Brough Turner, Course 6 Alum, Founder/CTO, netBlazr, Inc.
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Jan/13 | Tue | 11:00AM-12:30PM | 32G-449 (Patel Room) |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
MIT was instrumental in launching wireless mesh networking about 15 years ago. Today the technology is widely used in sensor networks and other distributed and/or low data rate applications, but capacity bottlenecks have limited its use for high-speed wireless Internet access. All that is about to change.
We’ll discuss how higher frequencies and directional antennas are enabling high capacity wireless networks in urban areas using 5 GHz and 24 GHz unlicensed spectrum and, with this, a new generation of urban, wireless ISPs (including in Boston). But directional antennas require careful aiming – flexibility is gone. The solution: electronic aiming.
We’ll describe an NSF-funded program to design an innovative wireless mesh network node, installable by anyone, that enables low cost, high capacity Internet access. This consumer device looks like a clear sheet of plastic to hang in a window, but sends and receives highly directional radio beams, steered in software, using a large antenna with electronic beam steering to automatically establish high capacity point-to-point links between buildings. Made with transparent conductive materials, it mounts indoors in a window (avoiding weather, roof access and landlord permissions), requires no aiming, and can automatically re-establish the mesh if a node is removed.
This dramatically expands the applicability of wireless mesh networks, reducing the cost of community networks and enabling new wireless Internet services.
Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
Contact: Brough Turner, rbt@alum.mit.edu