RSS In Plain English

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an incredibly useful technology that's often not very well understood. Commoncraft has produced this video that does a great low-tech job of covering the basics in 3 1/2 minutes.

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Conxx Presentation

On April 18th, representatives from Conxx, Inc. gave a presentation to a general meeting of Network Sierra, which was also attended by several members of county government. Conxx provides a turnkey system for replacing the telco infrastructure in a county or region. Their technology was developed in Alagany County, Maryland and they hope to replicate it in rural areas around the country. As Marv Dealy reported in his Byte by Bite column:

While a bit larger than Tuolumne County, comparisons between the two could be made and the information was compelling. To summarize, this company is providing services to the county, to businesses and to residents that include Internet connections with speeds up to 26 mb at very affordable rates. The system can also provide other services traditionally only offered by a telco like AT&T, such as voice circuits, T1, DS3/OC1, Frame relay, ATM and more. The system uses towers and antennae, fed by wire when available and linked with microwave when not, to broadcast a cloud, and the company said that the trees in Maryland are just as tough as the ones surrounding Craig Will's house, high in the mountains up Highway 108, and that they don't present a problem.

The discussion turned to how such a system could be financed in our county, and it appears there are pots of money that, if the pots can be connected, could do the trick.

Here are the Powerpoint slides used in the Conxx presentation.

Note: Use this link if you have trouble viewing the slides in this post.

This is the first fully integrated technology solution that I've seen that seems to address the needs of Tuolumne County. It's not inexpensive (~$5 million) but such sums have been provided to other rural areas through grants. It's important to stress that we don't expect that any significant amount of money will be available from Tuolumne County. We will however, require support and cooperation from the county in order to proceed with such an ambitious plan. So far, I'm cautiously optimistic that such support will be forthcoming.

These Directions For Planning Purposes Only...

Planning a trip from New York to Paris? Of course you'll want to use Google Maps. Here's the link but make sure you pack dry clothes for use after step 23.

Broadband Expansion 101

The task of bringing broadband Internet service to an unserved area has two key components:

1. the local connection
2. the long distance connection

The logistics are similar to setting up a town with postal service. The neighborhood post office is responsible for moving mail to and from all local addresses. It is also responsible for transferring mail to and from trucks sent by the large regional post office for long distance travel. Note that all in-town mail traffic travels through the neighborhood post office whether it stays in town or travels long distances.

In place of a local post office, broadband service relies on an automated device called a router located somewhere in the neighborhood. The router is so named because it is responsible for routing messages sent over the Internet toward their destination. All Internet messages sent or received by local addresses pass through the neighborhood router. Either wires or antennas must be installed to establish a link between each individual customer and the neighborhood router. It must also have a link to at least one high capacity long distance router to handle Internet messages traveling to or from out-of-town destinations.

Local Versus Long Distance

The equipment and labor required to run a local post office is distinct from what is involved in getting mail between distant post offices. At the local level, postal workers must concern themselves with local street names and addresses. Between post offices, the focus is on the zip code and country name. At the local level, individual letters are sorted by hand and delivered on foot or in small trucks. Long distance mail traffic travels in boxes sorted by regional destination and is carried in large trucks and planes.

The equipment required to maintain broadband Internet service at a local level is similarly distinct from the long distance requirements. At the local level, the neighborhood router is focused on carrying a relatively low volume of Internet traffic between many different customers located in relatively close proximity. Outside the local level, the focus is on high capacity and long distances.

High capacity, long distance, broadband equipment is generally referred to as backhaul infrastructure. To remember this term, I think of hauling lots of stuff and that it takes place in the background rather than in my vicinity. Backhaul routers generally don't support nearly as many connections as neighborhood routers. They just have to handle a lot of capacity and hand off messages to the next router in line.

Local broadband equipment is generally referred to as last-mile infrastructure. It does not have to support the distance or capacity required by backhaul infrastructure but it does have to support lots of individual connections with all the unique complications of maintaining a reliable connection with each individual customer. These complications are commonly known as the last-mile problem. It is similar to all the local knowledge that an individual mail carrier accumulates about which houses have dogs, where individual mailboxes are hidden, etc.

Economies of Scale

A single postal employee with a sorting table and small vehicle can handle all the mail traveling in or out of a single neighborhood route. The complexity, labor and capital required to operate a regional postal hub is huge by comparison. Despite this greater complexity and capital expenditure, the cost of moving one letter one mile is much lower at the regional level than at the local level due to economies of scale.

The same economies of scale apply to broadband infrastructure. The large cables and high capacity equipment that carry long distance Internet traffic are more expensive to set up than local equipment but per mile and per message sent they operate at a far lower cost than local equipment. The last-mile problem can be solved with less expensive equipment but it must be largely solved one customer at a time.

Risk and Return on Investment

It is generally assumed that the cost of setting up broadband infrastructure will ultimately be paid for by the customers who benefit from the service. On paper, it is not terribly difficult to justify these costs. The required equipment is nowadays produced at amazingly low cost. Once people become accustomed to having broadband service they generally find that the value they receive is well worth the cost. The tricky part is managing the up front investment required to put the infrastructure in place.

Google TiSP - Going With The Flow

Google TiSP was announced today, offering free home wireless broadband service via fiter-optic cable installed through municipal sewage lines. From the FAQ:

We believe that all users deserve free, fast and sanitary online access. To offset the cost of providing the TiSP service, we use information gathered by discreet DNA sequencing of your personal bodily output to display online ads that are contextually relevant to your culinary preferences, current health status and likelihood of developing particular medical conditions going forward. Google also offers premium levels of service for a monthly fee.

Leave it to Google to provide services never before imagined!