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Microwave has actually remained fairly static in terms of the technology capabilities lately, so they probably couldn't achieve much more if they started again

Microwave has actually remained fairly static in terms of the technology capabilities lately, so they probably couldn't achieve much more if they started again today. Short distance microwave links can push a gigabit, but not by a lot, and only over (relatively) short distances. Running towers at close enough spacing to increase bandwidth, or even laying cable, would be a much larger investment and you ultimately have to play the cost vs bandwidth tradeoff here.

AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
But they could have used newer tech that would preform better, no? https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber-11fx/ https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber-11fx/ 300km @ 1gbit? Admittedly, I've never actually deployed this particular UBNT product but I know their stuff is good (I've used their APs for years).
- pdabbadabba 9y ago
  Well, are we sure that this is better performance than the TERRA backbone gets? I think you'd have a hard time offering 6mbps in northern Alaska if all the customer traffic ultimately has to squeeze through one of the two terminal 1 gigabit links down south. (And 1gbps at 300km seems pretty optimistic for any real-world deployment. On a 100 ft tower, line of sight is limited to less than 20km due to the curvature of the Earth.)
  - ad_hominem 9y ago
    In microwave frequencies, you also have to worry about Fresnel zone clearances
    - dboreham 9y ago
      Typically towers are constructed on hills or at least the best small rise around to avoid this problem. Fresnel zone is not too wide at the frequencies used (probably 11-18GHz, perhaps 6).
dboreham 9y ago
This is not true. Shannon capacity limit has remained the same of course but reduction in the cost of processing has meant that it is vastly cheaper to deploy higher coding rate modulation schemes and MIMO than it was only a few years ago. Gigabit speeds over long range (10's of km) are quite achievable. The article actually talks about 6Mbits/s as the service speed per subscriber so obviously the backhaul is going to need to be much faster, especially since its ring topology means it has to serve many towns.
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  I'd figure they're probably working with a few hundred megs of connectivity at most. Thing is, as speeds increase (esp when you go above a few Mbps), usage actually stays pretty flat. Mostly, videos load faster leaving an emptier pipe for the next customer.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Usage increases over time though, as perceived speed increase leads to heavier stuff being deployed on the Internet. Over time, we started to stream music, then video, then HD video, then 60FPS Full-HD video, 360° video; I don't see this trend stopping with time. (And then there's software bloat, which also increases with time.)

AdamJacobMuller 9y ago

But they could have used newer tech that would preform better, no? https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber-11fx/ https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber-11fx/ 300km @ 1gbit? Admittedly, I've never actually deployed this particular UBNT product but I know their stuff is good (I've used their APs for years).

pdabbadabba 9y ago
Well, are we sure that this is better performance than the TERRA backbone gets? I think you'd have a hard time offering 6mbps in northern Alaska if all the customer traffic ultimately has to squeeze through one of the two terminal 1 gigabit links down south. (And 1gbps at 300km seems pretty optimistic for any real-world deployment. On a 100 ft tower, line of sight is limited to less than 20km due to the curvature of the Earth.)
- ad_hominem 9y ago
  In microwave frequencies, you also have to worry about Fresnel zone clearances
  - dboreham 9y ago
    Typically towers are constructed on hills or at least the best small rise around to avoid this problem. Fresnel zone is not too wide at the frequencies used (probably 11-18GHz, perhaps 6).

dboreham 9y ago

This is not true. Shannon capacity limit has remained the same of course but reduction in the cost of processing has meant that it is vastly cheaper to deploy higher coding rate modulation schemes and MIMO than it was only a few years ago. Gigabit speeds over long range (10's of km) are quite achievable. The article actually talks about 6Mbits/s as the service speed per subscriber so obviously the backhaul is going to need to be much faster, especially since its ring topology means it has to serve many towns.

StudentStuff 9y ago
I'd figure they're probably working with a few hundred megs of connectivity at most. Thing is, as speeds increase (esp when you go above a few Mbps), usage actually stays pretty flat. Mostly, videos load faster leaving an emptier pipe for the next customer.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Usage increases over time though, as perceived speed increase leads to heavier stuff being deployed on the Internet. Over time, we started to stream music, then video, then HD video, then 60FPS Full-HD video, 360° video; I don't see this trend stopping with time. (And then there's software bloat, which also increases with time.)