Facebook Developing Radio Wave Mesh To Connect Offline Areas (thestack.com) 44
An anonymous reader writes: As part of its wider Internet.org initiative to deliver connectivity to poor and rural communities, Facebook is actively developing a new network technology which uses millimetre wave bands to transmit data. Facebook engineer Sanjai Kohli filed two patents which outlined a 'next generation' data system, which would make use of millimetre wave technology deployed as mesh networks. Kohli's patents detailed a type of centralised, cloud-based routing system which 'dynamically adjusts route and frequency channel assignments, transmit power, modulation, coding, and symbol rate to maximize network capacity and probability of packet delivery, rather than trying to maximize the capacity of any one link.'
does it have to be poor AND rural? (Score:3)
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I've also been on a few wine tours where entire regions have been covered in multi-million dollar vineyards.
A friend of mine at school was from a farming family. They're the only people I ever knew who owned a plane.
I'm not sure what you perception of rural is, but I can assure you that among the peasants there are plenty of rich p
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Yes. The magnetic strips in credit cards interfere with millimeter wave bands.
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"there are urban poor and rural rich communities."
But sometimes rural rich communities have to suffer from chintzy broadband caps, not to mention no Apple store.
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How nice of them (Score:2, Insightful)
Facebook wants to spy on people who don't have internet access, too. Wouldn't want them to feel left out.
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oppose due to political risk.
Yes, the risk is having an internet that can't be turn off, or censored. Control of content would be lost.
Perfect (Score:2)
Re:Ham radio has been doing this already (Score:5, Informative)
AMPRNet is significantly older than 2012. I had nodes running on an STB 4COM (RS232) running under Desqview on a 386 if I remember correctly. Nodes were 1/2 duplex at 300baud with many hidden transmitters, running on 2 meter. If I remember an old FTP to UCSD of a wopping 300k took 8 hours:-)
So yes,, it's by no means new.
Re: Ham radio has been doing this already (Score:2)
Ah but this is mesh (so it's not AMPRNet), and it runs much more bandwidth (higher frequencies tend to have more bandwidth available) and doesn't necessarily require a ham license. Also it could support encryption which is very not allowed on ham bands.
We may have played around with mesh, and there's even a few real deployments in the US, but this is (potentially) production use to connect real users to the Internet. Given that websites are all moving to HTTPS, even the BBHN stuff gets less useful every day
to the haters (Score:2)
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This is a good thing. Appreciate investment in mesh internet technology. If some tech-savvy-group-hated corporate entity starts getting people to think about the idea, maybe an open source solution will come about if it picks up momentum. If you hate the idea of a corporate dystopia where all internet pipes are monitored, start working on open source hardware and software projects to truly decentralize the internet from the lowest levels of hardware and network communication. Corporate America is 100% in control over the internet right now in terms of the L1-L2 side of networking, so do something about it or stop complaining.
And in bad form, replying to self... I can tell you from the inside that it is only going to get worse in terms of the pipe you get to your house. Your data is only going to be monitored more. The bandwidth and latency you get will get shittier. The ads will get shittier. The choices will become more monopolized. Look at the types of mergers and acquisitions the Dept. of Whatever is approving these days if you want to know what is really going on behind the scenes. Do something about it and contribute to a
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Sounds about right (Score:3)
I'm no expert, so I could be wrong, (Score:2)
but it doesn't sound like there's anything earth-shatteringly new here. I'm guessing there will be at least a few 'prior art' challenges to the patents.
LMFTFY (Score:2)
As part of its wider Internet.org initiative to deliver connectivity^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HFacebook to poor and rural communities
They blew it and said the magic word (Score:2)
"Centralised"
If it's centralized, it's not mesh. Though it is good to see more development in this area. Once we can make it decentralized, we'll have an internet that nobody can turn off. And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be a great thing.
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Isn't decentralized internet really messy?
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Isn't decentralized internet really messy?
I don't know about that, but it is really meshy.
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Decentralized would be a few random exit points to the real internet rather than "ultimately its platform"
Centralised (Score:2)
Its only centralized with a 'z' if you're american or canadian. The rest of the english speaking world uses an 's'. So you might want to check your facts first before you pull someone up on their spelling.
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Both are valid. You needn't take such things so seriously...
Let me know when there is a place using this... (Score:1)