Base Station

Free Solar-Powered Wi-Fi In Portland?

Elizabeth Dickey on February 8, 2010

At the annual State of the City Address in Portland, Oregon, Mayor Sam Adams said that the city will make $500,000 available for innovative small business ventures that may be matched by banks.

The city is creating a Portland Small Business Seed Fund in conjunction with the Sustainable Development Fund. The $500,000 seed fund will come from the Portland Development Commission and the city will be loaning the money as opposed to making equity investments. The fund’s success will be measured through the number of jobs created by the companies who receive the funds.

Mayor Adams said that the investment is a result of multiple talks with the people behind NedSpace who have been campaigning for more public support for startups.

A simple, sustainable Wi-Fi solution is one of such possible business ventures. Using solar powered kiosks in neighborhood parks, residents would have access to free Wi-Fi. In the next three years, the plan has the potential to fund itself, stimulate jobs in news media and software development, and deliver emergency broadband communications throughout the city.

Each kiosk would be a neighborhood node and a laser-based microprojector coupled to an iPad/iTouch would provide a small ruggedized display. The splash page would feature an interactive news map with localized Nozzl News, traffic, and weather. Service could also be customized using cell phones.

Community-based advertising would provide $100/month revenue for each Kiosk and over 36 months, the $3,600 cost could be re-paid.

Photo via Flickr courtesy of Ben Amstutz… Read the rest

Country In Crisis – Communication Restoration in Haiti

Elizabeth Dickey on February 5, 2010 | 3 comments

In light of widespread devastation in Haiti after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, communication restoration is the key to rescue operations.

Haitian Ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, has called out restoration of communications as the top need in the region, which is almost entirely dependent upon wireless technology. Immediately following the earthquake, a lack of internet connectivity made it nearly impossible for NGO’s and the Haitian government to coordinate the delivery of aid. Large international service providers, humanitarian organizations, technology companies, and local service providers have all been taking action in the past three weeks to begin addressing the situation.

The two known Haitian Public Safety Answering Pints (PSAPs) were both reportedly destroyed and the Haitian police Land Mobile Radio (LMR) system was ruined along with most all of the wireline infrastructure. Inadequate power supply has been a major problem as well, particularly because even before the earthquake, Haiti’s electricity grid only provided about eight hours of daily power.

Humanitarian organizations are trying to make a difference in the relief effort by setting up wireless connections and utlilizing technology solutions. Engineers from NetHope have been sent to Haiti to set up a VSAT satellite solution using WiMax technology to restore Internet connectivity to large NGO’s who are serving in Haiti. NetHope members operating in Haiti will have access to this network and with connectivity restored, agencies will have the tools they need to expedite the delivery of much needed resources to victims through a coordinated response with each other.

Hainet, Multilink and Access Haiti, the three leading local Internet service providers in Haiti, have used broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA) systems for connectivity, including certified WiMax networks and pre-WiMax equipment. Technicians have been working to restore damaged wireless infrastructure as they also buildout new base stations. Both Access Haiti and Hainet were reported ‘non-operational’ immediately following the earthquake but were restored within days.

A plan supported by the National Joint TERT Initiative -a collaboration between APCO International Telecommunicator and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) for Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) – will cover an immediate phased approach to a solution as well as long-term support and training for the Haitian people.

APCO President Richard Mirgon have driven home this point regarding immediate need and actions – “The restoration of essential emergency communications systems is critical to saving lives and maintaining the health of the population, including those individuals

… Read the rest

Rumor Alert: Sprint Finds Partner In Wal-Mart For National WiMax Rollout

Michael Licata on January 12, 2010 | 2 comments

According to AndroidGuys.com, Sprint has been working with an unusual partner on a project to help build out their WiMax network. Sprint and Clearwire hope to provide a WiMax network for most everyone in the U.S by taking on a unique partner to roll out the network -Wal-Mart.

Though WiMax technology works much like Wi-Fi, it operates at much greater distances, making it a viable option for projects planning to deploy services across multiple locations stretched over many miles. Sprint’s plan includes the placement of base stations in all Wal-Mart stores across the country, a very real possibility given both the great number of stores and great distances that WiMax would be able to reach. An additional perk would be the reduced cost of deployment for Sprint because construction of full base stations and implementation of zoning laws would not be necessary.

Sprint unveiled a new 3G/4G Wireless router at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 6 and is also looking to build a WiMax-enabled smart phone. Sprint supports Clearwire, a company that operates commercial WiMax networks in 27 U.S. markets including Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Raleigh, North Carolina and Seattle.… Read the rest

Maxim Integrated Products Provides New Tech for Base Stations

Michael Licata on November 30, 2009

Maxim-Integrated-Products-Logo300-x-120

Maxim Integrated Products introduces the MAX2042, the industry’s highest performance, fully integrated, 2000MHz to 3000MHz SiGe passive mixer.

Designed specifically for LTE, WiMax, WCS, and MMDS wireless-infrastructure applications, the MAX2042 delivers an unparalleled combination of linearity, noise performance, and component integration. When configured as a downconverter, this IC provides 36dBm of IIP3, 23.4dBm of IP1dB, 7.2dB of conversion loss, and a 7.3dB noise figure. In addition, it exhibits excellent 2nd- and 3rd-order spurious suppression.

As an upconverter, the MAX2042 provides equally impressive performance with 32.4dBm of IIP3, 67dBc of LO ±2IF suppression, and a conversion loss of only 6.8dB. These parameters make the MAX2042 ideal for demanding base-station applications where high linearity and a low noise figure are critical for enhanced receiver and transmitter performance.

As a complete SiGe up-/downconverter, the MAX2042 integrates a state-of-the-art, double-balanced mixer core with an LO amplifier and two baluns, plus dozens of discrete components. This integration reduces the total board space used by the mixer by 40%; it reduces the discrete part count by 33%. The MAX2042′s outstanding 2RF-2LO performance of 70dBc (with a -10dBm RF tone) also eases the filtering requirements of close-in harmonics, thus enabling simpler and more cost-effective filter designs.

This mixer offers an exceptionally wide 50MHz to 500MHz IF frequency range with an 1800MHz to 3000MHz, low-side LO injection range. The on-board 0dBm drive LO buffer provides ±3dB drive-variance control, thus ensuring stable gain, NF, and IIP3 performance over temperature, supply, and input power. The MAX2042 has excellent gain-variation performance of ±0.44dB over the -40°C to +85°C industrial temperature range. The IIP3 spread is similarly impressive at ±0.5dB over temperature.

The MAX2042 is packaged in a compact, 5mm x 5mm, lead-free, 20-pin TQFN. The package is pin compatible to the MAX2029/MAX2031/MAX2039/MAX2041/MAX2042A*/MAX2044 series of mixers. This entire family of passive up-/downconverters is ideal for applications in which a common PC-board layout is used for both wireless-infrastructure frequency bands.

Maxim Integrated Products is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance semiconductor products.… Read the rest