Terman Library in the Terman Community Center, 661 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
Dewayne Hendricks, CEO of Warp Speed Imagineering, began by
noting that he has been involved in radio since he was 12. The
company was funded in Sept. 1995 and has been working on wireless
spread spectrum since then. Radio is widely used but not as well
understood by the general public as phones because radio signals are
not visible and are broadcast over the air rather than along copper
wires. One difference between radio and other technology such as
computers is that the government must approve new radio frequencies
and technology because the federal government controls allocation of
the
frequency bands or the radio spectrum and has since 1934. The old
view that government control of the radio spectrum is vital no longer
holds, but government still controls the spectrum and recently
auctioned portions of the spectrum to many providers of wireless
communications for significant sums.
The old technology works to make the best use of narrow bands of
spectrum instead of the new technology that favors opening more
spectrum for best efficiency providing high speed communications with
efficient use of bandwidth. NSF is funding a project "Wireless Field
Test for Education" with Dave Hughes and Dewayne Hendricks as
co-principal investigators that is devoted to looking at the benefits
of wireless for the Internet. (Address is
http://wireless.oldcolo.com)
This project will systematically field test the technical characteristics of a variety of selected wireless devices and digital radio nets. These can be integrated into types of telecommunications networks, including the Internet, which serve broad purposes of public education and research by linking computers, sensing devices, control systems, servers, LANs and WANs operated by individuals, classrooms, schools and colleges for research, learning and teaching, connectivity, collaboration, and conferencing. Communications modes will include text, sound and images.
An early wireless data network was developed by Norman Abramson at the University of Hawaii as an ARPA project to develop wireless data links between university campuses on different islands. This was the first packet radio network.
The military uses spread spectrum for secure communications, and can transmit a number of messages over the same spectrum without interference. The major problem is getting frequency bands allocated for this use when so many special interests are opposed to losing some of their spectrum. The major impediment is lobbying and regulatory, not technical.
A proposal from the FCC was made to allow reusing all of the spectrum over a wide band and resell the bandwidth. Major communications companies, broadcasters, etc., opposed it because it would hurt them competitively. Also many government agencies such as the FBI and CIA are afraid of the wide use of truly secure radio. The compromise was to allow 3 narrow bands at very low power for spread spectrum, using bands (902-928 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) with little interference or major opposition, such as microwave oven frequencies. This wasn't enough to really serve wireless communication needs. Apple wanted 40 MHz of spectrum for devices like the Newton in 1992. Sun agreed but they wanted 400 MHz, IEEE wanted at least 150 MHz at that time. Sun has a better vision because there must be lots of bandwidth to allow many spread spectrum users to operate simultaneously. Expansions of radio bandwidth utilization are as advanced technically as the advances phone companies made to expand transmission over copper wire, but radio capabilities are not as well known. The bigger players like Sun and H-P decided it was too hard to lobby for the kind of bandwidth they needed to really make use of spread spectrum, so they dropped out. Apple got the 40 MHz, but that isn't enough to be really useful. The computer companies have dropped out of the fight because of the political and lobbying effort needed to change the policies.
Negroponte at MIT is trying to get wide use of wireless rather than wires or fiber for Internet and other access. The economics don't work if you are charged by the minute for access, like cell phones. Other technologies like Metricom Ricochet Wireless Network and Real Audio work now. Streaming audio and video work, and soon we will have streaming multimedia. ISDN does not offer enough bandwidth for the long term. NSF wants to fund new ideas and different approaches to look at Internet access. The desire is for T1 (1.54 MHz) each way at $30/month within a few years.
The supposed competition from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 hasn't occurred. TCI has cable modems in Fremont with 10 MHz each way at $30/month but has no intention of expanding the service elsewhere in the Bay area. TCI did it in Fremont because of years of violent disagreements with the community. The city was fed up and demanded it in order to renew the franchise. In Fremont they have fiber to the curb, but in other areas TCI will have asymmetric cable modems, many with phone returns.
Marvin Lee asked why spread spectrum hasn't been used in other countries where the regulations and politics do not interfere. Many countries take their lead from the FCC and tend to follow FCC regulations. Countries in Europe are very anti-competitive, more so than the US, but other countries like Mongolia do not have these problems and are very willing to use bandwidth for spread spectrum radio. Warp Speed set up a system there and it works fine.
Packet radio can be used by amateurs to send messages across the country and around the world by hopping from site to site. It may take 12 hours to cross the US, but it's done by creating individual networks. Another advantage of packet radio is that many people can be connected at the same time, and service can be multipoint to multipoint. Infrastructure for the system should be the same whether it is wired or wireless. Ideal system would cost $500 for hardware at T1 speeds for each radio. People would put the antennas on personal property, and still have adequate spectrum to serve a range of needs. The technology is developed, but the politics and special interests are impediments. Four years ago at a conference Hendricks predicted the impact of the Internet and was laughed off the stage. The existing ham radio network is well established and works fine but people generally do not think or know about it. It has been operational for years, so it's taken for granted. Wireless does work, but it is not given adequate recognition.
At this point the recorder of minutes had to leave, but discussions continued for 10 or 15 minutes.
Next meeting will be Wed., June 11, 7:30 AM at the Terman library.
Submitted by Bob Moss