Facebook has been
testing the technology for some time on its campus in California. There,
the company has managed to achieve data transmission speeds exceeding 1
Gb/s (gigabit per second). The current plan is to test the
transmissions in the central city of San Jose,California and then do the
same in other parts of the world.
What is the secret of Terragraph for such high speeds? Well, the project is based on a wireless technology supported by several industry giants like Samsung, Intel, Sony, and Qualcomm: WiGig.
Relatively new, this pattern can allow
connections with speeds up to 7 Gb/s. Such high rates are possible,
among other factors, due to the frequency of 60 GHz WiGig.
In contrast, this frequency has a serious limitation: it is easily
susceptible to blocking by obstacles – it’s very difficult to make the
signal through walls, for example.
To overcome this problem, Facebook
wants to combine the WiGig other ideas. One is the integration of
technology with a network management software developed by Facebook and
able to distribute the smart way data traffic to avoid overload or
bottlenecks.
Another plan is the distribution of
multiple antennas or small signal transmission points across the city.
As they can stay in lampposts and traffic lights, for example. The
purpose is to leave the antennas in close proximity to each other, with
the distances between 200 and 250 meters, the maximum distance supported
by WiGig.
Facebook did not detail how the signal
provided by the network may be taken to the interior of buildings and
homes, but this does not seem to be a difficult problem to solve: we can
think of receivers connected by cable to the router to an internal Wi-Fi network.
Difficulty even Facebook
will have to decrease the risk of instability in the transmissions.
Trucks, buses and even large clumps of cars can interfere with the
signal. Ben Zhao, networks reaching expert at the University of
California, explained to the MIT Technology Review that the antennas
have to “crawl” very precisely the devices connected to that type of
problems do not occur.
If we consider the dynamics that urban
centers have, this is a big challenge, but the smart antennas
distribution should help with this. Anyway, the next rounds of testing
will tell if Facebook will succeed with Terragraph. It is the company’s intentions to monetize this technology, not directly.
If the project is successful, the Terragraph
must be licensed for free to suppliers and other companies in the
industry. By making viable high-speed networks, Facebook can bring more
people to their services or even expand its segments, as the company is
very focused on virtual reality. Even rural areas are being considered.
Another connectivity project that Facebook addressed the F8 is the ARIES
(Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum) technology,
which promises to take broadcasts from urban areas to surrounding points
that are at a distance of up to 40 kilometers.
In short, Project ARIES is a broadcast
platform that, at this stage, works with 96 antennas to increase by up
to ten times the energy and spectral efficiency of conventional 4G
networks. This is also a very challenging initiative, after all, all the
work is being done with a focus on a very ambitious goal: ARIES have to work without, however, require large expenditures with its implementation.
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