• giacomo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sounds like a cool replacement for point to point WiFi bridges. I wonder what sort of distances start to impact data rates and quality just due to air density or weather.

    • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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      1 year ago

      Really depends on the size of the receiver. Its possible to use it at interplanetary distances if we are willing to build a mirror 10s of square miles in size. For point to point my guess would be a few miles. The horizon is the cutoff point for sure so one beam could never be more then the line of sight horizon at the altitude of the receiver for sure.

    • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      As I understand, this is very low distance, basically for office settings. What ISPs will do to connect to/provide connectivity to a remote site is install point to point microwave radios. They are not impacted by weather too much, but they do lose signal strength if the radios are misaligned. That is what service providers will do if they want to offer cellular connectivity to a small town where running fiber would cost millions of dollars. They will contract a service provider to provide CTBH (Cell Tower Backhaul) via point to point microwave radios. Multiple radios can be used for redundancy / to add bandwidth capabilities by bonding channels together, suddenly they can provide 4g/5g cellular connectivity without needing to spend millions of dollars in installing fiber.