Researchers at the University of California,
San Diego (UCSD) are using the latest
solar-powered wireless technology to help
a pair of Native American tribes bridge
the digital divide. The High Performance
Research and Education Network (HPWREN)
is overcoming geographical, social and
technical barriers to bring high-speed
Internet access to the La Jolla and Pala
tribes.
In remote San Diego County, HPWREN's 45Mbps
(million bits per second) wireless backbone
connects the low-lying San Diego coastline
with the county's mountainous eastern
region, home of the La Jolla and Pala
Native American reservations. This outreach
is funded by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) as part of an experimental wireless
network that also links UCSD with the
Mount Laguna Observatory (operated by
San Diego State University and the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), an earthquake-detection
site (run by the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, part of UCSD), and two large
ecological reserves with multiple field
stations. UCSD received a $2.3 million
NSF award in August 2000 to create, demonstrate
and evaluate the prototype wide-area network
for research and education.
Connecting the Native American communities
posed special challenges for the team
led by computer scientist Hans-Werner
Braun and geophysicist Frank Vernon of
UCSD. Foremost among these is the rugged
terrain where the reservations are located
- ranging from valleys with elevation
of 2,000 feet above sea level to mountain
peaks at 5,000 feet. "There are no line-of-sight
views of existing microwave towers from
the sites," Braun said. "And in the case
of La Jolla, we didn't even have access
to electric grid power on the mountain
ridge edge of the reservation."
That necessity prompted HPWREN staff to
design a system of solar arrays and batteries
for beaming digital signals where land-based
lines aren't practical. After first testing
the solar setup last fall, the team deployed
it in December on Palomar Mountain, which
looms above the La Jolla reservation.
La Jolla tribal members worked closely
with the HPWREN team to prepare the solar-powered
system and antennae that would provide
the reservation's learning center with
high-speed Internet connectivity. Now
young and old alike gather in the La Jolla
and Pala learning centers to surf the
Internet at lightning speed.
"The UC San Diego collaboration with La
Jolla provides an opportunity for our
learning center to receive access to technology
and capabilities that we otherwise would
not have in our remote county area," said
Jack Musick, La Jolla tribal chairman.
"We look forward to building educational
programs that allow children and adults
to take advantage of the connectivity."
The project is exciting, Braun said, "because
it's an interdisciplinary effort to design
a network that -- though experimental
-- is robust enough to be relied upon
by researchers under even very adverse
conditions, including catastrophic earthquakes.
HPWREN is developing such a system for
geophysicists, astronomers and ecologists,
while demonstrating that the same tools
can connect under-served educational users
at remote locations like the Pala and
La Jolla reservations."
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The La Jolla Native American Reservation's
Learning Center.
A
larger version is here.
December 2000 installation of a solar-powered
wireless network relay station on Palomar
Mountain.
A
larger version is here.
HPWREN solar-powered wireless network
relay after installation. Each grid antenna
pictured measures 24 inches by 40 inches.
A
larger version is here.
The route by which HPWREN connects the
Pala Learning Center to UC San Diego with
wireless high-speed Internet. The antenna
on the roof of the Pala Learning Center
communicates with an identical unit located
atop Mount Woodson via an intermediary
relay point on Pala Mountain.
A
larger version is here.
Hans-Werner, HPWREN principal investigator,
adjusting the radio transmitter atop Pala
Mountain.
A
larger version is here.
HPWREN's wide-area, wireless network backbone
topology in southern California. Backbone
nodes connect to a number of research
sites in scientific disciplines ranging
from astronomy and earthquake research
to ecology, and also to hard-to-reach
education sites like the La Jolla and
Pala Native American Reservations.
A
larger version is here.
A HPWREN-enabled Internet class at the
La Jolla learning center.
A
larger version is here.
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