[1st-mile-nm] Agave Broadband News

Thu Dec 8 13:25:39 PST 2011

The below message was posted to this site yesterday as a reaction to a news article posted by the listadmin. It was forwarded to me. I joined your site so that I could add a little rational thought to the below message. 

Firstly, an introduction is appropriate, my name is Kirk Kirkpatrick and I am the CEO of MDS America. We designed and built the MVDDS system denigrated below. I have been the CEO of MDS America since 2000 when the company was formed. I was the first Manager of Information Systems for the Public Data Network in Kuwait. I was hired to bring Kuwait countrywide Internet access. Kuwait was the first Arab country with pervasive Internet. Before that I was in charge of IT for Remote bureaus of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and responsible for making some of the first international data connections to and from countries in the old Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.  We consulted to the WWW board in CERN prior to the web’s public release. 

MDS America and its associated companies have been building MVDDS systems since their inception. We have build the largest such system in the world, in the U.A.E., with a total capacity of 700 digital television channels of which over 385 are presently lit.  There are more than 15 active transmission sites and MDS America holds a current purchase order from that company for 14 more transmission sites. This system has been running, uninterrupted, since 2004.  

I will insert my corrections and comments (marked >>>>>>>Comment<<<<<) in the original rant below. I do not know Mr. Brown but I certainly am not impressed with his technical understanding. From reading this response to a news article one is led to believe he is the one for whom the adage was coined, “Google does not an expert make.” 

-----Original Message-----
From: 1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org
[mailto:1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org] On Behalf Of John Brown
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2011 9:36 AM
To: 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
Subject: Re: [1st-mile-nm] Agave Broadband News

I'm not sure I would call this "NEW BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY",  20 some years
ago this technology was first developed.

This technology uses the DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) frequencies but
at a terrestrial level.

The used spectrum (US / FCC) is 12.2 - 12.7 Ghz range.

The technology is UNI-DIRECTIONAL, other words its a SEND TO SUBSCRIBER
ONLY technology.  

The Internet is a BI-DIRECTIONAL technology, needing traffic in BOTH
directions.

>>>>>>>Up to this point the writer was accurate if a bit misleading. We have been building these systems for almost twenty years so it is not a new technology, nor is the Internet, or cellular telephony etc, etc. <<<<<<<<<<

The primary use is to deploy multi-channel VIDEO via wireless and thus
circumvent existing "Cable TV" franchise rules that municipalities
presently have and are required by FCC.

>>>>>>>To my knowledge, MDS America and associated companies are the only companies in the world to deploy MVDDS systems for terrestrial television distribution. There are no such facilities in the US nor have there ever been. Does the writer believe the system we built in the South Coast of Ireland, for television distribution, “circumvent(s)” the “FCC?”  Nonsense. 

**************Challenge to Mr. Brown. If the "primary use" is to "circumvent existing "Cable TV" franchise rules," PLEASE NAME ONE SYSTEM THAT IS USING MVDDS TO DO SO.**************** 

Just one system should be easy if this is the "primary use."  <<<<<<<<<<

The technology was initially developed in the mid 1980's and was known
then as HyperCable.

>>>>>>>We called the technology HyperCable in the early 90s and sold it from our French subsidiary, MDS International. My engineer, Fabrice Ducasse is the one who coined the term HyperCable and also the terms (obsolete as well) HyperGate Internet distribution system and HyperBoost. <<<<<<<<<<

In 2002 The FCC decided to hold a spectrum auction (Auction 53 and 63) for
the land based use of the spectrum.

>>>>>>>This is also true. Let’s flesh it out. The FCC decided to auction this on the basis of the 98-206 proceeding. This public proceeding was dominated by three parties, the DBS satellite industry, Northpoint Technologies Inc, (who claimed to have patented these systems but never built one), and MDS America. MDS America wanted the FCC to put this spectrum up for auction in the US. It was already being used by our systems in over 15 countries. <<<<<<<<<<

The Albuquerque-Santa Fe market (Market ID  MVD049) was granted on
7/26/2004.  

It EXPIRES on 7/26/2014, there is potential for renewal, if there is
substantial service.

The licensee has a requirement to provide substantial service within five
years of the initial authorization grant.

The initial authorization grant was on 7/26/2004.  Add five years and you
get 7/26/2009.   

>>>>>>>This is also true. But a bit misleading. This is a standard spectral license from the FCC bought at auction. Virtually all FCC licenses are written this way and come with something called “renewal expectancy.” This means that if the license holders make an honest effort to use the licenses, they will be renewed. The 80 DMA license we hold, of which Albuquerque is only one, have already been renewed once. <<<<<<<<<<

Permissible Operations:
MVDDS licensees may use this spectrum for any digital fixed
non-broadcast service (broadcast services are intended for reception of
the general public and not on a subscribership basis) including ONE-WAY
direct-to-home/office wireless service. Licensees are permitted to
provide ONE-WAY video programming and data services on a non-common
carrier and/or on a common carrier basis. Mobile and aeronautical
services are not authorized. Two-way services may be provided by using
other spectrum or media for the return or upstream path.

So the licensee can use the service for ONE-WAY service and MUST NOT
provide common carrier services.
This could impact "VoIP / Voice" service offerings.

To deploy this technology Agavue will need to deploy a DIFFERENT
technology to get the packets from the subscriber BACK TO THE INTERNET.
This can cause significant problems in actually achieving the bandwidth
claimed.

>>>>>>>This is inaccurate and simply shows that the author does not understand the issues involved. The MVDDS spectrum is used for the downstream. Our CPE are capable of using any path as an upstream. The CPE have a 3G card built in with a slot for a sim. This is very much a two-way system. It is simply using another spectrum for packets going back to Internet. In this case, Agave Broadband will provide an upstream link in another spectrum. 

“This can cause significant problems in actually achieving the bandwidth claimed.” Could the author be a bit more vague? This is known as FUD. I have had a real world screen shot from one of our installed CPE in Albuquerque placed on the MDSA website. You can see it here at http://www.mdsamerica.com/index.cfm/technology/mdsa-mvdds-gigaband/. If the listserv does not allow the placement of URLs in messages, please go to the MDSAmerica web site and click on “Technology” and then “MDSA MVDDS Gigaband” to see if we can “achieve the bandwidth claimed.” <<<<<<<<<<

Further,MDS Operations SHALL NOT partition or lease any portion of its
license within the prior approval area, including Bernalillo County,
Sandoval County. There do not appear to be any FCC approval records filed.

>>>>>>>>MDS America is operating this system and has not leased out the spectrum. <<<<<<<<<<

A few technical issues:

1. The licensee is permitted a SINGLE TRANSMITTER located at Sandia Park
 35° 13' 01" North Lat. - 106° 27' 08" West Long

   Since MDS Operations can only have a SINGLE TRANSMITTER then is is a
SHARED bandwidth system.  The more customers they put
   on the system the less bandwidth will be available for each user.

>>>>>>>>Actually we are allowed a single transmission site at this power level. As well can build out this site to its full capacity. The license is for the entire Designated Market Area which is 80% of the state of New Mexico. MDSA is fully empowered to build as many transmission sites as it needs to serve its customers. 

In addition, yes it is shared bandwidth like a Cable Internet service, Like DSL, like the Internet backbone, like ethernet, it is a shared bandwidth. That means it is even better that MDS is able to instantiate more bandwidth as we need it.  <<<<<<<<<<

2. The total amount of bandwidth will also be limited by the amount of
bandwidth they can reliably get to the top of Sandia
  Peak.
  I do not believe there is FIBER at Sandia Peak.  So they will have to
use additional wireless technologies to get up to the
  peak.   *** For 100 customers to get the 50Mb/s they will need to have
5000 Mb/s of uplink to Sandia (That¹s 5 Gigbits per
  second) ***  Unless they oversubscribe the system.

>>>>>>>>This part is true. This transmission site will be limited somewhat by available bandwidth to the site. MDSA does not anticipate being able to supply more than 2Gbps to the top of the mountain. The system will be oversubscribed as well. 

These are problems of growth and I hope for our sakes we have these problems. There are many ways to solve these like lowering the Sandia power levels and building new transmitter sites in different vectors in the valley. <<<<<<<<<<

3. There is no "redundancy" in the system.  If the single FCC authorized
transmitter breaks, then all subscribers are DOWN.

>>>>>>>>This part is of course nonsense. The subscribers were already on a bi-directional link from Agave. Then the higher speed downlink of MVDDS was ‘overlaid” on the system and the routing tables of the CPE were configured to use the higher speed MVDDS downlink. If the redundant SSPBs go down and the SINGLE TRANSMITTER goes DOWN then the CPE reconfigures and the subscribers are still UP.  Unlike if a FIBER customer lose a fiber adapter.<<<<<<<<<<

4. Bandwidth will be limited by the latency and reliability of the
back-channel technology deployed.  Same problem that
  Satellite based systems have.  The latency won't be quite as bad, but
that really depends on the back-channel medium they
  use.

>>>>>>>>This part is where I started wondering why anyone would take this person seriously on a technical level. Satellite signals traverse from, at least, the Clarke belt, meaning minimally 35,786+ km of free space. Given the speed of Radio Frequency propagation there is almost 25 ms latency inherent in the round trip to/from the Clarke belt [geostationary satellite orbital arc]. ( [distance to Clarke Belt / c ] is (2)3,600,000 m /(299,792,458 mps) ). Our furthest customer at 22dBm will be in the range of 30km from the transmitter so our signal will add, not 25ms, but in the worst case, .1 ms of latency. YES that’s ZERO POINT ONE compared to 25 milliseconds. Like comparing a one second wait to a 4 minute wait. I am guessing Mr. Brown has not done any RF systems design. <<<<<<<<<<

5. I suspect there will be NAT and other network address / routing issues
that will cause certain Internet based applications to
  break or not work very well.

>>>>>>>>Why does Mr. Brown “suspect” this? I think it is established that Mr. Brown doesn’t “do tech” very well. Please let the list know what there is inherent in the TCP/IP stack we use or the way we do our “routing” that makes one “suspect” this? Here’s what I suspect, Mr. Brown personally doesn’t really understand “routing” at all and because of that assumes his readership does not either. 

The routing for this system is straight forward and being as MVDDS operates at a different layer of the OSI model (Layer 1 and 2), routing (layer 3) is pretty much blind to the lower levels of the network hierarchy.   Our "routing" is done the way everyone else's routing is done. Should we discuss some IP tunneling, Mr. Brown. <<<<<<<<<<

6. Assume they also deploy video on this technology (Video is/was the
major driver of this technology), then the aggregate
  bandwidth available for "Internet" will be significantly less.  A
single HD video stream requires around 6 to 8 Mb/s, raw.
  That does NOT include the overhead of IP.  So a 100 channel video
service all in HD would need around 600 to 800 Mb/s of
  Bandwidth, in addition to the bandwidth consumed by Internet
applications.

>>>>>>>>Sounds like a pretty good argument for the provision of television for our system since we can put down considerably more 800 Mbps. Of course the writer forgets that there are already 2 operators operating in this spectrum (DirecTV and Dish Network). Both operate on exactly the same frequency as MVDDS, yet a consumer can receive both DirecTV and Dish Network signals at one location. This is because the Ku band is highly directional. This means that one consumer could receive our signal from two different towers (different vectors) as long as we could show (and have done it before) that we would not raise the Ku band noise floor.   <<<<<<<<<<

We must remember that the Internet is changing from a mostly consumer
service and morphing into a "prosumer(tm)" based medium.  End users are
producing more and put more UP on the net.  This requires more symmetrical
based transport mediums.

>>>>>>>>Well, there are many things we need to remember, another one is that the Internet is becoming more and more mobile. This requires WIRELESS technologies. Fiber is not one of them. Des this imply that Fiber has no place in our market? The above is simple tabloidization of a complex argument. Another reason this rant was a knee-jerk reaction to competition. <<<<<<<<<<

MVDDS is a viable way to introduce high speed internet to large areas without massive public works. The "evaluation" done by Mr. Brown is a marketing document posted to what I hope is a list with a bit more of a technical bent. 

With warmest regards to the list,
Kirk Kirkpatrick
--
Sapere Aude!

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The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, 
the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine 
religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and 
the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving 
after rational knowledge.
 - Albert Einstein
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Kirk Kirkpatrick
President and Chief Executive Officer

MDS America 
"Bringing Wireless Broadband Back Down to Earth"

800 Lincoln Ave.
Stuart, Fl 34994
USA

Tel +1 877 677 MDSA (toll free)
Mob +1 561 809 MDSA
Fax +1 419 828-2903

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