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Jun 7, 2004 12:01 AM

FCC Spurs Low-Power Radio Links

By Larry Kahaner, Government Enterprise

The federal government's interest in mesh-network radio technology dates back two decades to when the Defense Department experimented with packet-radio technology. Packet radio is a precursor to mesh networks, a system in which each wireless node communicates with nearby nodes using low-power radio signals and eventually hip-hops to the main distribution point instead of connecting to it directly over long distances. The military liked the technology's distributed architecture, which provides redundancy and survivability in case of attack.



MeshNetworks' wireless routers can be attached to lamp posts around a city to facilitate emergency communications.
""There isn't a single point of failure,"" says Peter Stanforth, chief technology officer of MeshNetworks Inc. If a node goes down or a connection is dropped, the network finds a way around the affected node or connection. ""Because transmissions make several short hops instead of a single, longer path, it allows higher data rates,"" Stanforth says. Short hops mean fewer dropped connections and stronger signals, resulting in higher data rates. The useful rate is about 1 Mbps, similar to data rates on other broadband networks such as DSL and cable, but bursts can go as high as 6 Mbps.

The military has put mesh networks to work sending and receiving data in the field. Until four years ago, their use was limited to the military, but this has changed, and Stanforth credits the FCC with fostering its growth. In 2000, his company approached the FCC about the benefits of technologies that reuse the radio spectrum. The old model of radio-spectrum licensing, which falls under the FCC's purview, relied on one user being given a license for a high-powered transmitter to operate at a particular frequency. No one else can use that frequency, and the system can be wasteful. MeshNetworks made the case that the FCC could let many low-powered users share the same frequency range with many more users.

Under Part 15 of the federal regulations that govern the FCC, users may employ low-powered transmitters as long as they don't interfere with licensed users. In addition, they must be willing to accept interference from other low-powered users. Part 15 isn't new but, until recently, was relegated to simple applications such as cordless phones, garage-door openers, kiddie walkie-talkies, and key-chain gadgets that lock car doors. Because of the short distances involved in the node-to-node transmissions, mesh networks also can take advantage of the flexibility of low-powered transmission. No FCC license is needed for operation, so anybody can use them as long as the equipment is FCC certified.

MeshNetworks received an experimental license in late 2000 for a mesh-network node, which is a combination transmitter-receiver device. It also got authority to test the technology within the five square miles around company headquarters in Maitland, Fla. The company went on to test a full-scale mesh network in Medford, Ore., which offered broadband mobile data to about 100 first responders and other city workers.

In the first quarter of 2003, the FCC certified the company's products. Earlier this year, Medford's $710,000 network was fully deployed and has expanded to cover the entire city. City manager Doug Townsend expects to see payback in the first eight months of operation. Savings on cell-phone calls is projected to be $24,000 a year, Townsend says. MeshNetworks launched a similar deployment in Garland, Texas, in January that will cover 57 square miles.

MeshNetworks doesn't have this market to itself. Tropos Networks Inc., which takes a slightly different approach to the mesh-network architecture, has set up networks in Cerritos and San Mateo, Calif., and is networking surveillance cameras in New Orleans.

Return to the story: Nurturing Innovation

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