Scientists say the network is unusual both because of the technology it uses and for the different research activities in astronomy, geophysics, and ecology that it makes possible. The experimental system could help solve one of networking's biggest challenges. But the Internet's builders have done less well, he says, at finding ways to provide high-speed Internet access everywhere. Ubiquity was one of the things we didn't do a good job at providing. Electricity is not available in some of remote places where the wireless network provides high-speed Internet access.
Solar panels collect the energy needed to recharge the radios' batteries.
Without batteries, Mr. Braun says, the network would cease to work at night and during snowstorms. One potential problem with using solar arrays worries him, though. All of the network's parts are readily available, including the wireless radios, which operate on a free, unlicensed frequency. The Mount Laguna Observatory, operated by the San Diego State astronomy department and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is located in the rugged, eastern part of the county, near the La Jolla, Pala, and Rincon Indian reservations. Previously, the only link between university computers and the observatory was a single phone line, which was so slow as to be practically unusable for transferring large astronomical images.