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Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

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Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#271

Post by mmaunder »

Narew wrote: post #268
mmaunder wrote: post #177

This doesn't work in fog. Space lasers are great. No fog. Everyone wants the 500 Terahertz frequencies to work because bandwidth. They have about 25,000 times the carrying capacity of say 20 Ghz. The lower Ghz stuff penetrates weather to varying degrees. Visible light not so much unless it's a vacuum which is perfect. They should move their nodes into space. Oh wait someone already did that.

It's not only fog. Depending on pupil size it can also be rain. But during my thesis 10y ago one of the big limitation on horizontal line of sight laser telecommunication was scintillation due to turbulence. And this phenomenon appear in clear weather condition with heat. So it was limited in clear and sunny weather. I don't know what up time did there expect ? But the bandwidth should fluctuate a lot.

Thanks

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#272

Post by stevetron »

This looks like the infrared laser system that I worked on at a startup from 1980-1992. That system would create a full-duplex link running at either E1 or T1 speeds, with a distance limit of about 1 mile. I remember there were about a dozen systme shipped worldwide. There was one in canada. Another was sold to Alameda County, Calif. Another made a 2-path jump between some high-rises in New York City. Still another was in Malasia, used by a bank. There was also one that was located to straddle the Texas-Mexico border for a Chtsler factory to allow communications between the two factories and it wasn't 'legal' to string a cable between the buildings wuith the border being between. That one was frequently getting sent back to me for 'repair', the biggest issue being vandalism of the attached rifle scopes on the Mexico side. Which then required new rifle scopes, and a re-calibration on our field in Golden, Colo. Our company was named Telecommunication Products Inc., which was bought out by a company that was deeply involved in leasing TV-service to hotels. That's when the laser really died.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#273

Post by stevetron »

stevetron wrote: post #272

This looks like the infrared laser system that I worked on at a startup from 1980-1992. That system would create a full-duplex link running at either E1 or T1 speeds, with a distance limit of about 1 mile. I remember there were about a dozen systme shipped worldwide. There was one in canada. Another was sold to Alameda County, Calif. Another made a 2-path jump between some high-rises in New York City. Still another w…

Some typos(sorry): "Canada", "Chrysler".

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#274

Post by mattlondon »

lelandbatey wrote: post #147
mattlondon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of their use-case they are crowing about on their site cover temporary things: back haul for major-but-temporary events, tethered-drone-mounted units for emergency disaster recover where a cell site is taken out etc. Those are the sorts of things where laying fibre 20km for use for just a day or two just isn't going to happen, but a temporary laser link that you can get up and running in a hour or two would be g…

What kind of data rates and distances are they talking about that isn't served by existing products? For example, you can buy a 20km range, 2Gbps wireless point to point link for a flat $3000 today : https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/wireless-airfiber-ptp/pr... What they mention in the article is up to 20Gbps, but they'd have to be pretty dang cheap to out compete just buying 10 of the existing options.

Competition is a good thing. Perhaps now those 3000USD devices will need to be less expensive to remain competitive?

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#275

Post by red-iron-pine »

dwighttk wrote: post #243
proaralyst wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine's drones are already partly automated because of the jamming environment: they can visually lock the drone onto a target from up to 10km away.[0][1] They're also using drones that trail a fibre optic over several kilometres to avoid jamming.[2] [0] https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/03/12/... [1] https://www.csis.org/analysis/ukraines-future-vision-and-cur... [2] https://www.forbes.com/site…

Dang what does a drone carriable several kilometer fiber spool look like?

basically like a cheapo SACLOS missle, i.e. the TOW missile, which have been using that (fiber) approach for decades now.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#276

Post by red-iron-pine »

falcor84 wrote: post #199
BurningFrog wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got seriously terrified by reading a PKD SF story at 15 about the few surviving humans hiding from war drones still hunting people long after the war had ended.

I haven't read that one, but it reminds me of Black Mirror's "Metalhead", which absolutely terrified me.

draws from the same well, intellectually. terrifying stuff, that BM episode is, too.

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#277

Post by red-iron-pine »

varispeed wrote: post #238
HPsquared wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICBMs would be more confident in their starting position and orientation. SLBMs would necessarily have more uncertainty in the initial conditions.

You can create nuclear load so powerful it won't matter where it hits.

"close only matters in horseshoes and nuclear strikes"

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#278

Post by red-iron-pine »

tryauuum wrote: post #114
umvi wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Line of sight free space optics can be immune to many many forms of jamming The most powerful weapons on earth already are immune to jamming. ICBMs use celestial navigation (pictures of the stars) to course-correct, which is a form of navigation you cannot jam.

that is so romantic. Rockets looking at the stars one last time before obliterating $cityname

i've been to $cityname many times. there are lot of available single women there near me in $cityname

Re: Alphabet spins out Taara – Internet over lasers

#279

Post by BurningFrog »

stevenwoo wrote: post #169
BurningFrog wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got seriously terrified by reading a PKD SF story at 15 about the few surviving humans hiding from war drones still hunting people long after the war had ended.

Second Variety, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety I've commented this before but it is closer to Terminator than the Harlan Ellison story IMO.

It's pretty wild that PKD imagined AI controlled combat drones in 1953, and 70 years we'll soon have them.
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