Facebook plans to launch two new terrestrial systems, Terragraph and Project ARIES (Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum), to improve speed, efficiency and quality of Internet connectivity around the world.
At a recent annual gathering of Facebook’s developer community,the F8, Facebook explain that the new technology solutions are were necessitated by the slow internet speed prevalent especially in developing economies where mobile networks are often unable to achieve data rates better than 2G.
Facebook explained that the Terragraph is a 60 GHz, multi-node wireless system focused on bringing high-speed internet connectivity to dense urban areas.
Utilizing commercial off-the-shelf components and leveraging the cloud for intensive data processing, Facebook says the Terragraph system is optimized for high-volume, low-cost production.
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The social networking company say that the Terragraph, which is designed to provide street level coverage, implements a phase array antenna to retain the highly directional signal required for 60 GHz, but makes it steerable to communicate over a wide area, adding that Terragraph is able to route and steer around interference typically found in dense urban environments, such as tall buildings or internet congestion due to high user traffic.
Regarding the Project ARIES, Facebook explains that it is a base station with 96 antennas and can support 24 streams simultaneously over the same radio spectrum.
According to Facebook, when completed, the ARIES will be demonstrated at 100+ bps/Hz of spectral efficiency.
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