How Facebook Intends To Use Robotics To Connect 1 Billion People To The Internet
How Facebook intends to use robotics to connect 1 billion people to the internet
As part of its commitment to providing the next billion people with access to fast and affordable internet service, Facebook has announced several innovative connectivity technologies that will allow the company to enhance existing infrastructure projects while also enabling it to provide access to the next billion people.
According to the company, Facebook Connectivity has assisted in the provision of high-quality internet connectivity to more than 500 million people since 2013. Now, through the use of emerging technologies, the company hopes to provide affordable, high-quality connectivity to an additional one billion people at a lower cost and at a faster rate than previously possible.
"We have seen economies thrive when individuals and businesses have widespread access to the internet," said Dan Rabinovitsj, vice president of Facebook Connectivity, during the unveiling of the new connectivity technologies.
The most recent advancements in several of these connectivity technologies, which aim to significantly increase internet capacity globally via sea, land, and air, are being shared with attendees today, he continued.
Bombyx, a robot, is one of the new tools that have been revealed. Fiber-optic cables can be installed over medium tension power cables in a fraction of the time it takes to install fiber cables underground.
As an additional option, there is the Terragraph, a wireless technology that enables fiber-like wireless networking in areas that are difficult to reach with overhead or underground cables, among other things.
Second and third segments are new subsea cable segments known as 2Africa Pearls, which are the world's longest submarine cable systems and have the potential to connect Africa, Europe, and Asia through high-speed broadband connectivity.
Terragraph
Facebook has developed a wireless solution that transmits fiber-like connectivity over the air, similar to what is currently available. More than 6,500 homes in Anchorage, Alaska, have already been connected to high-speed internet thanks to the efforts of the team behind this new tool. A second location, Perth, Australia, one of the world's most isolated capital cities, will see the installation of the system.
A distributed network for high-speed, reliable connectivity in homes and businesses is created by placing transmitters on street fixtures and rooftops, which are then connected to a central hub. Unlike trenched fibre, it is more cost effective due to the fact that it leverages existing points of presence and wirelessly extends capacity through nodes mounted on existing street fixtures such as lamp posts and traffic lights.
When a signal encounters an obstruction such as a building scaffold, Terragraph, according to the Facebook team, can be used to form a resilient mesh that can be used to reroute the signal.
At least for the time being, Facebook is making Terragraph available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at no cost to them. Terragraph's partners have already shipped more than 30,000 Terragraph units to more than 100 service providers and system integrators around the world, according to the company.
Bombyx
A robot named Bombyx, developed by Facebook, travels along power lines and wraps them in fiber cable as it goes. Providers will be able to roll out fiber-optic internet in communities at a fraction of the cost and in half the time currently required, according to the authors.
In the majority of target communities and cities, Bombyx can climb existing medium voltage power lines and wrap them in fiber cables in order to install fiber optic cable.
It is estimated that Bombyx will achieve the single largest reduction in the cost of terrestrial fiber deployment by combining robotics and fiber-optic cable design innovations to increase the amount of terrestrial fiber deployed on land without trenching.
According to Karthik Yogeeswaran, a member of Facebook's engineering team, the team is excited about Bombyx's ability to assist them in entering virtually any territory:
Bombyx was inspired by helical fiber-optic wrapping techniques developed in the 1980s. These methods, on the other hand, resulted in the loss of power to customers in the installation areas as a result. As a result, Facebook made improvements to the technology to make the process more efficient.
Bombyx has been redesigned to be lighter, faster, and more agile than its predecessor, which has delighted the Bombyx team. The designer also made certain that Bombyx was capable of transitioning from semi-autonomous to fully autonomous mode of operation.
The need for human intervention and the associated costs are reduced as a result of this technology. In addition, it will make use of machine vision sensors to assist it in navigating around obstacles and avoiding collision.
As a result of the work done on Bombyx since the project began, Yogeeswaran noted that the robot's weight has decreased by 4.5 kilograms, the time required for Bombyx to cross a power line has been reduced from 17 minutes to less than four minutes, and the stabilization mechanism that ensures the robot remains upright while crossing the power line has been improved.
In addition, Facebook used Kevlar braiding to strengthen the cable's structure (while remaining small and flexible). This was followed by a reduction in the internal fiber count from 96 to 24, which helped to alleviate the issue of size and weight. Thanks to newer technologies, a single fiber can now serve up to 1,000 homes on a single strand.
2Africa Pearls
This new investment, which comes on the heels of Facebook's recent announcement about 2Africa Pearls, provides 200 times the capacity of transatlantic cables built in the 2000s. It builds on the recent subsea expansions of Facebook and its partners, including 2Africa, to further expand their reach.
The Facebook team is utilizing sea power stations to provide power to the repeaters from the depths of the ocean in order to increase its capacity. Several wave energy converters and solar panels are used to power the stations in various configurations.
2Africa is expected to be the largest submarine cable project in the world when completed. In each country where it lands, it will bring faster, more reliable internet access to the people who live there, with the potential to connect up to 3 billion people. It is anticipated that the subsea cable will be approximately 150,000 kilometers in length.
Collaboration with a consortium led by China Mobile International and including Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect (formerly known as STC), Telecom Egypt (formerly known as Vodafone), and WIOCC is taking place in order to develop the platform.
Because of the cable's scheduled launch in May 2020, according to the Facebook connectivity team, the 2Africa consortium has made significant progress in planning and preparing for the cable's deployment since its formation in 2015. It is expected to be fully operational by the end of next year.
Verdict
Facebook believes that this is just the first of many steps that will be taken in order to achieve its goal of providing everyone with a reliable and affordable internet connection.
According to the organization: "Even though we're excited to have reached the milestone of providing reliable high-speed internet to more than 300 million people, we know that our work is far from finished. As a result, a variety of different strategies will be required to connect the next billion people. And, as people seek more immersive experiences in new virtual worlds such as the metaverse, we must ensure that everyone has access to more reliable and affordable internet access in general."
