Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Before you conclude that this is just a shameless excuse for a geek to use his blog as a platform to rant on the latest sci-fi movie... ok, you might be partially right. But there's something to this notion. The creator(s) of the new movie Avatar had impressively imaginative minds--something lacking in films of recent. Not the least of their "inventions" was a biological broadband network of sorts, which served as the backbone to connect all life on the planet Pandora.

In effect, the fantasy world where the Na'vi people live is connected by a data network we only... well... fantasize about. The vegetation root systems interconnect to form a network backbone of impressive stature. In an early scene, we see the research crew measuring electronic transmissions through a root of a tree. Later, researcher Grace Augustine explains the significance of this find to the money-hungry corporate executive. The redundancy, reach, and shear bandwidth capabilities of the network which connects all of Pandora is beyond any human's capability to build with copper cable and fiber-optics.

Even more fascinating, however, was James Cameron's imaginitive method for how animal life forms connected to this network. Rather than with mechanical or artificial means, all animals--including the human-like Na'vi--are equipped with a special organ which serves as a universal "jack" of sorts to link into the planet's network. This bundle of nerves which grows out of all creatures' heads can link them into the planetary network, or create "peer-to-peer" connections between horse and rider, or other symbiotic relationships.

So, how does this all relate to the broadband of today? I find it fascinating to note how sci-fi has influenced reality over the past half-century. The creators of Star-Trek imagined a world where each person would have a personal wireless communication device. Now I can't buy a gallon of milk without seeing someone's blue-tooth in their ear like a peice of jewelry. Will James Cameron's personal cat5 jack ever catch on? Will the earth ever be covered with such a ubiquitous network? There is no doubt that the future of our communication lies in the data network that now covers our globe. Cameron's fantasy world, no doubt, reflects the awesome prospect of what that network could mean for our society, if indeed we can accomplish it.

Labels: Avatar, Broadband, James Cameron, Na'vi, Pandora

posted by Unknown at 5:01 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Friday, December 18, 2009
I was at a client's site recently talking with the technical staff about features they hadn't been utilizing and some of the new features coming out soon. As we were talking, a gentleman with graying hair and weathered skin walked into the room looking quite disheveled. At a glance, you might pick him for the mail man, or perhaps a janitor. After introducing himself, he looked me square in the eye and said, "you know, I invented the Internet."

I thought he was doing his best Al Gore impression. After a chuckle, I realized he was still staring at me quite seriously, and our hand-shake had turned into a static firm grip. "Back in the 80's, we had our first computers, and I wrote a program so we could pass floppies around the office and collaborate on projects with a single point of data."

Floppies? He thought a floppy-disc sharing method was tantamount to the Internet?

I graciously congratulated him and quickly changed the subject. But, it's not an experience I will quickly forget. And, it all makes me wonder: what is the "wonder" of the Internet. This guy had one thing right--Berners-Lee and Cailliau weren't the first people to imagine how computers could expedite collaboration. But, is that the Internet?

In truth, what the man could probably had made a better case for was that he invented the World Wide Web, which is often used interchangably with the term Internet, but actually describes a separate solution. Of course, the floppy-sharing system is more of an "Office-Wide-Web", the principal was nonetheless advanced for its time. In either case, office-wide or world-wide, this web is the sharing of documents, ideas, data, etc. via some dispersed network.

The Internet, then, is actually that network--not the sharing itself. And, to answer the question, "what is the wonder of the internet," for my money you can't find a better wonder than the ubiquitous availability of the network.

The floppy-disc sharing program that made this man so proud lacked one thing that the Internet offers: a true network. People carrying discs down the hall does not qualify. The Internet connects billions of terminals onto one network simultaneously. And, lest that sound too impressive, don't forget that we have been transmitting data across oceans and continents for nearly a century now. It's not connecting the continents that's such a wonder, it's connecting the terminals.

Yes, the end-user computers, company servers, PDA's, ATM machines and slushy machines--getting to these locations is more impressive, I would argue, than the laying of the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic. Why? because of the endless unique switching that must occur.

It's called the "last mile" - and it is this last mile which the aforementioned floppy-disc system would have struggled to complete effectively. Just as it is easy to run a cable from London to New York, so it would be to carry a diskette that distance. It's getting replicas of that diskette to all 12 Million people in the region that would impress me. And, even with countless miles of copper cable, fiber optic, and GSM towers sprawling across the globe, the feat still blows my mind.

Hat's off to people like Paul Baran and Leonard Kleinrock. As for the other self-proclaimed inventors of the Internet, thanks for your ingenuity however grandiose it may have been.

Labels: "Internet infrastructure", I Invented the Internet, Internet, Last Mile, World Wide Web

posted by Unknown at 6:12 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Monday, December 7, 2009
I opened my first office when I was 19 years old. Fresh out of the dorms, all I knew about the internet was that the data jack was bigger than the phone jack. After that, you just plug in and it worked, right? I had grown up in a time when there was one phone company-- "The" phone company. So, naturally, I picked up the phone (my cell, that is) and called to get the landlines installed.

It was a new office. I could smell the paint and the carpet. I felt like I had arrived. There were jacks on the walls, and where there's jacks there's data, right? Wrong. I learned a lesson about the way the world works that day: Buying new is never cheap. You see, whereas "The" phone company had invested their own capital in getting DSL service available to my area, getting it into the building was my cost--and what a cost it was, too.

From the core network to the access network may entail hundreds and thousands of miles of fiber-optic and copper cable. That cost is reflected in the service rates we all pay. But it was the last mile, from the D-Box to my shiny little jacks in my crisp-smelling new office, that caught me off-guard.

Today, there's a better option. Accel Networks proprietary technology puts businesses online in just 3-days. By providing a managed wireless local loop, Accel uses fixed wireless broadband to deliver last-mile connectivity with less headaches, better SLA's, and often times lower cost than wireline solutions. If you can talk on your cell phone from your place of business, then the infrastructure is already there. All you need is Accel's uniquely engineered wireless hardware and your last mile connectivity is established.

Labels: "Internet infrastructure", Fixed Wireless Broadband, Last Mile, Local Loop

posted by Unknown at 6:42 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
As we have discussed several times on this blog, the FCC is drafting a National Broadband Plan which will lay out ways the government can improve broadband service in the U.S. The plan is scheduled to come out in February, allowing plenty of time for feedback on the issue. And, it warrants mentioning that there are no certainties as to how many of its suggestions will ultimately be adopted.

But, there are other measures--policy measures which the FCC does not require congressional approval to make--that are already being put in place. It would appear that the FCC is wasting no time in getting us caught up with global broadband standards. Examples include educating the consumer on wireless broadband, freeing up air-waves for wireless broadband use, and most recently: making it easier to get towers in the air.

Amy Schatz of the Wall Street Journal reported that:

"Of the 3,300 applications for new towers or to put a new antenna up on an existing tower, more than 700 have been pending for more than a year..."

That means communication companies like Verizon and AT&T who want to add more coverage are stalled by local and state government bureaucracy. Before any new tower is erected, or even a new antenna is placed on an existing tower, approval must be sought from the local authorities. When those applications are delayed, the expansion of fixed wireless broadband in our communities is slowed.

Under the new policies handed down by the FCC, local agencies will have only 90 days to review and respond to new antenna applications, and 150 days where a new tower is requested. If the agency fails to respond in that time frame, then the wireless carriers can seek a decision from federal courts.

If you've got an idea for how wireless broadband can be expedited across our nation, let your voice be heard. Download the FCC's public notice and follow the instructions found there.

Labels: ATT, Broadband Plan, FCC, Fixed Wireless Broadband, Verizon, wireless carriers

posted by Unknown at 7:19 AM Link to this Article  0 Comments