After reading some of the recent posts about setting up a
wide-area wireless network, I remembered an article in 2600 called
'Broadband via the Earth'. This was in the Summer 1999 (Vol. 16,
No. 2) issue, on page 16. I tried to research some of the ideas
in the article after I first read it, without succsess.
Apparently, in 1899, Nikola Tesla figured out how to transmit
power through the earth, and was able to do so for several miles.
In WWI, the French used such a system for field-phone communication.
In WWII, hams were denied from operating in the US over radio
waves, so they used earth-based communication instead.
In 'Modern Communications Magazine' (Sept. 1990), there was
an article about how to make a voice communications system
similar to what the French had in WWI. (I was unable to find any
mention of that magazine in my research).
Having a new network work through this would be tremendous.
A few considerations:
--Noise. You've got cable TV, telephone, electrical wires, and
who knows what else running through the ground. Any such network
would need major error corecting.
--Privacy. The Germans were able to easily evesdrop on French
communications using such a system. You need good use of encryption
to ensure privacy.
--Bandwidth/Range. Probably depends on the composition of the
earth and noise. Bandwidth should at least match a 56Kinda modem.
I suggest not using IP for this network. If done properly, I think
'earthnet' could be much more distributed then the Internet could
ever hope to be (because you have roughly equal bandwidth at
all points). I don't think IP would be well suited to the task,
or at least net IPv4. Perhaps IPv6 would work better (slightly
hacked, maybe).
Thoughts? Comments? Flame-fest?
Timm Murray
---
Theory is when you know how it works, but fails. Practice is when something
works, but you don't know why. Here, Theory and Practice come together.
Nothing works, and nobody knows why.
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