Broadband communication on the highways of tomorrow

Consumer demands for broadband communications at highway speeds will not likely be met by next-generation proposals. Although solutions exist for incremental improvements in capacity and bandwidth, the wireless industry has not yet offered an economical method for providing the broadband channels demanded by mobile consumers on the highway. The article examines a proposed high-capacity infrastructure with moving base stations for providing broadband communication services that are not limited by a user's speed. Moving base stations provide moving communication cells to mobile users traveling along a roadway. This broadband solution provides communication services with data rates of 20 Mb/s or more at any vehicular speed at costs comparable to wireline. In addition to presenting a general technical description of the proposed infrastructure, the discussion includes an overview of wireless technology and obstacles encountered in designing a high-capacity system providing high-bandwidth channels to users traveling at highway speeds.