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[TD][h2]'Super Wi-Fi' poised for growth in US, elsewhere.[/h2][B]Move over Wi-Fi, there's a new wireless technology coming.[/B][/TD]
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[TD]So-called "Super Wi-Fi," which offers a bigger range than existing hotspots, is being deployed in the United States and generating interest in a number of countries, including Britain and Brazil.
Super Wi-Fi is not really Wi-Fi because it uses a different frequency and requires specially designed equipment, but it offers some of Wi-Fi's advantages, and more.
The name was coined by the US Federal Communications Commission in 2010, when it approved the deployment of unused broadcast television spectrum, or so-called "white spaces," for wireless broadband.
The long range and use of the broadcast spectrum could allow wireless [B]signals to travel farther than Wi-Fi—in theory as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers)[/B]—although for practical reasons the range will probably be only a few miles.
Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation, said that is an advantage of using the broadcast spectrum.
"Wi-Fi has been booming, but it has been limited by the frequencies it operates on, which go only a few hundred meters," said Calabrese, who has been pressing for the use of "white spaces" since 2002.
In contrast, "television frequencies travel long distances at low power and penetrate through buildings, trees and bad weather," Calabrese said.
[B]This could provide high-speed Internet to sparsely populated rural areas[/B] which lack broadband. It could also allow consumers to create their own hotspots, which could be used on devices while away from their homes.
The first deployment of Super Wi-Fi came last year by Rice University in Houston, Texas, followed by another earlier this year in Wilmington, North Carolina.
A coalition of organizations has announced plans to deploy Super Wi-Fi to college campuses in rural areas starting early next year in a project called AIR.U, backed by Google and Microsoft.
Super Wi-Fi would be on "unlicensed" spectrum, like Wi-Fi, so companies would not bid on exclusive spectrum rights. This can lower costs. And there is often excess capacity, especially in rural areas, where fewer TV stations operate.
Mobile phone companies could use Super Wi-Fi, as they do now with Wi-Fi, to relieve some of the "spectrum crunch" from the explosion of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
But in order for Super Wi-Fi to gain traction, manufacturers of PCs and other devices would have to make chipsets that could operate on both systems.
Dan Lubar of the WhiteSpace Alliance, an association dedicated to new wireless technology, said he sees Super Wi-Fi gaining momentum in the US and other countries with unused broadcast spectrum.
"Everybody understands the value of this spectrum," he said. "It is the biggest swath of spectrum and has the most favorable characteristics."
Chipmaker Texas Instruments recently joined the alliance, suggesting that equipment makers are ready to start making Super Wi-Fi equipment.
"It's definitely going to be here in visible ways by the middle of next year," Lubar said.
Calabrese said that because of a lack of compatible equipment, most of the early Super Wi-Fi deployments are being back converted to regular Wi-Fi signals. At some point soon, he said, people may start using air cards or dongles to capture Super Wi-Fi.
Gerry Purdy, an analyst and consultant with MobileTrax LLC, was more cautious about prospects for Super Wi-Fi, saying it may take several years to gain traction.
"It's a good utilization of spectrum, but I'm more conservative than some people," he said.
"Building chipsets takes times, software standards take time; I don't think people should have false expectations."
The most vocal criticism comes from the Wi-Fi Alliance, which has a trademark on the name Wi-Fi and fears consumers will be confused by incompatible technical norms.
The group said it supports the use of unlicensed spectrum for broadband but that Super Wi-Fi "does not inter-operate with the billions of Wi-Fi devices in use today" and does not "deliver the same user experience as is available in Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks."
Although the name is the most controversial part of Super Wi-Fi, that did not come from the backers of the technology, but from the FCC and chairman Julius Genachowski.
"I wish we had thought of that. We had been calling it Wi-Fi on steroids," said Calabrese. (c) 2012 AFP[/TD]
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[TD][IMG]http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/superwifiisn.jpg[/IMG][/TD]
[TD]A free Wi-Fi hotspot beams broadband internet from atop a public phone booth in July 2012 in Manhattan, New York City. So-called "Super Wi-Fi," which offers a bigger range than existing hotspots, is being deployed in the United States and generating interest in a number of countries, including Britain and Brazil.[/TD]
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[TD][B]SOURCE: [/B] [URL]http://phys.org/news/2012-09-super-wi-fi-poised-growth.html[/URL][/TD]
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Tesla would be proud.
I wish my dongle could pick up wifi
Surely if you lived anywhere around this thing you would just always have free internet
I see nothing about the frequency used nor the bandwidth. Disappointing
I can smell the speculation about radiation coming through on my new channels.
[QUOTE=Kaihong;37508347]I can smell the speculation about radiation coming through on my new channels.[/QUOTE]
The people who go on about that are people you'd be better off ignoring, it'll save you many headaches.
and to think I still can't get internet on one side of my house...
I think this has 1 draw back:
Imagine you live in populated city center, you open up wi fi list and you see fucking 1000 of possible connections, try finding your own. Of course search function could solve this.
[IMG]http://puu.sh/11jgw[/IMG]
Can't wait for this to be full to the brim, not being able to find my own network
[editline]2nd September 2012[/editline]
If anyone is wondering about the name, my dad had a friend over and I was successful in scaring him that there was a real drone floating about when he was trying to find our network
:v:
My computer can't even connect to my own wifi when I'm two rooms away. :(
Sounds like it could reach around a fair bit of London and maybe the surrounding areas.
[QUOTE=-Get_A_Life-;37508971]My computer can't even connect to my own wifi when I'm two rooms away. :([/QUOTE]
Try plugging a wifi card in.
Bad joke.
Looking forward to this coming to the UK.
I could see this as being useful for some company looking to sell their internet across a large area. Then again, that could only work if you have a massive amount of bandwidth.
Or if you have tons of security, you could use your wifi on the go. But in order for that to be practical, you would probably have to have a system where you enter information manually. Even then, there would still be some pretty big security risks.
[QUOTE=ironman17;37509058]Sounds like it could reach around a fair bit of London and maybe the surrounding areas.[/QUOTE]
Considering that Land's End to John o'Groats is roughly 600 miles, you could probably cover the UK with a dozen of these operating at max range.
[QUOTE=download;37508313]I see nothing about the frequency used nor the bandwidth. Disappointing[/QUOTE]
It will be low and it will be crap.
Further, congestion will absolutely fuck it. Imagine it you suddenly (read:magically) increased the range of all 2.4 ghz wireless routers to 160 KM. If you can't imagine it, chuck on some static, because that's what it will look like.
[QUOTE=Contag;37509338]It will be low and it will be crap.
Further, congestion will absolutely fuck it. Imagine it you suddenly (read:magically) increased the range of all 2.4 ghz wireless routers to 160 KM. If you can't imagine it, chuck on some static, because that's what it will look like.[/QUOTE]
They aren't increasing range of existing routers, this is completely new, with new frequencies and hardware being the thing that's going to make Super Wifi, well, Super.
Great, now [I]everyone[/I] is going to be stealing my wifi.
[QUOTE=Kondor58;37508304]Surely if you lived anywhere around this thing you would just always have free internet[/QUOTE]
Depends - there's a lot of wifi providers all over the place that require you to pay a normal monthly bill. I've got at least two I can pick up at times.
can see one problem with this tech though. It operates on unlicensed, but highly attractive frequencies. Who's to say, that someone might not want to walk in a decade from now and gobble those up. In contrast to normal wifi which operates on frequences that essentially no one wants.
26 alphanumeric password, with a provoking name of: One Does Not Simply Steal WiFi. Should be suffice.
[QUOTE=arleitiss;37508703]I think this has 1 draw back:
Imagine you live in populated city center, you open up wi fi list and you see fucking 1000 of possible connections, try finding your own. Of course search function could solve this.[/QUOTE]
You could probably decrease the strength at which the router is sending the signal.
[QUOTE=TheNuB;37509689]26 alphanumeric password, with a provoking name of: One Does Not Simply Steal WiFi. Should be suffice.[/QUOTE]
Nah, the wifi would most likely be joinable without a password. But to get an internet connection you would have to put in login details. Any page you would try to load would throw you to the login page.
I don't know what the range of 3g towers are, but what makes this different from wireless networking used by cell towers?
Sounds like the same idea, just not controlled by phone companies.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;37509791]I don't know what the range of 3g towers are, but what makes this different from wireless networking used by cell towers?
Sounds like the same idea, just not controlled by phone companies.[/QUOTE]
Their range is like a couple hundred meters.
Latency would be horrible.
If they really can do WiFi in an urban area with a couple of miles of range, that would be amazing.
If the base stations don't cost much, pretty much anyone could pick up a station (licenses permitting), set it up on some fat pipe, and then sell accounts to people.
Just make your accounting etc. authenticate from a RADIUS server, then set up WPA2-Enterprise and login with RADIUS, and you have a single sign-on for both your website for the customers, and the wireless network itself.
the biggest LAN games ever
but where do we put the meter
Imagine how long the wifi connection list will be...
[QUOTE=Kaihong;37508347]I can smell the speculation about radiation coming through on my new channels.[/QUOTE]
and then you mention to them that TV uses the same frequencies
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