term will be seen. The virtualization of networks, storage, and servers is reshaping the way organizations use IT. Cloud computing plays an essential role in this process as cloud delivers the additional capacity required to satisfy growing demand to an enterprise or small business from a third party. The amount of data volume carried by networks has exploded. Cisco estimated last year that by 2017, data centers will handle some 7.7 zetabytes of IP traffic, two thirds of which would be on account of cloud computing. Total global data centre traffic is projected to triple by the end of 2019 (from 3.4 to 10.4 Zettabytes). Legacy, tiered, network designs can be replaced with scalable flat network topologies. They can be future-proofed using open, scalable SDN and NFV platforms. The network is cloud computing’s final frontier, at technology, people and process levels. Service providers seek to reduce costs, create new business opportunities, and introduce new services more quickly.
The “software-ization” of Telco and increasing use of pen-Source Networking will continue in 2016. In 2015, the adoption of OpenStack, OpenDaylight, OpNFV for software and services, and Open Compute for hardware will supported more virtualized, more open source network computing platforms and architecture. The trend will continue. SDN provides control to the enterprises and carriers on the complete network through a single logical point, thereby simplifying the network design and operation. The traditional, one-vendor, proprietary solution is transitioning to solutions involving many suppliers – and this offers customers with significant cost savings and performance optimization. Growing network virtualization functionality and programmability are both an opportunity and a threat to security. Keep in mind that everything connected to the Internet can, and will be hacked.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris there will be also interest in thinking how clean our networking is. It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The trend to look for greener technologies is tackling first mobile networks because of their high energy use. Base stations and switching centers could count for between 60% and 85% of the energy used by an entire communication system. More and more facilities, especially big names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have looked to renewable energy.
820 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Verizon Wireless to begin selling data cap exemptions to content providers January 25 with beta trial of its new FreeBee Data 360 service — Verizon Wireless selling data cap exemptions to content providers — Video, music, app downloads, and ads can be exempted from caps for a fee.
Verizon Wireless selling data cap exemptions to content providers
Video, music, app downloads, and ads can be exempted from caps for a fee.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/verizon-wireless-selling-data-cap-exemptions-to-content-providers/
Verizon Wireless, like AT&T before it, is now charging online content providers a fee to get their services exempted from customers’ data caps.
With Verizon’s “FreeBee Data 360,” content providers are billed for each gigabyte they serve to consumers, while the consumers can access the providers’ services without using up their data allotments.
“Content providers can sponsor specific consumer actions on a per-click basis, free of data charges for subscribers—including mobile video clips, audio streaming, and app downloads,” Verizon said today. Data used for advertisements can also be sponsored by the company delivering the ad.
AT&T has been selling sponsored data under a similar scheme since January 2014. T-Mobile USA has been exempting certain video and music services from its caps, but it isn’t charging content providers for the exemptions.
Data cap exemptions are controversial because they put services without the exemptions at a disadvantage. The Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules don’t specifically outlaw data caps or data cap exemptions, but the FCC evaluates on a case-by-case basis whether specific implementations harm consumers or businesses. The FCC has been holding meetings with companies that implement data cap exemptions (also known as zero-rating), but it hasn’t taken any action against them.
Verizon said the service will start January 25 with beta trials
Tomi Engdahl says:
The fundamentals of PAM4
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4441212/The-fundamentals-of-PAM4?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160119&elq=502b498700014c749cc9bfc5a3e4d1f7&elqCampaignId=26567&elqaid=30374&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1f21fbf9937a493f9522be04aa0c2854
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is copper dead?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441191/Is-copper-dead-
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” could have just as well been said about the use of copper interconnects as Mark Twain said about himself, in a letter when he had been confused with someone else who had actually died.
For as long as I’ve been coming to a DesignCon—and I attended the first one—I have heard it said, “surely we can’t go that fast in copper, we have to switch to optical interconnects.” When we were at 1 Gbps, this was said about 2.5 Gbps. When we were at 2.5 Gbps, this was said about 5 Gbps and every other generation after.
Now we hear it being said about 56 Gbps. Is this another case of crying wolf, or have we really reached some fundamental limits to copper interconnect technology?
Rula Bakleh has pulled together a group of industry leading experts for the panel, Optics vs copper for in-chassis connections @ 56-112 Gbps: is Copper still a viable solution
http://www.designcon.com/santaclara/scheduler/session/optics-vs-copper-for-in-chassis-connections-56-112gbps-is-copper-still-a-viable-solution
In this panel we discuss where we currently are and where we perceive the industry to go with each technology. New innovations for short distances will take us to 112Gbps copper speeds, and we compare that with existing and upcoming optical industry capabilities and costs. We help you understand the differences, challenges and limitations proposed by each technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ina Fried / Re/code:
FreedomPop Raises Another $50 Million to Offer Cheap Global Roaming for World Travelers
http://recode.net/2016/01/20/freedompop-raises-another-50-million-to-offer-cheap-global-roaming-for-world-travelers/
FreedomPop, which specializes in offering free and low-cost cellphone service, has raised another $50 million in funding and now plans to start selling a global hotspot.
The move offers near-local rates for data rather than the sky-high roaming fees typically charged by the major carriers. In doing so, the venture-backed alternative carrier hopes to stick another, perhaps more painful needle into traditional carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, which charge high rates for traveling abroad.
FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols said the company is able to offer lower prices by striking local deals in each of the 25 countries it is offering service in, with more countries expected in the coming weeks and months. T-Mobile offers its customers free unlimited roaming, but unlike with FreedomPop’s new service, speeds are slowed dramatically, making it useful for email and some very light Web surfing, but not much else.
FreedomPop will sell a hotspot that can be used in the different regions for $49, while a SIM card to go in unlocked phones will cost $10. Customers will get 200 megabytes of data free each month, with additional data at $10 for 500MB.
While far cheaper than the plans offered by the big carriers, or even some options aimed specifically at international road warriors, FreedomPop continues to rely on word of mouth to compete with companies that think nothing of dropping tens of millions of dollars on an advertising campaign. The company has also struggled with customer support issues as it tries to quickly grow its business.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The case for open standard wireless networks
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/the-case-for-open-standard-wireless-networks/62e1cb978b500cb397c9eb2f9863f056.html
Proprietary wireless systems and local area networks (LANs), while still in use, are being whittled away in spite of the time and expense many companies have invested into them in favor of open standard wireless networks.
There are several standalone, proprietary wireless systems that are being aggressively marketed in the face of increasing standardization. At the risk of editorializing, these wireless systems are having a somewhat negative effect on the adoption and proliferation of more useful (and less costly) open standard systems. The marketing hype associated with these systems is driven purely by short-term profit, however, with no real concern for the lingering effects of the negative impacts they are having on the decision to implement open standard WLANs.
Typically, as was the case with proprietary wired networks, the software and hardware required for a proprietary WLAN is very expensive to purchase, implement, and maintain. These wireless systems also require specialized talent that doesn’t necessarily have useful technical skills outside of the particular system being used. Eventually, a sharp technician will develop cross-platform skills to increase his marketability, but by that time things may have changed radically. In the meanwhile, both the vendor and the client have invested huge sums of money and an excess of valuable time to support a system with a relatively short life cycle. This is a very narrow and wasteful approach that is, again, driven by profit rather than the promotion and development of the technology.
Implementation of proprietary systems puts the client in a difficult position: His expert has gone to bat for the system and can’t back out. For the vendor, it is a gift that continues to give—the poor client is locked into a system that requires some very expensive care and feeding and usually will not perform all of its required functions without regular and expensive upgrades and patches, not to mention costly and specialized labor.
To their credit, vendors of proprietary WLANs did a great job in capitalizing on a need that was based upon the very commendable motives of reducing costs and enhancing utility; however, implementation produced the opposite result. It was a classic “bait and switch”
This may be heresy, but open standard wireless, particularly IEEE 802.11 and 802.15.4, is extremely useful and cost effective—and requires substantially less resources to acquire and implement. There is no further need to use proprietary solutions that work in older frequency spectra such as 900 MHz. With the release of IEEE 802.11ah in 2016, the 900 MHz spectrum will be made incredibly useful again and allow thousands of embedded sensors to communicate using open standard technology. This will effectively obsolete the existing proprietary wireless systems operating in that spectrum. There will be no need for proprietary transmitters and receivers that employ vendor-specific configuration and coding, drivers, and management software.
The cost for open standard wireless network interfaces will shortly make proprietary equipment superfluous, just as we saw with wired systems.
As was the case with wired networks some 30 years ago, clients and users will migrate away from proprietary, closed systems after realizing the economy and utility of open standard systems. The damage being done now by the failure of the various proprietary implementations to provide economical solutions and reliable performance is of particular concern. Those who have already bought into these systems will be very reluctant to admit that it was a mistake, and this will only prolong the error. “Buyer’s remorse” will engender undeserved mistrust and negative attitudes towards a truly useful technology. For example, Ethernet is now the de facto wired standard worldwide, but that only happened after several false starts. Attempts by manufacturers to impose the use of proprietary network buses have met with limited success. This will also be the initial case with wireless technology, but over time, mistakes will be overcome and forgotten.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unprecedented speed in the Finnish mobile network: 450 Mbit / s
Elisa has published a release stating that it can continue to offer new, high-speed mobile connection to its customers. The three connecting the frequency of contact is capable of up to 450 Mbit / s transfer speeds.
Vierumaki pilot base station was the first of its kind. Elisa promises that new technology is brought to everyone as soon as it make use of the terminals are becoming more common.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications Anne Berner comments: “Finland is a pioneer in mobile technology and the use of mobile data. We also have a comprehensive throughout most of the high-speed 4G network, one of the world accession of the cheapest and the unusually large number of data use
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/ennennakematon-nopeus-suomalaisessa-mobiiliverkossa-450-mbit-s-6247504
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook, Google use SDN to boost data center connectivity
http://searchsdn.techtarget.com/tip/Facebook-Google-use-SDN-to-boost-data-center-connectivity
Internet content providers like Facebook and Google are already using SDN to improve hyperscale data center connectivity. But more could be done.
The largest Internet content providers (ICPs), including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Microsoft, have significantly changed the way hyperscale data centers are designed and operated. These ICPs build clusters of huge (super store-sized) data centers in metro areas with good access to dark fiber and Internet connections. These data centers are highly virtualized and run on commodity-based components. A single search request often requires data access across server clusters and in between data centers. As a result, ICPs rely on 100 Gbps metro optical equipment to deliver traffic between their data centers over dark fiber.
ICPs have different network requirements than the traditional buyers of optical equipment — the largest telecom and cable providers. ICPs want the ability to rapidly provision and scale capability in a data center context (e.g., rack and stack). They also want to operate (and rapidly reconfigure) their optical network with tools like those they use in their data center operation (e.g., DevOps tools). ICPs require metro optical systems that are:
Modular, scalable and easily upgradable
High-density, high-capacity and low-power in a small form factor
Easy to deploy with end-to-end management
Compatible with DevOps tools and easy to program
Low cost per 100 Gbps link
Currently, the biggest impact of SDN has been on Layer 2/3 — that is, switches and routers. The challenge is to bring the benefits of SDN — programmability, dynamic control of traffic flows, and ease of service provisioning and management — and apply them to the optical network.
For the optical network, suppliers typically provide a software layer that abstracts the complexity of the optical layer and presents an SDN-like interface to Layer 2/3 services. SDN controllers may also be deployed to provide centralized intelligence of traffic flows and the ability to reconfigure traffic as required.
For data center connectivity, IT staff requires open, standards-based software that provides the ability to program the network. These SDN tools enable workload mobility, dramatically simplifying provisioning and maximizing operational efficiency.
In SDN optical networks, centralized control and scalability
http://searchsdn.techtarget.com/tip/In-SDN-optical-networks-centralized-control-and-scalability
Technology for SDN optical networks is emerging and with it comes centralized control and dynamic bandwidth provisioning in the WAN.
Optical networks are critical for handling increased bandwidth demands, yet they can be inflexible, difficult to…
provision and challenging to manage.
Over time, SDN will change that and bring programmability, centralized control, dynamic provisioning and support for multi-vendor environments to optical networks. While technology for SDN optical networks is not yet as advanced as SDN for the data center, it will ultimately have a significant impact on high-speed transport in the wide area network (WAN).
In metro and long-haul optical networks, transmission is sent over the fiber optical cable and routers that handle the data network protocols (IP, MPLS, etc.). One of the key challenges in designing and operating optical networks is the interaction, control and management between the optical and routing layers.
SDN’s benefits for the optical network include:
The ability to scale network bandwidth up or down rapidly by facilitating deployment of optical bandwidth and IP resources
Added resource utilization efficiency by optimizing the path taken through the multi-layer network
Lower Opex by automating operations across the network layers, eliminating device-by-device configuration and coordinating provisioning functions
SDN’s centralized view of the network enables it to evaluate individual layers of the network to determine where and how to best send traffic. With SDN, a network transports information over the most efficient technology, not just the predefined transport technology. If bandwidth is limited in some portion of the network, SDN can reroute traffic around the point of congestion.
OpenFlow was designed specifically for L2-4 transport (Ethernet packets) and needs modification to provide SDN-like control to the optical layer. The Optical Transport working group within the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is addressing SDN and OpenFlow control capabilities for optical transport networks. The work includes identifying use cases, defining a target reference architecture for controlling optical transport networks incorporating OpenFlow, and creating OpenFlow protocol extensions.
GMPLS differs from traditional MPLS in that it supports multiple types of switching, including optical transport. GMPLS is often used as the control plane for optical switching. It is a proposed IETF standard to simplify the creation and management of IP services over optical networks, and it is often used as the control plane for optical switching.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The clock is ticking for the US to relinquish control of ICANN
http://betanews.com/2016/01/24/the-clock-is-ticking-for-the-us-to-relinquish-control-of-icann/
The US is not afraid to throw its weight around; it likes not only to be involved in things, but to be in control. For decades, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) — the non-profit organization that manages IP addresses and domain names — has been overseen by the US Department of Commerce, much to the chagrin of people around the world. Most upset are those who point to the independent nature of the internet, and the need for any body with global power to be similarly indpendent. Later this year ICANN is set — at long last — to completely separate from the US government.
While this does hinge on US government approval, by the end of September, ICANN could instead be in the hands of businesses, individuals, and multiple global governments. While the changing of hands should not alter the way ICANN operates, it is hoped that it will go some way to restoring faith that may have been lost after revelations about online surveillance by the NSA and other US government agencies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a DIY Network Plans To Subvert Time Warner Cable’s NYC Internet Monopoly
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/01/25/2325207/how-a-diy-network-plans-to-subvert-time-warner-cables-nyc-internet-monopoly
Toppling a telecom monopoly is the dream of many Americans, but the folks at NYC Mesh are actually doing something about it. On any given weekend, Brian Hall and his fellow organizers can be found around the city, installing directional Wi-Fi routers on rooftops. Anyone in the city who lives near another person on the network is welcome to join, and NYC Mesh volunteers will help you install a rooftop router.
How a DIY Network Plans to Subvert Time Warner Cable’s NYC Internet Monopoly
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-a-diy-network-plans-to-subvert-time-warner-cables-nyc-internet-monopoly
In a warehouse basement in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood late last year, a handful of self-taught network engineers gathered to casually discuss how they might make Time Warner Cable irrelevant in their lives.
Toppling—or at least subverting—a telecom monopoly is the dream of many an American, who are fed up with bait-and-switch advertising campaigns, arbitrary data caps, attacks on net neutrality, overzealous political lobbying, lackluster customer service, and passive-aggressive service cancellation experiences that are a common experience of simply being a broadband internet customer these days. The folks at NYC Mesh are actually doing something about it.
On any given weekend, Brian Hall and his fellow organizers can be found around the city, installing directional wifi routers on rooftops. Anyone in the city who lives near another person on the network is welcome to join, and NYC Mesh volunteers will help you install a rooftop router.
The DIY network relies on “mesh” routing. The concept is quite simple. Your home wifi router provides internet to anyone with a wifi-capable device in your home. But routers also have the ability to connect to and talk to each other. By “meshing” them, or connecting them together, you are creating a larger wifi zone. As long as one of the routers is connected to the internet in some way, it’s possible for anyone within range of any of the routers to get onto the internet. You could, theoretically, connect many routers together to create a giant wifi hotspot that covers huge parts of New York City or any other geographical area.
Of course, it’s not quite that simple. Every time a connection “hops,” it slows down.
Currently, NYC Mesh has about 40 “nodes,” or routers on the network (they are mostly smattered around Manhattan’s East Village and Williamsburg in Brooklyn), with more than 100 people waiting for an install. The network is also capable of “meshing” through the internet, meaning that if two routers are independently connected to the internet, they can also talk to each other to be part of the same network, which is why there are various pockets of meshes in the NYC network.
What NYC Mesh has accomplished so far is interesting. It’s a fun hobby project, a cool proof-of-concept, and an interesting experiment in what’s possible with the cooperation of a handful of strangers. But all of the nodes are eventually routed through a Time Warner Cable internet connection, which doesn’t do much good if you’re trying to create what could eventually be an alternative to Time Warner. It has to become more serious.
NYC Mesh
A community-owned resilient network.
https://nycmesh.net/
What is a mesh?
A mesh network consists of Wi-Fi router “nodes” spread throughout the city. The network has no central server and no single internet service provider. All nodes cooperate in the distribution of data, serving as a stand-alone network in case of emergencies.
Our mission
We aim to create a free, resilient, stand-alone communication system that serves both for daily use and also for emergencies—be it power outages or internet disruption—running software that helps our community with hyperlocal maps and events.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia demonstrated the new LTE-M technology
Internet of Thing equipment to get to the network so that they are burdened as little as possible existing connections. Nokia is now testing these LTE-M connections to the Korean KT’s commercial network.
M-LTE technology also known eMTC (enhanced Type Machine Communications). Its advantage is that the link uses only 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz LTE carrier channel. The rest of the channel in the normal data traffic. LTE M-link data can be transferred to up to one megabit per second. This is more than enough for the majority of potential IoT applications.
Network used commercial Flexi Multi Radio Base Station 10 – only software update was needed.
The terminals are considerably simpler than conventional LTE devices.
eMTC technology is part of the 3GPP Release 13 specification (that is to be called LTE-Advanced Pro).
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3890:nokia-demosi-uutta-lte-m-tekniikkaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
100 gigabits per second in both directions
The demo Bandwidth Engine 3 sold under the name of the product gave 25 gigabits four full duplex link Xilinx Virtex Ultrascale series FPGA chip. This means one hundred gigabits per second in both directions.
MoSysin devices are parallel, multi-port SRAM arrays that operate in high-speed links to the FPGA circuitry, and network processors. MoSysin release issued by the Bandwidth Engien 3 chip capable of more than five billion read operation per second.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3887:100-gigabittia-sekunnissa-molempiin-suuntiin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Space stations with high-speed data connections
The European Space Agency ESA and Airbus Common Space Data Highway program has officially started. The system, which brings, for example, space stations Gbit data connections
DRS-A is a first link to a satellite system. It allows data to be transferred to the space ships earth stations 1.8 gigabits per second. Link is based on a laser.
The first EDRS nodes can be reached orbit from Baikonur 28th january. It is part of the new 9B Eutelsat satellites on which Airbus Defence & Space Division has built and operated by Eutelsat.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3885:avaruusasemille-huippunopeat-datayhteydet&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. Army deploys 802.11ac Gigabit wireless infrastructure from HPE-Aruba to command posts worldwide
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/01/u-s-army-deploys-802-11ac-gigabit-wireless-infrastructure-from-hpe-aruba-to-command-posts-worldwide.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_January252016&eid=289644432&bid=1289293
“Command Post Wi-Fi,” an 802.11ac wireless infrastructure, is being implemented at Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve tactical units as part of the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 1 communications network, Aruba said in a Jan. 12 press release.
According to the release, a key driver behind the U.S. Army’s selection of Aruba is that it delivers NSA Suite B, also called “Commercial Solutions for Classified,” a set of publicly available algorithms approved by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). NSA Suite B serves as the cryptographic base for unclassified and most classified information, bringing information security to military Wi-Fi networks.
Another reason for the U.S. Army’s decision to deploy the Aruba Command Post Wi-Fi solution is that it offers integrated WLAN, VPN, WIDS and firewall capabilities, notes the company, as well as scalability and flexibility across Windows and Android platforms. The U.S. Army also appreciated the hands-on support from sales, systems engineering, product line management, and engineering that Aruba provides its customers.
The NSA-accredited unclassified and classified secure Command Post Wi-Fi solution is being supplied to the Army as kits. Each kit will include Aruba indoor and outdoor Gigabit Wi-Fi access points (APs),
“Operational flexibility is critical to modern military practices,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
In San Francisco, FBI mulls link between Super Bowl, rash of fiber-optic cable cuts
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/01/in-san-francisco-fbi-mulls-link-between-super-bowl-rash-of-fiber-optic-cable-cuts.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_January252016&eid=289644432&bid=1289293
Echoing other online reports, on Jan. 18, Ars Technica noted that “federal authorities, who have been baffled by more than a dozen attacks on San Francisco Bay Area data lines, are probing whether there is any connection between that vandalism and the Super Bowl.”
There have been at least 16 severed cable lines in California dating to July 2014, notes the report, which adds that “authorities suspect that the vandals, who operate at night, may be posing as telecom maintenance workers …The cuts have been performed in areas where there are no security cameras.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoPro: AT&T tower work
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/slideshow/photo-of-the-day/new-image-gallery/may-2015-homepage-photos.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_January252016&eid=289644432&bid=1289293
Tomi Engdahl says:
Black Box announces CEO transition
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/01/blackbox-ceo-transition.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_January252016&eid=289644432&bid=1289293
Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ: BBOX) recently announced that Michael McAndrew will be stepping down as the president and chief executive officer of the company, effective upon the appointment of his successor.
“Mr. McAndrew will remain available to ensure a smooth transition,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The first ready to ship 5G development system
5G technology should be operational around 2020. Starts will soon be high time to start to test different techniques in practice. Developed by New York University’s Wireless Research Center, SiBEAMin and National Instruments hardware platform is an important step toward practical implementations.
This is a programmable platform for testing and prototyping millimetriaalueen links and applications. Millimeter area that is roughly more than 10 gigahertz frequencies is considered as one of the key future 5G technology, new products.
Millimeter area has a 5G technology used 200 times as much free frequencies, as mobile networks has so far been allocated. According to estimates, 5G can produce up to a thousand times the current faster mobile data connections.
SiBEAM new platform to implement the millimeter range RF front end. National Instruments, correspond to the signal processing apparatus, which must be capable of very short latency and rapid processing of data packets.
Hardware The first version operates at 60 GHz, which has already been decided to give the use of commercial 5G devices in the United States.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3872:ensimmainen-valmis-alusta-5g-kehitykseen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research Analysys Mason has predicted alaneen year’s most important developments in telecommunications. LTE-Advanced networks of development and popularization of the result in the best mobile data connection speeds in excess of 500 megabits per second.
More data rate is needed, since the household in the Western world download data via the network on average more than a hundred gigabytes per month. Data from the use of equipment is also increasing: this year the cars will be the most important sector of M2M connections, Research predicts.
This year also starts in earnest show of what technology will IoT links de facto standard. Analysys Mason, the race will shrink this year, contrary to the two technologies, the 3GPP-defined NB-IoT and Lora technology will rise to other popular.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3860:4g-vauhti-kiihtyy-parhaimmillaan-500-megabittiin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ina Fried / Re/code:
AT&T misses expectations on Q4 revenue of $42.1B, up 22% YoY, wireless revenue dropped 4.9% YoY to $18.9B, adds 2.8M customers — AT&T Adds 2.8 Million Customers but Wireless Revenue Falls — AT&T said Tuesday that it added 2.8 million wireless customers as it continues to add a large number of non-phone devices to its network.
AT&T Adds 2.8 Million Customers but Wireless Revenue Falls
http://recode.net/2016/01/26/att-adds-2-8-million-customers-but-wireless-revenue-falls/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ina Fried / Sprint:
Sprint beats Q4 estimates on revenue of $8.1B, net loss of $836M, adds 500K postpaid subs, loses 491K prepaid customers, raises revenue forecasts; stock up 19%+
Sprint Stock Rises on Narrower Loss, Upbeat Forecast
http://recode.net/2016/01/26/sprint-raises-forecast-posts-narrower-than-expected-loss-as-it-adds-subscribers/
Sprint on Tuesday posted financial results ahead of expectations while adding more than 500,000 postpaid subscribers; the company also raised its financial outlook for the remainder of its fiscal year.
The company is still in the midst of a lot of hard work as it looks to cut $2.5 billion in costs while simultaneously working to improve its network.
Sprint’s prepaid business tumbled in the quarter as the company lost 491,000 customers.
Overall, though, Sprint managed to add customers, thanks to gains from its wholesale business, which allows other companies, such as FreedomPop, to sell wireless services using their brand and Sprint’s network.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The base station power through optical fiber
Many mobile base stations are located in an awkward place, away from a fixed power supply. Japanese researchers have now a demo for a solution, which was transferred to a 60-watt electrical output of 300 meter distance along the optical cable. The results are published in the scientific journal Optics Letters.
Power transfer over fiber optic cable to limit the low efficiency of power transfer. When power is applied to optical fiber, a large part of it go to waste heat during the transfer. Due to thermal power generation optical links has had to make severe restrictions on electric power in order to link optical components are not damaged.
The University of Tokyo electronics researchers at the Department Motoharu Matsuura, Hidehito Furugori and Jun Sato showed that hey can link together two multi-mode fiber together two sheathed cable which can carry both data and power.
In the first phase of electricity was transferred to only 20 percent efficiency, which limited the amount of transmitted power of 40 watts. The researchers increased the amount of power transmitting fiber to six, thus maximizing the efficiency of the transfer and the increased power of 60 watts.
Demo The link was used as standard components. For example, a link to a wavelength of 1550 nanometers.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3867:tukiasemaan-virtaa-valokuidulla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux Takes Command
http://www.wired.com/brandlab/2016/01/taking-linux-and-the-open-community-to-new-heights/
The open source operating system is fast becoming an essential building block of business, powering everything from drones and TVs to the infrastructure that tackles the toughest tech challenges.
These are exciting times for Linux.
In the past two decades, the open source operating system has gone from being an obscure outlier in the developer community to a critical part of many organizations and business models.
Today, Linux is everywhere, powering everything from massive corporate enterprise systems to the millions of objects that make up the Internet of Things. And you’ll find Linux in products you’d never expect: from drones to phones, from cars to TV sets. The biggest computing systems in the world use Linux — and the smallest as well. Linux even helped land a spacecraft on Mars.
If you’re working with information on a screen there’s a good chance that, somewhere along the way, the vibrant open source community of Linux developers was involved in getting it there. “Open source and Linux is the coal and steel of the 21st century,” says Mike Woster, chief operating officer of the Linux Foundation. “They are the fundamental building blocks of business.”
The collaborative nature of the open source community means that Linux code is improved relentlessly; the best developers on the planet work around the clock to ensure that Linux is flexible, secure, and — most critically — interoperable. “The Linux community is very wide and diverse with many different communities contributing,” says Woster. “That’s a critical part of its strength.”
The role of Linux will continue to grow as computing demands increase, particularly as mobile applications play a bigger part of our daily life and more data moves into the cloud. Today, there are almost as many cell phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people on earth (7 billion), according to the ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies.
For businesses struggling to meet those “want it now” expectations, this often means a move to a fast and flexible hybrid of the private and public cloud. They want speed, security, performance, and the ability to scale. “The cloud is really starting to reshape the entire operations process of the enterprise IT team,” says Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, which created the Ubuntu open source software platform. “It’s really driving new business models.”
The need to leverage the attributes of Linux in mission critical deployments led IBM to create LinuxONE, an extremely powerful and reliable system designed for Open Source applications.
As more businesses begin to rely on Linux for their critical computing infrastructure, academic institutions are focusing on teaching Linux-related skills to their tech students. “There’s often a disconnect between the skills that are taught in the classroom and the skills that the industry is looking for,”
Learn more at: http://www.ibm.com/linuxone
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexei Oreskovic / Business Insider:
Google to FCC: testing of transmitters at high altitude, likely related to Project Loon, fits within current rules and poses no health or environmental risks
Google tells feds its secret plan to conduct high-altitude wireless tests across the US is not dangerous
http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-tells-fcc-airborne-wireless-tests-are-safe-2016-1?op=1?r=US&IR=T
Google told federal regulators that its plan to conduct airborne wireless tests across the US, likely related to its Project Loon balloons, does not pose any health or environmental risks.
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, Google said that its planned testing of experimental radio transmitters at altitudes of 75,000 feet, as well as terrestrial transmitters, fits within existing rules and is basically harmless.
“The proposed experimental operations in fact present vastly less risk from RF exposure than other transmissions the Commission routinely authorizes. Thus, although we respect that the commenters’ concerns are genuinely held, there is no factual basis for them,” Google wrote in the filing.
Google has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a license to test experimental radios that use wireless spectrum in the millimeter bandwidth in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Google said in the heavily redacted filing that it wants to begin the tests this year for a period of 24 months.
Google’s initial application and Tuesday’s letter does not specifically mention Project Loon, the fleet of solar-powered balloons — flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet — that Google is developing to beam internet access down to earth.
But several clues in the original filing, which calls for airborne operations of radio transmitters at a maximum altitude of 75,459 feet, make it likely that the test is related to Loon.
The broad US tests would appear to mark a significant expansion of Google’s ambitions for Loon.
Google has previously said that it believes Loon’s “floating cell towers in the sky” could one day become a business that generates billions of dollars in revenue. But until now, Google has primarily spoken of Loon as an effort focused primarily on developing parts of the world that lack adequate communications infrastructure.
Project Loon: Scaling Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=HOndhtfIXSY
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is a new Nokia 32 terabytes backbone
Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent merger is completed to get used to the fact that Nokia is a much more versatile network operator. The news that Nokia will provide Bell Canada an high-speed backbone network routers have this new Nokia.
Nokia will provide Bell Canada an Alcatel-Lucent’s Metro network switch products in the most efficient system. 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System) to connect to one of Canada’s largest wireless operator, stationary and business customers.
7950 XRS is a system that is able to handle multiple per TB of data per second, and thus share the gigabit links to homes, businesses, and cloud services providers. The system switching capacity of 32 terabytes per second.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3911:tata-on-uusi-nokia-32-terabitin-runkoverkko&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spectrum monitor hunts down interference
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441267/Spectrum-monitor-hunts-down-interference?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&elq=161907a687234e9885955bae863f7fb7&elqCampaignId=26711&elqaid=30554&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b5e93a5f5f3340a4956aeaef89e20955
Anritsu’s MS27101A remote spectrum monitor teams with the company’s Vision software to identify interference patterns, record spectrum history, and geo-locate sources of problem signals to mitigate interference issues and identify illegal or unlicensed signal activity. Housed in a half-rack enclosure, the MS27101A enables white-space monitoring, harm-claim threshold detection, in-building interference monitoring, and PTC (positive train control) system protection.
The instrument provides sweep rates of up to 24 GHz/s, allowing the capture of intermittent signals, including periodic or transient transmissions, as well as short bursty signals. A high dynamic range of greater than 106 dB normalized to 1-Hz bandwidth,
http://www.anritsu.com/en-US/test-measurement/products/ms27101a
Tomi Engdahl says:
Calls desired to Wi-Fi network
For a telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson and TeliaSonera have piloted a wireless Wi-Fi network calls in Finland. Nearly 90 percent of pilot participants would like to buy the subscription that allows Wi-Fi calls.
Ericsson and TeliaSonera implemented a Wi-Fi call to the pilot, enable businesses to obtain information about the Wi-Fi network, the benefits of the mobile network as a complementary solution. The pilot project achieved a better provider of voice services for mobile network reachability shadow areas, such as indoors.
Wifi calls to improve the mobile user experience and allow for normal voice calls through a Wi-Fi base stations in areas where mobile network coverage is limited. Ericsson’s Wi-Fi solution, voice calls can play on the tablets, laptops and other network devices.
“Wi-Fi calls to bring assistance to situations where indoor coverage is weakened”
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/28/puhelut-halutaan-wifi-verkon-kautta/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Your Cat 6 Ethernet Cable Cat 6? Probably Not.
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/30/is-your-cat-6-ethernet-cable-cat-6-probably-not/
Though we’ve never used their cables, [Blue Jeans Cable] out of Seattle, WA sure does seem to take the black art of cable manufacture seriously. When they read the Cat 6 specification, they knew they couldn’t just keep building the cables the way they used to. So they did some research and purchased a Fluke certification tester for a measly 12,000 US dollars
This is the part where [Blue Jeans Cable] earns our respect; like good scientists, they set out to replicate Fluke’s results. Sure enough, 80% of the Cat 6 cables they tested from big box stores etc. failed the specification. More surprising, many of them didn’t even pass the Cat 5e specification.
Is Your Cat 6 Cable a Dog?
Why Your “Cat6″ Cable Might be Cat5e — Or Not Even That
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/is-your-cat6-a-dog.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Digital assistant bots like Siri, Google Now, and Alexa undermine the open internet by only indexing select apps
The internet bundle is already here
…and it’s a bot
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/28/10858728/internet-bundle-siri-alexa-google-now-cortana-bots
For the past six years or so, this image that (as best I can tell) was created by Reddit user quink has been making the rounds as the “nightmare scenario” if net neutrality dies. It’s the bundle: your favorite websites tiered up into different packages, forcing you to pay different rates just to access different sites. A significant thread through the net neutrality debate was making sure ISPs (read: cable companies) didn’t turn the free and open internet into the thing those ISPs actually want, cable packages.
We had to stop the bundle.
We have, thus far, been mostly successful in stopping it. We’ve been less successful in stopping the inverse-yet-also-bad idea of zero-rating, thanks to companies like T-Mobile and Facebook offering access to certain internet sites and services for free. That battle is more complicated, because saving people money is as well-liked as making them pay extra or blocking access is well-hated.
In these battles, people who care about keeping the internet from turning into cable have been assisted by companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and even Facebook. These companies built their businesses on the back of the internet and helped craft the tools we use to freely surf (remember web surfing?) across the internet.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have defended net neutrality and fought the bundle. But, deep inside the software that powers their empires, they’re each creating a different kind of bundle.
The bundle is already here, it came from places we haven’t been watching closely enough, and it has many names. There’s more than enough doomsaying about the issues related to Instant Articles, Internet.org, and Binge On. Instead, I’d like to take a minute to doomsay what could become the other opponents to the kind of free, transparent, and open internet we all want: Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Facebook M, and Google Now.
These intelligent assistants are great. I use them every day and expect I will continue to use them for, well, ever. But there’s a problem that’s built into them: they only seem to work with certain parts of the web and — here’s the real rub — certain apps.
http://i.imgur.com/5RrWm.png
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick releases 51-page brief concluding T-Mobile’s Binge On violates FCC’s Open Internet Rules — Stanford study: T-Mobile’s Binge On is ‘likely illegal’ — The debate over the potential harm of T-Mobile’s Binge On continues, with a new study …
Stanford study: T-Mobile’s Binge On is ‘likely illegal’
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/29/10867912/stanford-study-t-mobiles-binge-on-is-likely-illegal
The debate over the potential harm of T-Mobile’s Binge On continues, with a new study from Stanford University claiming that the perk violates key net neutrality principles and is “likely illegal.” Binge On lets T-Mobile subscribers watch videos from streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu without eating into their data plan. It’s proved popular with users, with T-Mobile claiming video views on its network have “more than doubled” since the deal was introduced, but critics say it’s creating a tiered internet service, with the Uncarrier given the unfair advantage of deciding who wins and who loses.
“T-Mobile’s Binge On is aptly named — it feels good in the short-term but harms consumers in the long run,” says Barbara van Schewick, the net neutrality expert and law professor who authored the Stanford study. “The program limits user choice, distorts competition, stifles innovation, and harms free speech on the Internet. If more ISPs offer similar programs, these harms will only grow worse.”
“Binge On allows some providers to join easily and creates lasting barriers for others, especially small players, non-commercial providers, and start-ups,” writes Schewick. She says that if other ISPs and carriers start offering similar promotions and picking their own zero-rated services, it will “end the era” of “innovation without permission” online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Harris / Guardian:
Documents reveal Alphabet is testing solar-powered internet drones that use millimeter-wave transmissions
Project Skybender: Google’s secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/29/project-skybender-google-drone-tests-internet-spaceport-virgin-galactic
Trials at New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority are using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data from drones – potentially 40 times faster than 4G
Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air, the Guardian has learned.
In a secretive project codenamed SkyBender, the technology giant built several prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer, and is testing them with multiple drones, according to documents obtained under public records laws.
In order to house the drones and support aircraft, Google is temporarily using 15,000 square feet of hangar space in the glamorous Gateway to Space terminal designed by Richard Foster for the much-delayed Virgin Galactic spaceflights.
The tech company has also installed its own dedicated flight control centre in the nearby Spaceflight Operations Center, separate from the terminal.
Based out of the site near the town called Truth or Consequences, Project SkyBender is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, one of the technologies that could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access. High frequency millimetre waves can theoretically transmit gigabits of data every second, up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems. Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude “self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.
“The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,”
However, millimetre wave transmissions have a much shorter range than mobile phone signals. A broadcast at 28GHz, the frequency Google is testing at Spaceport America, would fade out in around a tenth the distance of a 4G phone signal. To get millimetre wave working from a high-flying drone, Google needs to experiment with focused transmissions from a so-called phased array. “This is very difficult, very complex and burns a lot of power,” Rudell says.
The SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Popper / The Verge:
Gigabit wireless internet using millimeter wave technology, as promised by Starry, has long struggled with range and reliability
Super high-speed internet delivered over the air isn’t as crazy as it sounds
Millimeter wave technology has been a tantalizing prospect for decades
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/29/10868232/starry-high-speed-internet-millimeter-wave
This week, a new startup, Starry, announced it would bring gigabit-speed internet access to consumers, without data caps, at a price that is equal or less than your average broadband plan. It also announced that it would do this without ripping up the ground to lay expensive fiber cables or asking local governments for construction permits. It would beam the signals over the air.
It was a shocking promise. For nearly all consumers, internet access over the air tops out with 4G LTE speeds. Of course there is Wi-Fi, but that is just a short-range extension of a wireline connection. Even experimental attempts to send internet by drone and balloon never do better than a 4G connection. Is it really possible that this company has made the leap from that to gigabit speeds or better?
As it turns out, the technology they are using, millimeter waves, has been achieving this kind of speed over the air for years. As far back as 1997 startups were raising money with the promise of using it to deliver wireless broadband internet service. But the wave of companies that rose during the dot-com boom largely perished because of technical hurdles and an unsustainable business model.
“There has been a lot of development recently in the millimeter wave space. At a high level, getting gigabit per second throughput is certainly possible. The only difficulty is that you have to locate the transmitter suitably close,”
As part of the NYU Wireless project, a team of academics made a number of extensive measurements in a dense urban environment trying to emulate transmission for cellular type applications with millimeter waves, similar to those proposed by Starry. “We could serve people up to 200 meters away at high speeds, even without direct line of sight. It was quite remarkable.”
The problem is that 200 meters is just a fraction of the range promised by Starry, which is claiming its technology can deliver a fast, reliable signal to homes up to 2 kilometers away. The greater the range, the fewer base stations are needed to reach a critical mass of customers.
“A range of 1.5kms is problematic. If they have said 300-500 meters, it would be much more realistic under all weather and humidity conditions.”
Millimeter waves can be scattered by things like fog, rain, and snow, harming their performance as a means for reliably transmitting data. The greater the distance the waves have to travel, the bigger the impact of these environmental factors. “Two hundred meters is possible, but that’s under pretty good propagation characteristics. Once you get things like rain, it becomes much worse,”
Wells points out that attempts to use millimeter waves for wireless communication actually had a spike during the early 2000s. “This was all proposed 15-20 years ago. There was a technology called LMDS which worked at the millimeter wave frequency. There were lots of companies that started up in late 1990s or early 2000s and raised tons of money to build direct connections to buildings. None of them worked out. They all died.”
Whether or not Starry pans out, we may all be seeing a lot more of this technology in the near future. “There is a lot of work right now in the commercial space developing 5G cellphones,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ofcom’s head is dead against Three and O2′s merger
Brit industry regulator snuggles up to EU mummy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/01/ofcom_head_against_three_and_o2_merger/
Ofcom chief exec Sharon White has decided to tell everyone what she really thinks about the possible £10.5bn merger between O2 and Three – and it turns out the regulator-in-chief is not a fan.
Echoing the views of the EU’s anti-trust chief, Margrethe Vestager, who is currently reviewing the deal, White claimed competition drives investment. Others have claimed that further consolidation is required to give companies the economies of scale to improve services.
“Last year, UK mobile companies generated £15bn of revenue. They have been investing billions to roll out 4G technology, while maintaining cash flow margins above 12 per cent. Competition, not consolidation, has driven investment,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ina Fried / Re/code:
FCC Allows Further Testing of LTE Service in Unlicensed Spectrum Used by Wi-Fi
http://recode.net/2016/01/31/fcc-allows-further-testing-of-lte-service-in-unlicensed-spectrum-used-by-wi-fi/
Today, cellphones often have the ability to grab data over Wi-Fi or over LTE. But if Verizon and Qualcomm have their way, phones may soon use the same LTE technology even when they are operating over airwaves typically occupied by Wi-Fi.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved further testing of the approach, known as LTE-U (U for unlicensed), which has been at the center of a struggle between tech heavyweights.
For months now, Verizon, Qualcomm and others have been pushing LTE-U, promising that it would allow for more efficient data use by cellular devices while also insisting that it can be a good neighbor with Wi-Fi devices.
Opponents, including Wi-Fi advocates, Google and various cable companies, meanwhile, have been leading a charge against the effort, saying LTE devices could overwhelm the airwaves, shutting out Wi-Fi and other uses. Both sides have put forth a variety of scientific arguments to bolster their business-related reasons for supporting or opposing LTE-U.
The FCC is giving Qualcomm permission to test gear at two Verizon facilities, saying the move will give device makers an opportunity to show they won’t interfere with Wi-Fi and other unlicensed spectrum users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google SkyBender Drone Project Aims To Deliver 5G Wi-Fi
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328830&
Google is expanding its ambitions for WiFi in the sky with Project SkyBender, which aims to deliver 5G wireless Internet from solar-powered drones, according to a report in The Guardian.
The project, now undergoing trials at New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority, is being developed by the same team responsible for Project Loon, which employs giant floating balloons that function like WiFi hotspots in flight.
SkyBender is reportedly housed in 15,000 square feet of hanger space at Spaceport America’s Gateway to Space terminal built for the delayed Virgin Galactic space tourism venture. The facility, designed by business mogul Richard Branson is located near the New Mexico town called Truth or Consequences.
Google is using millimeter wave transmission technology for the project, which employs the use of the millimeter wave spectrum for radio transmission and can enable wireless speeds up to 40 times faster than current 4G capabilities.
Project Skybender: Google’s secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/29/project-skybender-google-drone-tests-internet-spaceport-virgin-galactic
Trials at New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority are using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data from drones – potentially 40 times faster than 4G
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel, Qualcomm set up their WiGig 802.11ad devices on blind dates
Good news, seeing as they’re already flogging the hardware
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/intel_and_qualcomm_wigig_connected/
Intel and Qualcomm say they have gotten their respective 802.11ad (WiGig) chips and antennas to successfully link up.
The two chipmakers announced on Tuesday they are now confident that (under the right conditions) devices with Intel WiGig hardware can link up to Qualcomm-powered base stations at the full 4.6Ghz connection rate of 802.11ad.
This should help to clear the way for both Intel and Qualcomm to begin pushing hardware vendors to put WiGig hardware into their mobile devices, notebooks, routers etc., with confidence that everything will be able to link up correctly.
Intel and Qualcomm say that the 60-Ghz radios will be folded in with the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi hardware to create tri-band devices that would be able to handle the short-range WiGig connections, and then switch to 802.11ac (and older) connections as needed.
Intel and Qualcomm Collaborate to Build Robust 802.11ad Ecosystem
http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2016/02/intel-qualcomm-collaborate-build-robust-802-11ad-ecosystem/
We are excited to announce that Qualcomm Atheros* and Intel have reached a crucial milestone in making 802.11ad WiGig* a mainstream and widely available technology. Intel and Qualcomm Atheros have successfully demonstrated multi-gigabit interoperability between our companies’ respective 802.11ad WiGig solutions. This milestone will help pave the way for industry development of 802.11ad WiGig devices that can communicate and connect seamlessly with each other at amazing speeds of up to 4.6 Gbps[1]. Moreover, this milestone underscores both companies’ commitment to the strong evolution of Wi-Fi, both infrastructure and peer-to-peer communications, as well as the critical role 802.11ad WiGig plays in this evolutionary process.
Laptops, tablets, smartphones, access points, storage devices, untethered VR glasses and other 802.11ad WiGig-capable devices offer multi-gigabit speeds, high density, low latency and very high network capacity, as well as empower a new class of applications and services. 802.11ad will transform the experience of Wi-Fi users, be it in their offices, homes or even in public places. Bringing the vast, new spectrum in 60 GHz band to Wi-Fi’s fold, 802.11ad will be one of the potent tools to address burgeoning data demand in homes, enterprises and carrier networks.
Achieving full interoperability is not easy.
While more work lies ahead, our collaboration lays the groundwork for a large ecosystem of interoperable commercial 802.11ad products across networking, mobile and computing segments. We are excited about the new capabilities 802.11ad enables – from 4K display connectivity to tri-band (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 60 GHz) Wi-Fi networking and high-speed cellular offload – and we think you should be excited at our progress in bringing these capabilities to your favorite devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mexico is moving to mobile networks in the 4G era. The network will be the world’s first on-line OAN (open-access network), where the system operator does not provide operator services, but the network sold the capacity of virtual operators and traditional network operators.
the future OAN network virtual network operators can offer as part of normal data traffic, among other things, the industrial Internet (IoT) services. The network also makes it possible, for example, training and learning services, or the provision of health care services in Mexico more remote and less developed areas.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/suomalaiset-karkkyvat-palaa-uusilta-jattimarkkinoilta-6250592
Tomi Engdahl says:
BT blames ‘faulty router’ for mega outage. Did they try turning it off and on again?
Dodgy kit caused nationwide thinning out of Netflix
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/03/bt_blames_faulty_router_for_mass_internet_outage/
BT has blamed a faulty router for knocking its network offline yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without the internet.
The telecoms giant apologised for the failure, which began at around 2pm yesterday afternoon. Customers across the country were unable to get online, with reports of the outage affecting London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Glasgow.
In a statement yesterday evening, it said: “BT is confident that services have been fully restored following an outage that affected several hundred thousand customers earlier today.
“A faulty router was to blame for the outage and we apologise to those customers who were affected.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototype circuit allows multiple gigabit connections
If you want to take a very high-speed wireless connections over short stem what, will probably need to use the high millimeter range of the spectrum. Belgian researchers have developed a prototype receiver, which indicates that these frequencies it is possible to develop a small and inexpensive radios.
Micro-electronics research institute IMEC and situated in vibrant Brussels, Vrije University (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) researchers presented the ISSCC conference in San Francisco carried out in 28-nanometer process, the receiver, which was able to handle the incoming signal from the antenna of the four 60-gigahertz range. This kind of circuit can be used, for example, routers or mobile networks, wireless return channels of very small wireless cells.
The fact that the receiver is made of 28-nanometer CMOS process, is a real breakthrough. It allows for low-cost mass production of radio circuits.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3935:protopiiri-mahdollistaa-useiden-gigabittien-yhteydet&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s Bell Labs developed the intelligent optical transmitter
Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent merger with part of Bell Labs Research Center has developed a new, more intelligent optical transmitter. For the first time, the optical transmitter is capable of changing the bandwidth necessary. And it does this on the fly, without service interruption.
Data transmission needs of the interengaging, adaptive transmitter allows for the optimization of network capacity without the constant updating of equipment..
Most of BVT-transmitters operate by changing the optical signal format, Dupas says. Instead, Bell Labs, the transmitter converts the signal symbol rate.
Bell Labs BVT transmitter is configured to a new symbol rate of less than 450 milliseconds.
The device can be connected to any optical network switch. It operates in the area between 10-107 gigabit per second speed.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3938:nokian-bell-labs-kehitti-alykkaan-optisen-lahettimen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Is Bringing Free Gigabit Fiber to Public Housing Across the US
http://www.wired.com/2016/02/google-is-bringing-free-gigabit-fiber-to-public-housing-across-the-us/
Last summer, Google said it would help connect some 275,000 low-income homes to the internet as part of the White House’s ConnectHome initiative. Now the company is making good on that promise.
Today Google announced it had outfitted 100 homes at the West Bluff public housing complex in Kansas City with a free Google Fiber connection. It worked with the Housing Authority of Kansas City on the project, which is the first of many it will complete as part of the ConnectHome partnership.
Google’s bigger commitment revealed today is its pledge to bring free Fiber connectivity to select public housing properties in every city where it offers Fiber service—that’s nine cities and counting.
Through this work, Google can play a crucial role in closing the digital divide that still afflicts the US. Throughout his tenure in office, President Obama has made substantial progress in connecting more people, particularly school children, to the internet through the ConnectEd program, which aims to give 99 percent of students broadband access in the classroom by 2018. With ConnectHome, he’s hoping to do the same thing for US homes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WiFi power amp delivers +22-dBm output
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441317/WiFi-power-amp-delivers–22-dBm-output?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160202&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160202&elq=ad0381294d1549d19ec8a243473ff60d&elqCampaignId=26790&elqaid=30634&elqat=1&elqTrackId=7e22a159a0ca4cbab2e43a490f5fd2e3
Optimized for 802.11a/n/ac WiFi infrastructure, the Anadigics AWL5911 5-GHz power amplifier provides 33 dB of linear power gain and low 1.8% EVM (error vector magnitude) with a 5-V supply and output power of +22 dBm. An integrated power detector permits accurate ±0.5-dB power control over varying load conditions (3:1 VSWR).
The AWL5911 is manufactured using InGaP HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) process technology for enhanced stability and ruggedness. It requires only a single 3-V to 5-V supply and a CMOS-compatible 1.8-V enable voltage. This internal enable interface eliminates the need for an external buffer amplifier. The part also reduces power consumption by offering low leakage current when the amplifier is shut down.
Outfitted with 50-Ω internally matched RF ports, the AWL5911 comes in a 4×4×0.80-mm surface-mount package
http://www.richardsonrfpd.com/Pages/Product-Details.aspx?productId=1149196
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next WLAN router looks strange
Spider? Fruit bowl? All kinds of associations created the world’s first WiGig technology that is 802.11ad standard that supports Wi-Fi router. Sure, it brings to the use of multi-gigabit data connection, if it is with the device in the same room.
TP-Link has introduced the world’s first Wi-Fi router that comes with not only the old standards, the newer ac and ad specifications.
802.11ad technology uses 60 gigahertz frequency range. The technique has also been called WiGig. Its advantage is very fast data transfer, but the disadvantage brought on by frequency suck the ability to pass through any obstacle correctly. Thus, a high-speed link is limited to a few meters, for a maximum of one room.
The router has two radios Qualcomm Atheros: one for 60 GHz WiGig area and other for lower frequencies.
TP-Link is a promising novelty on the market early this year.
Lenovo’s new X1 laptops have WiGig radio, as well as the latest Acer. This year is expected to televisions
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3922:seuraava-wlan-reitittimesi-nayttaa-omituiselta&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The most attractive 5G environment to Finland
Finland is to build the most attractive of the new fifth-generation wireless communication system for domestic test. In Finland, Nokia and operators in addition to VTT Technical Research Centre plays an important role in 5G research.
VTT coordinates the Tekes 5thGear program to build Finland’s first 5G test network, spectrum sharing research and millimeter wave 5G radio development. 5G will be introduced at the beginning of the 2020s, and the standardization system has just started.
“The goal is to create the world’s most attractive 5G research and development,”
” 5G allows the much-vaunted digitalisation implementation in practice. This is in addition to citizens of a smooth flow of services and new business opportunities for the future of the domestic telecommunications industry,”
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/02/03/suomeen-halutaan-houkuttelevin-5g-ymparisto/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Grandma’s Phone, DSL, and the Copper They Share
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/05/grandmas-phone-dsl-and-the-copper-they-share/
My DSL line downloads at 6 megabits per second. I just ran the test. This is over a pair of copper twisted wires, the same Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) twisted pair that connected your Grandmother’s phone to the rest of the world. In fact, if you had that phone you could connect and use it today.
Shannon’s Theory of Communications explains how much information you can send through a communications channel at a specified error rate. In summary, the theory says:
There is a maximum channel capacity, C,
If the rate of transmission, R, is less than C, information can be transferred at a selected small error probability using smart coding techniques,
The coding techniques require intelligent encoding techniques with longer blocks of signal data.
What the theory doesn’t provide is information on the smart coding techniques. The theory says you can do it, but not how.
The maximum rate is determined by the bandwidth of the channel and the amount of noise, and only those two values. We can see intuitively that bandwidth and noise would be limiting factors. What’s amazing is that they are the only two factors.
It is obvious that a channel with more bandwidth will pass more data than a smaller one.
A twisted pair has a larger bandwidth than 3000 Hz so they are not the reason for the narrow POTS bandwidth. Phone companies impose this limited bandwidth so they can frequency multiplex long distance calls on a single line.
There is conflict among references on the meaning of Nyquist Rate versus Limit or Sampling Theorem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Justin Lynch / Motherboard:
The tragedy of Ethiopia’s internet: an instrument of surveillance, and only 3.7% have access
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-tragedy-of-ethiopias-internet
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
Facebook’s Free Basics service has been banned in India
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/8/10913398/free-basics-india-regulator-ruling
The country has said no to zero-rating schemes
Facebook’s free-but-restricted internet service, Free Basics, has been banned in India after the country’s national telecoms regulator ruled that the program and others like it infringe the principles of net neutrality. The ruling was not directly aimed at Free Basics, but the general practice of zero-rated internet services — those that let users access certain apps and websites without eating away at their mobile data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nitasha Tiku / BuzzFeed:
India bans zero-rated internet services, including Facebook’s Free Basics, for infringing on the principles of net neutrality — India’s Telecom Authorities Have Ruled Against Facebook’s Controversial Free Internet Plan — “Who could possibly be against this?” Zuckerberg asked.
India’s Telecom Authorities Have Ruled Against Facebook’s Controversial Free Internet Plan
“Who could possibly be against this?” Zuckerberg asked.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/india-ruling-trai-free-basics#.addNBR4RK
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released their long-anticipated ruling on net neutrality in India. The regulators have ruled against differential and discriminatory pricing of mobile data on the basis of content.
This ruling will affect Free Basics — Facebook’s controversial plan to offer free, but limited Internet access — in India. Mark Zuckerberg has been campaigning to bring increased digital connectivity to the developing world. Free Basics, which claims to have 15 million users in more than 35 countries around the globe, is part of Facebook’s quasi-philanthropic efforts. India is the second largest market for Facebook users after the United States and considered vital to its continued growth.
Today’s much-anticipated ruling by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was not about Free Basics per se. Rather, regulators were reviewing pricing schemes like “zero-rating,” where mobile operators offer access to some websites and services for free, while charging for others. Advocates for digital equality argue that zero-rating gives an unfair advantage to subsidized content, distorts the market for smaller players, and squashes innovation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Profile of the FCC’s general counsel Jonathan Sallet, helping to create and defend rules shaping TV and the Internet
Net Neutrality Again Puts F.C.C. General Counsel at Center Stage
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/technology/net-neutrality-again-puts-fcc-general-counsel-at-center-stage.html?_r=0
Every day for one month last fall, Jonathan Sallet, the general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, sneaked into a small, windowless office at the agency, its location undisclosed except to senior staff.
From 6 a.m. until early evening, with Bach streaming in the background, he worked mostly alone, marking up stacks of law books and standing in front of a lectern. His job: Defend in court the F.C.C.’s most contentious policy — rules to classify broadband Internet providers as utilities, widely called net neutrality.
“I did nothing for one month but prepare,” Mr. Sallet said in an interview. “I talked a lot to the wall.”
His arguments, though — like nearly all of his actions for the agency — have had far-reaching reverberations.
“Typically a general counsel is like an administrator,” said Reed Hundt, a former Democratic chairman of the F.C.C. “But in Jon you have an administrator who is also a policy maven and political strategist.”
Net neutrality “involves competition issues, the mergers are quite clearly about competition,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PowerWise Fiber combines PoE support and the distance of singlemode fiber
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/02/superior-essex-powerwise-singlemode-fiber.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_February82016&eid=289644432&bid=1303591
Superior Essex recently introduced PowerWise Fiber, which the company described as “a premises optical fiber cable coupled with copper conductors to support Power over Ethernet applications, including those with distances that exceed the standard 100 meters provided by category cables.” It cited several smart-building applications—including Nest, intelligent LED lighting and security systems—as appropriate uses for PowerWise Fiber’s ability to support device power as well as control through a single cabling system. “With the launch of this cable, Superior Essex now offers a complete Power over Ethernet cabling solution, with PowerWise Cat 5e+ 4-pair PoE cable powering and controlling devices at distances of up to 100 meters, and PowerWise Fiber cable supporting additional power and data transmission over greater lengths throughout an environment,” the company added.
The PowerWise Fiber cable comprises two, 2-mm bend-resistant G.657.B3 singlemode fiber simplex interconnect cables and two stranded 16-AWG copper conductors.
“Our customers required a small, flexible and durable cable for applications that exceeded the 100-meter reach limitation of Power over Ethernet and twisted-pair category cables. We designed this composite power and fiber cable especially for security camera applications where the reach often exceeds 100 meters. In addition, using G.657.B3 singlemode fiber assures that the signal will not be attenuated even with bend radii as small as 5 mm.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
ABI: Rising 802.11ac CPE shipments represent nearly 65% of all Wi-Fi access points now deployed
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/02/abi-rising-802-11ac-cpe-shipments-represent-nearly-65-of-all-wi-fi-access-points-now-deployed.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_February82016&eid=289644432&bid=1303591
According to ABI Research, the deployment of Wi-Fi access points based on 802.11ac steadily gained momentum over the past year, rising to represent 39% of total Wi-Fi access points shipped in 2015. The analyst expects that adoption will continue to accelerate in 2016, as more 802.11ac Wave 2 products enter the market, along with the introduction of tri-band access points.
ABI Research predicts Wi-Fi access point shipments to surpass 204 million units in consumer applications and 19.3 million units in enterprise in 2020, with the majority of those shipments supporting 802.11ac.