|
Sci Tech
Last mile connection goes wireless
|
Broadband with a bandwidth of 256Kbytes will solve the problems commonly encountered with last mile connection speed. Wireless technology will allow customers to use the net at speeds never seen before, says R. Prasad.
|
Nearly 40 per cent of Sify's i ways and over 100 corporates are connected by broadband. Photo: Bijoy Ghosh.
Lata had to send a very urgent mail to her boss. Though her computer at office had Internet connection, she had to relay on cyber cafes that had mushroomed in her city. This was necessitated by the very slow speed of her computer's Internet connectivity..
Mukesh, an Internet addict had to surf the net every day for hours. Though he also had a computer at home he rarely used it except on occasions when his health did permit him to saunter to his nearby cyber café to enjoy the luxury of fast connectivity.
LATA AND Mukesh are not the only people who use cyber cafes to surf the net but scores like them despite having Internet connection at home. The reason is quite simple. The Internet connected through a modem uses a telephone line for the last mile connection. And this proves to be the biggest bottleneck as it offers at most 56 Kbytes connectivity though the speed is generally far less most of the time. If this frustrated many users then good news is on its way. Thanks to the latest initiative taken by the Chennai based Internet service provider Satyam Infoway Limited (Sify), the last mile connection (connectivity between the Internet service provider and the customer) would no longer be a issue even when assessed from home PCs.
Sify has gone wireless to improve the quality of the last mile connection. The bandwidth will be 256 Kbytes (broadband). This move has made the role of a third party, in this case, the basic telephone service provider redundant.
Wireless is not a new technology, but its use in last mile connection is. Though the company's thrust will initially be to connect its nearly 680 i ways spread around the country, it is not ruling out the possibility of offering its technology to individual customers be it corporate or homes. "Sify has already connected 40 per cent of its cafes using wireless and we are confident of completing the task in less than six months time," said Mr. V.V. Kannan, Vice President (cyber cafes), Sify. The technology was tested and rolled out first in Chennai nearly six months ago.
The first step in getting a broadband connectivity lies in setting up base stations. Data are transmitted from one base station to another till it reaches Sify's node.
Sify has its backbone network in 53 cities but the connectivity has been achieved in 6-8 cities to start with. The frequency allotted to Sify is 5.7 GHz. Each base station will be able to offer broadband connectivity within a radius of 5 km. To become operational, the customer needs to install a receiver (to transmit/receive signals from the base station), which would then enable a two-way communication between the base station and the computer. "This technology works on the principle of line of sight." explained Mr. Rustom Irani, Chief Technology Officer. This necessitates that buildings or other obstructions do not shadow the receiver.
The `line of sight' requirement between the base station and receiver is because there is a high data throughput in the range of 512 kilo bytes per second to 10 mega bytes per second in the case of Internet. Compare this with a negligible 9600 bytes per second data throughput seen in the case of cell phones. This very low data throughput of cell phone allows it be operational even when it (cell phones) is used indoors.
Better customer experience
For the end user be it at home or at Sify's i way, broadband would offer connectivity never ever experienced before by him. "Even at peak hours the bandwidth per computer will be in the range of 64-72 Kbytes. And this will be nearly 2-3 times the speed that one can expect using a telephone line connection for the last mile," Mr. Rustom said.
Compare this with an ISDN connection with a bandwidth of 64 Kbytes that most of the cafes and some of the i ways still have today. The bandwidth in the case of ISDN connection remains the same immaterial of peak hour or no peak hour and is comparable with the broadband connectivity at peak hours.
However, the hitch in the case of ISDN is the division of the bandwidth by the number of computers being used at any point of time. Hence, when ten computers are being used the bandwidth in the case of ISDN effectively plummets to around 6.4 Kbytes per computer.
Theoretically this problem can be tackled by increasing the number of ISDN connections. This increases the cost as well as time taken to get the connectivity. Broadband connectivity on the other hand has a distinct advantage here. "In our case this problem is solved as we can increase the bandwidth requirements of the customer on the fly. So maintaining the speed of 64Kbytes per computer even at peak hour usage is not an issue or a time consuming process," Mr. Rustom clarified.
Put in simple terms, time consumed to maintain connectivity speed would be a non-issue when scaling up. However, scaling up cannot continue indefinitely as each base station can serve only thousand subscribers. This is a very huge number considering that Internet penetration is low in India.
But the biggest advantage of the technology is making the role of a third party, in this case, the last mile provider, redundant. The company would be installing and managing the base stations leaving the customers with little hassles of maintenance. From the company's point of view maintaining the broadband would allow it to attend to problems immediately unlike in the present case where it was forced to depend on the service provider. "All these are in line with the company's policy of providing the best experience possible," Mr. Rustom indicated.
The litmus test for sify's broadband will happen when other applications which demand much higher bandwidth become commonplace. "Video broadcasting, gaming and video conferencing require higher bandwidth and our technology can best address a customer's requirement," Mr. Rustom said.
The company's thrust is not into retailing the technology just now but is primarily interested in making its i ways go wireless. But retailing to individual customers would be a part of its business strategy wherever a base station is already in place. Till date over 100 corporates have got the broadband connectivity from Sify. The numbers are insignificant when it comes to homes.
One of factors that is holding back the company from going full steam with retailing, particularly houses, is the high cost (nearly Rs1 lakh) of the receiver. The strategy is therefore to target apartments and not individual houses, as they would shy away from shelling out such a huge sum.
But this does not rule out the possibility of Sify going the retailing way any time in the future to target even these individual houses. "We are looking at alternate technologies for the same," Mr. Kannan said.
For one, the company is already looking at the possibility of using Wireless in Local Loop (WiLL). The cost of a WiLL receiver is negligible compared to broadband receiver. It is also not ruling out the potential of roping in the cable operators to increase the Internet penetration.
But the hitch with cable operators is the unorganised nature of the industry in India and need for investment from the operators to convert a one-way communication line to a two way one.
Despite the handicaps the company is field-testing this technology at Jamshedpur. If the hectic phase and the determined efforts of the company are any indication, then gone will be the days when accessing the net from home is a test of one's patience.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sci Tech
|
