22-09-2008, 12:01 AM
Mesh radio is an innovative approach to delivering broadband access to residential and small business customers. Instead of using a central base station to serve all customers with in a radius of a few kilometres, it makes every customer?s equipment capable of providing service to its neighbours. New customers do not need to be able to ?see? a central base station-they only need to ?see? an existing customer?s antenna.
The mesh radio avoids base stations and allows low power micro wave devices in the nodes. This reduces the startup costs and makes it feasible to offer services in low subscriber densities. The mesh radio allow to deliver high-capacity and high-quality services to customers. Mesh radio is a very new technology and nobody is yet offering large scale services based on it. The system of trial in Cardiff and further trials planned for the US, Spain and Germany, works at 28 gigahertz ? in the millimetre waveband.
Later systems will work at 40 gigahertz. Two way data rates of four mega bits per second are said to be possible for upto 600 subscriber per square kilometres compared with cell phones mesh technology may raise fewer concerns over radiation health effects. It operates at higher frequencies than the microwaves used by cell phone networks, allowing the signals to travel high in the air in a tight line-of-sight beam. Power levels will be less than one watt; whereas cell phone masts push out eight watts. There are a number of trials and pilot services being run in Europe and the USA. Commercial services could be available in two or three years..
