Current Networking Trends and Poor Network Connectivity in the Orkney Islands - Case Study Example

CURRENT NETWORKING TRENDS: ORKNEY ISLANDS by (Name) The Name of the Class (Course) Professor (Tutor) The Name of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date CURRENT NETWORKING TRENDS: ORKNEY ISLANDS Executive Summary Information Technology advances from time to time. Almost every single day a new technology is discovered somewhere. Networking has been one of the areas in IT where innovation has seen a high growth in more advanced technologies. Resulting into high speed, more reliable and highly available Internet. Also, the technological advancement in networking has also seen realization of technologies that overcome the physical hindrances to the infrastructural developments. This report aims at covering a number of new trends in networking, and then recommending a solution to the networking problem at Orkney islands. This is a group of islands which are separated by sea. However, there is need to realize a reliable Internet connectivity across the islands given the economic growth which is taking place at a rapid rate. There is need to connect this group of islands to the rest of the world through proper network coverage. The report therefore covers a brief description of the current situation at the islands, the level of IT in these islands, current trends in networking relevant to the challenges faced in Orkney, specifically North Ronaldsay. And finally, a possible solution to the poor network connectivity in the region. Introduction The North Ronaldsay has been under poor Internet coverage despite the upcoming business opportunities and economic activities in the region. This report therefore focuses on getting a high speed and reliable Internet connection to North Ronaldsay. The Economy of Orkney Global business calls for good communication and transport networks. Despite having grown in the production sector, Orkney as whole, have not fully gone global as a result of poor networking with the rest of the world. The Internet connectivity in the North Ronaldsay is not sufficient and reliable for the many business activities currently taking place in the area. In the modern world, global links and network building is manly contributed by Information Technology. A proper Internet connectivity is therefore vital for every region that has to be economically growing. Internet Access in Orkney. Currently, over 6000 houses in Orkney have Internet access with relatively good broadband speeds. Digital Scotland scheme owns the responsibility for all that. The main aim is to increase the number of people connected. At least by next year, 75% of Orkney population should be connected to high speed Internet. This implies having both the isles connected with almost equally high speed connections (Mainland, South and North isles). 4G Internet is available in Mainland, this is expected to go all the way to the rest of the isles. These upgrades are expected to be reflected in all areas of Orkney. With the current technologies, this can be achieved in a more better and reliable way. The upgrade plan should therefore adopt the new technologies. The focused region here is the North Ronaldsay. Which still has poor Internet access. Trends in Networking The Loon's Technology This technology aims to avoid the use of expensive fiber cables to get Internet access to remote areas like the Orkney. The technology adopts the use of recycled materials hence cheap and less resource intensive (Levy, 2013). The diagram below shows a sample system of the Loon's technology The Envelope This is an inflatable part of a balloon, it is made from polythene plastics and sheets with thickness of about 0.076 mm. That forms the balloon envelope and when helium is filled in the balloon, on a full inflation, it becomes 15 meters wide and 12 meters in height. These balloons are long lasting than the common air balloons and have a 55 days maximum life. Dropping the balloon, that is, having it out of service is done by removing the helium gas inside. The deflation is done by a kind of a custom pump system. It is through this pump that air is pumped into the balloon. This is done periodically to control the descending. The balloon also has a parachute at the top, which is fixed at the top of the envelope to control the dropping in case it drops quickly during its picking out of network (Kelion, 2015). Solar Panels The electronics part of the system is powered by a series of solar panels which are situated between the balloon and the hardware. The panels generate 100W power in full sun. This power is sufficient to run the system during the day and also charge the battery to use during the night (Levy, 2013). Control Box This is a box with approximate weight of 10kg hanging below the balloon's envelope and the solar panels. It contains Wi-Fi circuits, Linux based computer, batteries, GPS devices and a number of sensors which records the altitude of the balloon, its speed and air temperature. And finally, it has the circuit boards which controls the unit (Levy, 2013). The Loon's Navigation The balloons navigate the wind in the stratosphere, and this is how they move. At the stratosphere, which is approximately 20Km from the earth surface, the winds move in a specific direction. The balloons are intended for movement is the specific winds direction. This speed of movement is controlled by interchanging deflation and inflation by the air pump. The actual balloon life is 100 days, however, it is replaced after every 55 days to avoid unexpected failures. The balloons are perfectly designed to overcome challenges like the extreme high or low air pressure and temperatures, the UV rays among others. These balloons can therefore form a large communication network within the stratosphere (Lardinois, 2014). Establishment of the Loon's Network These balloons form a network of hot spots as shown in the diagram below. This can provide Internet access up to a wide coverage of 1250 square kilometers. And the speed of the Internet can go up to 3G. For the communication between two balloons in the stratosphere and the stations on the earth surface, a specialized radio frequency technology is used. Currently, this technology has adopted the ISM bands (2.4GHz to 5.8GHz) (Kelion, 2015). A balloon unit has 3 sets of transceivers which serves different purposes. The first transceiver is responsible for the balloon to balloon communication. The second transceiver is for balloon to ground communication. The last transceiver acts as a backup utility. A reflector plate is placed between the antenna on top and the radio on the bottom, these are equipped together in the balloon's control box. It is this system of linking that creates the Internet connectivity. The head has two parts which are together referred to as patch antenna. They receive and direct the signals received from the plates. When these signals are coupled together, they form the transmitted signals. The connection is obtained by user through an antenna installed on top of their buildings (Lardinois, 2014). Connection of People to the Internet After the setting up, over 40km coverage on the surface will have Internet coverage from the balloon. Initially, the connection was only received through the antenna via the radio signals. However, with the growing technology, now the connection can be received by use of LTE, persons can connect to this network from their mobile phones (Lardinois, 2014). Network connectivity using Drones Facebook has developed a large solar powered aircraft to assist in Internet connectivity. The aircraft is named Aquilla will be unmanned. The drone will be responsible for emitting internet signals back to the earth to places that are remote and lack Internet connections. Around 10% of the world’s population lives in these rural areas that have poor or no internet connection (Andre et al., 2014). The diagram below shows a drone. This drone has wings made of carbon fiber that when gets heated becomes stronger for the same mass of material. Besides, this material explains why the drone becomes light. The drone is also fitted with solar panels and an electric motor that would enable the drone to stay in the atmosphere for a period. Drone is tasked with providing the internet to people back in the earth within a radius of 50 kilometers (Hellwagner and Zhang, 2014). Facebook have installed cellular towers and dishes that will receive signals from the drone and will transform the signals to Wi-Fi of LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. Wi-Fi or LTE network is what people can use to connect to their cell phones and tablets. The diagram below shows Platforms at different altitudes. Higher altitudes generally means beams are more spread out on Earth, but giving more trunking opportunities far away from the sites of interest. From work done, inspecting various technologies for providing aerial solutions for network connectivity, it is evident that every platform has its own strengths and its own weaknesses. Solutions to some of the weaknesses have to be reached to ensure the platform is cost effective and viable. One main advantage of aerial network connectivity is that installation to homes is relatively simple. Satellite Internet Access This is a form of Internet access which is provided via the communication satellites. With the technological innovation, satellite Internet access, often referred to as modern consumer grade is basically provided to users through the geostationary satellites. This type of technology offers relatively high speed Internet to its users. The newer satellites make use of Ka band which enables achievement of very high data speeds. This speed may go up to 50Mbps. The diagram bellow shows a satellite dish (Chavez, 2010). Satellite network which is currently marketed as the center of new broadband is regarded as a new generation of the GEO satellite which are highly powered. These satellites are always situated several kilometers away from the equator. This satellite operated in Ka band, lying between 18.3GHz to 30GHz. These satellites are built and optimized for the purposes of broadband applications. They employ very many narrow spot beams. This implies that they target a small area comparatively to the older communication satellites. The spot beam is of great importance for this satellite Internet system since, it allows for the reuse of assigned bandwidth a number of times. This allows achievement of higher capacities than the conventional satellite with the broad beams (Massey, 2014). Other than the spot beam technology, another technology has been adopted by the satellites, bent-pipe architecture. This has traditionally been used in the network in which the satellite always works as a bridge in space. A bridge which connects two communicating points on the ground. 'Bent pipe' is term used to describe the nature of the data path between the receiving and the sending antennas. The satellite is always positioned at the point of the bend. In short, the role of the satellite in this network setup is the relaying of signals from the user's terminals to the gateways. The signal is then sent back without any other processing at the signals (Massey, 2014). Gateway Also called Gateway Earth Station which is the ground station (a hub or teleport). It is also used to define an antenna dish portion or even the entire system with the other associated components. The gateway always receives the radio wave on the last leg of the return or a kind of the upstream payload. It carries the request always originating from the end users point. The satellite modem always situated at the gateway location performs the demodulation of the incoming signals. The signals come from the outdoor antenna into Internet Protocol packets and then send the packets to the network. Access gateways/server managers plays the role of traffic management, transporting to and from the Internet (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). After the processing of the initial request by the servers, which are sent and returned from the Internet, the requested data/information is sent back as a downstream payload to the end-points (end-user) through the satellite. The satellite then redirects the signal to the terminal of the subscriber. Each one of the gateways provides a constant connection to the backbone by the Internet for the various gateway beams which it serves. The series or the gateway set up which constitutes the satellite ground system which gives all the required network services for the satellite and any other corresponding surface connectivity (Chavez, 2010). The Antenna Dish and Modem To access the Internet by the end-users, there is a set of requirements that each user must have installed. Some of the consumer provided equipments such as the PC and the router, in order to have Internet connectivity from the broadband satellite network, the user must have the following installations: 1. Outdoor Unit This is also called ODU. At the far end of this component is a small reflective dish radio antenna which is always 2-3 foot in diameter. The dish is made from and constructed from a number of materials. This specific VSAT antenna must have a clear view of the sky to prevent any kind of obstruction, thus allowing proper line of site to the main satellite. The three standard features employed during configuration of the satellite include elevation, polarization and azimuth. These features are generally set during the time of equipments installation. Transmitters and receivers are also mounted at the focus point of the antenna which is responsible for sending to or receiving data from the satellite (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). Below are the main parts of the ODU: Feed: This refers to the VSAT transmit and receive chain. It consists of several components which performs different functions. The roles include the feed horns at the front of the unit. It is funnel shaped and focuses the microwave signals from the satellite across the dish reflector surface. The feed horns both serves as signal receivers for the reflected signals off the surface of the dish. They then transmit back to the satellite the outbound signals (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). Block Up-converter: The unit sits behind the feed and at times may be considered part of the feed unit. BUC has a higher wattage and can also be a separate piece attached to the antenna base. It converts the signals coming from the modem to a higher frequency. Amplifying the signals they are reflected towards the satellite from the dish (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). Low-noise block down-converter: This acts as the receiving element of the terminal. Its work is amplification of the received satellite radio signals. These are the signals which are bouncing of the dish, it also does the filtering out of any kind of noise from the signals. Noise refers to any signals bearing invalid information. It then passes the signals free from noise to the satellite modem at the user's premises (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). 2. Indoor Unit (IDU) The modem always acts as the interface between the consumer-provided equipment and the outdoor unit. It controls satellite reception and transmission. It receives and converts the input bit stream from the sending device like a computer or router. Or modulates the bit-stream into radio waves leading to a reverse order of the incoming transmission. This unit provides two types of connectivity (Buchsbaum et al., 2015). Coaxial cable connectivity: This is connectivity to the satellite antenna, the cable carries electromagnetic satellite signals from the antenna and the modem. It is limited to 150feet in length. Ethernet Connectivity: This is the connectivity the computer which carries the end user data packets. It carries the packets from and to the Internet content servers. The overall set up for a satellite Internet is as shown below: Satellite Internet for Orkney This technology seems to offer the most reliable and affordable Internet connectivity option for Orkney Islands remote areas. This kind of connectivity will cost the council around $10 000 per satellite ISP. And cost the people of Orkney $800 to install the premise hardware, with a monthly renewal fee of about $50. This is a cheap and better option to go for by the council as it will ensure reliable Internet across Orkney and specifically North Ronaldsay. Each of the large islands can have their own satellite ISP to ensure speeds and reliability. However, the small islands which are closer to each other can share the same. Conclusion Orkney Islands have a greater disadvantage when it comes to infrastructure development, given the geographical location of the islands and the physical features. The group of islands has grown to be one of the most known for various economic activities in Scotland. These activities range from trade, mining, tourism and industrial developments. All these economic activities have contributed in making the island a global business region which participates in exportation of various products. Despite this kind of growth, Internet has been a challenge in the region given the poor landscape which is a hindrance to infrastructure establishment. However, from the discussed trends in networking, we realize that there exist ranges of ways in which Internet connectivity can be improved within the region. Through technologies like WiMax, SDN, 802.11ac, and IPv6, Internet availability, speed and reliability can be maintained in Orkney. References Andre, T., Hummel, K.A., Schoellig, A.P., Yanmaz, E., Asadpour, M., Bettstetter, C., Grippa, P., Hellwagner, H., Sand, S. and Zhang, S., 2014. 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