Windpower 2002 will be held in Portland June 2-5, the largest wind energy conference in North America. The latest industry trends, technologies, and renewable energy policy developments will be on display.
Wouldn’t it be nice if PersonalTelco, FreeGeek and a local wind/solar company could demonstrate a hilltop access point that’s totally self-sustaining and self-powered? A mobile hilltop unit might use point-to-multipoint microwave to connect a mobile van which, in turn, supplies local 802.11a/b access in a variety of “hot spots”.
A wireless network might roll out anywhere, anytime in an emergency or provide back-up. It could supply voice, video and data to hundreds of end users including commerical businesses at low cost. Here’s a concept:
- Hybrid Electric Vehicles supply power to a hilltop tower. I’d use a Corbin Sparrow, Honda Insight, Toyota RAV4-EV, Primus or Hybrid Ford RV as my power source. It could drive up nearby hills providing links to multiple end users and it carries a small satellite dish.
- The satellite dish, generator and batteries might also be contained in a small utility trailer. I’d charge the thing with a windmill and solar cells using a Trace Inverter.
- For the internet backbone connection I’d use a geosynch satellite, despite the latency, due to cost and capacity issues. We’d test the MotoSat (FAQ) dish, for 2-way links to DirectPC or the semi-mobile Tachyon but would move to 20/30 Ghz band via Wild Blue and SpaceWay next year for 1.5Mbps up and 5Mbps down.
- A 19″ rack is stuffed in the back of the Hybrid Ford RV. It provides 2.4/5.8 Ghz backbone connections from our hilltop location and a satellite (or internet) co-location. Dell laptops and Optix servers deliver the goods.
- A hilltop location allows a tower to cover multiple wireless nodes. A 2.4Ghz link using Navini or a 5.8 Ghz link using Aperto Networks, BreezeNET, IO Span, Wavesat or WiLan 5.8 Ghz sector for multiple fixed or mobile users. Licensed alternatives like Sprint/Navini using the MMDS band and PCS/cellular using 1xEV-DO from providers like Airvana and Monet may be more reliable. Unfortunately, licensed wireless service can’t be moved to new locations every day. Unlicensed networks could.
- A remote van like Personal Telco’s Satellite Truck with a 30 foot mast topped with an electronically steerable antenna connects to the hilltop using a 2.4/5.8 GHz microwave link. The van provides local “on-the-spot” coverage with Bridging Repeaters like Cisco dual-band Access Points or Mesh Networks. Everyone gets a camcorder ($500) and a Palm-sized XP computer ($1000) for teleconferencing in the field. For large events like an airshow, sports event or concert, 4 electric bikes or Segways, hauled in the trailer, might mesh together and provide multiple cameras with streaming MPEG-4. Figure $2K for the e-bike, $2K for the camera and $1K for the mesh AP.
- I’d build it with a $250,000 grant and subsidize operation by selling interruptible T-1 connections for $50/month. In 2-5 years the thing might be self-sustaining at $20/month. Providing sustained 1.2 Mbps upstream using smart antennas like BeamReach can add unique value by saving hundreds of dollars every month over T-1 lines.
