The slow propagation of the NBN and the constant demand for high bandwidth services such as Netflix, Stan etc. has created a niche for high bandwidth point to point links and wireless DSL providers. Here are some of their taglines:
“The future’s not faster cables, it’s NO cables” – NuSkope
“Wireless broadband delivers gigabit speeds to residents and businesses now” – Uniti Wireless
“Satisfy your need for speed without the NBN!” – Lightning Broadband
Planning for the point to point links requires detailed knowledge of the line-of-sight since propagation at these frequencies (2.4GHz, 5.8GHz and 24GHz) can be very sensitive to clutter and multi-path interference. Aerometrex provides detailed (50 cm cell spacing) Digital Surface Models to numerous players in the Wireless Broadband segment. One such project was with Uniti Wireless, helping them build a web tool for their customers to analyse the feasibility of receiving a connection as well as an internal tool for planning deployment of new towers.
Adelaide, Melbourne and Mt. Barker datasets (7,280 sq. km., 122 GB binary data) were ingested into a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database, indexed and stored procedures built to extract full-resolution transects 10 km long in less than 1 second. Performing line-of-sight operations requires reprojection to ENU (East-North-Up) projection relative to the location of the tower. Algorithms were built to re-project from MGA Zones to ENU per analysis and calculate LoS and Fresnel zones. The availability of the accurate DSM and associated rapid/scalable analysis tools has enabled the wireless service providers to expand rapidly and cover most customers with the most efficient placement of towers.