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Amazon wants govt permission to run mystery wireless tests in rural Washington

27 points by Fjolsvith 10y ago

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bastawhiz 10y ago
I have no experience with this, but might the frequencies that they've mentioned be telling of what they're going to be doing in these experiments?
- koheripbal 10y ago
  The frequencies are roughly the same as what is used for LTE cell phone traffic. Which means they are probably looking for a frequency that has the same atmospheric, foliage, and construction material absorption, and range. Not sure it tells you much. They are obviously also limited to what portions of the spectrum are available.
  - JumpCrisscross 10y ago
    Do we know the max power levels involved?
valarauca1 10y ago
Drone to Drone mesh networking obviously. This is what packet switched networks were literally invented for. Obviously the infrastructure of building a drone delivery network would be building all those towers. You can avoid this by building a mesh network and attempting to ensure drones are always within LOS of each other. I guess they don't have the drones flying yet b/c there is no FAA permit (unless they already acquired on).
ChuckMcM 10y ago
Is it really a mystery when the uplink/downlink frequencies are all right in the sweet spot for existing LTE radios? I'd guess they are going to set up an LTE cell site with "off band" values use LTE modems/radios/antennas on their drones to co-ordinate flight. Get it all working and then go into Verizon and say "hey we'd like to piggyback on your network for our drone services, this is how much traffic, spectrum, and activity you can expect based on our test data ..."
- deleted 10y ago
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- RileyKyeden 10y ago
  This is how smart meters work. How long before someone hijacks a drone's SIM card? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jailed/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jai...
jwildeboer 10y ago
Mesh nodes or landing guidance devices for drones is my estimated guess.

27 points by Fjolsvith 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

deleted 10y ago
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bastawhiz 10y ago

I have no experience with this, but might the frequencies that they've mentioned be telling of what they're going to be doing in these experiments?

koheripbal 10y ago
The frequencies are roughly the same as what is used for LTE cell phone traffic. Which means they are probably looking for a frequency that has the same atmospheric, foliage, and construction material absorption, and range. Not sure it tells you much. They are obviously also limited to what portions of the spectrum are available.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  Do we know the max power levels involved?

valarauca1 10y ago

Drone to Drone mesh networking obviously. This is what packet switched networks were literally invented for. Obviously the infrastructure of building a drone delivery network would be building all those towers. You can avoid this by building a mesh network and attempting to ensure drones are always within LOS of each other. I guess they don't have the drones flying yet b/c there is no FAA permit (unless they already acquired on).

ChuckMcM 10y ago

Is it really a mystery when the uplink/downlink frequencies are all right in the sweet spot for existing LTE radios? I'd guess they are going to set up an LTE cell site with "off band" values use LTE modems/radios/antennas on their drones to co-ordinate flight. Get it all working and then go into Verizon and say "hey we'd like to piggyback on your network for our drone services, this is how much traffic, spectrum, and activity you can expect based on our test data ..."

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
RileyKyeden 10y ago
This is how smart meters work. How long before someone hijacks a drone's SIM card? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jailed/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jai...

jwildeboer 10y ago

Mesh nodes or landing guidance devices for drones is my estimated guess.