Facebook introduces terrestrial connectivity systems Terragraph and Project ARIES

Forget Free basics, Facebook is working with governments, internet service providers and technology companies around the world through its other project to bring high speed internet access to the world with the telecom infra project. Backhaul networks form the link between wired and wireless internet service providers and the national backbone. Facebook  announced Terragraph and Project Aries to boost the existing infrastructure and improve the back haul networks. Terragraph uses a series of antennas mounted on streetlights and exteriors of buildings to provide a high density network of nodes that blanket outdoor urban areas with high speed connectivity. Terragraph is based on the WiGig standard. The 60 GHz band called the V-Band is going to be used. This band is underused because of susceptibility of the signal to loss due to oxygen and water content in air, but in Facebook implementation, this is used as a strength to reduce interference. The internet is provided reliably to only to a distance of 200 to 250 meters. Terragraph is going to be introduced first in San Jose, California, reports Government Technology. Project ARIES stands for Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum. It is a cutting edge proof of concept of what 5G would be like. Designed to ease congestion, and to provide connectivity to rural areas close to cities, ARIES increases the available bandwidth. The setup uses a base station with a massive number of antennas, to extend coverage to rural areas near cities, or to overcome path loss in urban areas. At least when it comes to the approach, Facebook and TRAI are on the same page. A TRAI recommendation to DOT identifies backhaul networks as one of the bottlenecks when it comes to providing high speed internet access, and that the V-Band be opened up with light regulation to boost the capacity of the backhaul networks.