There’s a guy in St Cloud who has come up with a better wireless solution based on light, not radio waves. The nuts and bolts of networks can quickly get beyond me – but I love this story for two reasons.
First, it would be cool. Apparently this new flavor of wireless is 8 times the speed of radio wave-based networks. And it doesn’t go through walls. So it’s a good, very local solution not so much a plan for a city. Because it doesn’t go through walls it’s pretty secure – for phones and computers. Also it’s cheaper than wiring rooms – such as classrooms.
Second I love any innovation coming out of Minnesota . The investor has apparently registered dozens of patents and started a tech business. (You can learn more about him and his invention in the St Cloud Times.) We need to promote, support and celebrate technology innovation. In 2007 (last reported stats from AeA, I think), Minnesota was ninth in nationwide in high-tech exports, which isn’t bad if we’re comparing ourselves to other states. The news wasn’t all “not bad” however, for the first time since 2002, Minnesota’s tech exports declined in 2007; they fell by $612 million for a total of 5.6 billion.
good story, unfortunately its kind of hard to tell how new his technology is. This same technology already exists and is in use. I can’t tell how much different his is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Space_Optics
By: mark on January 22, 2009
at 6:07 pm
You’re right, we should applaud the persistence and courage of folks like this. However, while the article is light on technical detail (i.e. max range, speed), it seems to me that this solution has limited applications. It can not possibly compete with the likes of 802.11 (wi-fi) that can penetrate walls, is deployed globally in millions of devices and with the proper software can be extremely secure.
By: Frans Versluis on February 4, 2009
at 3:31 pm