Google Getting Ready To Experiment With Secret Wireless Network


By: Talha Bhatti  |   January 26th, 2013   |   Gadgets, Google, News
Google

Search and technology giant, Google, is using it famous Mountain View, California as the laboratory for an experimental  wireless network. The company has sent in an application to the Federal Communications Commission to get all there paper work in order and have asked the government to keep a lid on the details of the project.

 

Google states in a letter along with application that they “respectfully requests confidential treatment.” For now there really are no exact details about the project. However, it is apparent from the FCC application that Google will be using a Clearwire owned spectrum that is meant for LTE cellular deployments.

 

The search giant states that, “Google has not made the information subject to this request available to the public or to any third parties, does not routinely disclose such commercially sensitive information to the public or to third parties, and has established procedures to protect such information internally.”

 

Google does give away a little more information in the application for an experimental license and the letter. Wireless engineer, Steven Crowley, blogged about the project and said, “Google plans to test up to 50 base stations and 200 user devices. Base stations will be indoors and outdoors, with the range of each 100-200 meters, and 500-1000 meters, respectively. Both directional and non-directional antennas will be used. The experiment is to take place within a two-mile radius, so this is a quite dense network, which could have very high capacity for carrying data.”

 

The Clearwire frequencies that Google wants to use include 2524-2546 and 2567-2625 MHz. Crowley elaborates by saying that, “The only reason to use these frequencies is if you have business designs on some mobile service.”

 

Google has manged to keep some information hidden including the output power of devices by saying “not applicable” on the form. Crowley thinks this “doesn’t make sense.” He goes on to say that “The power is a fundamental quantity that should be disclosed so others may independently assess the potential for interference from the experiment to their services. FCC staff should ask Google to supply this information.”

 

Google has also managed to keep the types of base stations and end-user devices a secret too.

 

Source: ARSTechnica

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