Progress 07/01/13 to 02/28/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Recent developments in information and communication technology have created vastly improved economic opportunities for the residents of rural America. With high-speed internet (or broadband) and other modern technologies, the relevance of location has been reduced. Consequently, many individuals, families, and firms can establish their homes and businesses where they wish, even in rural areas, and still be connected to global markets. Several studies have suggested that internet access has positive impacts for incomes, employment, health care, education, shopping, information gathering, and in facilitating communication with friends and relatives. Many hope that modern information and communication technology can help overcome longstanding rural economic disadvantages relative to urban areas. In rural areas, average incomes have always been lower, poverty rates higher, and unemployment and underemployment have been more extensive. Of special significance, the gap between rural and urban incomes increases as education level increases. A major reason for rural disadvantage is that urban areas, by definition, have the advantage of being near markets and customers. These problems have been confounded by recent economic transformations resulting from extensive employment declines in agriculture and the natural resource industries, which have historically been the primary employers of rural workers. As a result of continual rural economic disadvantage, there has been a near-steady migration stream from rural to urban areas as individuals and families seek improved opportunities and many rural communities have been forced to cope with economic and demographic stagnation and decline. Unfortunately, however, there remain major obstacles preventing rural areas from receiving the full benefits of recent technological advances. Significantly, access to high-speed internet remains spotty in much of rural America and where service is available it tends to be slower with less capacity. Vast distances and a smaller population base means that providing broadband to rural areas is often not economically feasible for providers. Consequently, the presence of a rural-urban “digital divide” is well documented. While having the necessary infrastructure is obviously a prerequisite, rural residents also are more likely to have other characteristics that are related to lower rates of internet adoption such as lower incomes and lower levels of educational attainment. Effectively overcoming the “digital divide” requires a thorough understanding of adoption rates and the factors that lead to lower rates of adoption among some segments of the population. Technological breakthroughs, such as those being developed by Freedom Photonics, have the potential to bring substantial benefits to the residents of rural America. Providing high-speed internet with large capacity and at low cost can make it possible for many more rural homes and businesses to overcome the “digital divide.” Thus, the target audiences for this effort are the individuals, families and firms with homes and businesses in rural areas that currently do not have broadband internet access due to the present lack of cost-effective communications infrastructure for this application. In this SBIR Phase I program, the following efforts were performed to address the targeted audiences: 1. Our team partner, Don E. Albrecht, Western Rural Development Center, Utah State University, performed surveys including 100 randomly selected locations in three different rural communities (Firebaugh, California, Garfield County, Utah and Wayne County, Utah). The intent of the surveys was to explore circumstances in greater depth in communities likely to be the targets for Freedom Photonics optical communications technology. Survey results largely confirmed that persons least likely to have access to high-speed internet were those who were older, had lower levels of education and had lower incomes. These are individuals that would greatly benefit from having high-speed internet access at lower cost. 2. Don E. Albrecht from the Western Rural Development Center at Utah State University also wrote a report based on the previously mentioned surveys and on analysis of national data from the October supplement of the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS). Among the primary findings presented in the report was that metropolitan (urban) residents are much more likely than nonmetropolitan (rural) residents to have access to high-speed broadband. The primary reasons for not having broadband internet in rural communituies was the perception that they didn't want it or need it and that they couldn't afford it. The report concluded that new technologies such as those provided by Freedom Photonics have the potential to bring substantial benefits to rural residents by providing high-speed internet with high capacity and at low cost. 3. Freedom Photonics performed a successful field demonstration of an optical communications link prototypein Goleta, California. The optical link prototype demonstrated was of the type that is intended for deployment in the rural communities tageted by this technology. Changes/Problems: No major problems were found in this SBIR Phase I. Significant risks have been removed in this effort, opening up the path for program execution in Phase II. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has provided opportunities for professional development as follows: * At Freedom Photonics: Development of engineering personnel trained in the design, fabrication and deployment of Free-Space-Optical links. * At Utah State University: Development of personnel trained in rural population surveys and improved understanding of broadband penetration issues in rural communities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? * Rural communities participating in the surveys were informed of broadband availability benefits What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1 has been accomplished successfully. Objective 1 - Explore the primary obstacles to higher levels of rural internet adoption and make projections of internet adoption at various costs of provision. Our team partner, Don E. Albrecht at the Western Rural Development Center of Utah State University, performed surveys in three rural communities (Firebaugh, California, Garfield County, Utah and Wayne County, Utah) to explore the primary obstacles to higher levels of rural internet adoption. Don Albrecht wrote a report combining the survey results with the national data from the October supplement of the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS). The report indicates that the primary obstacles are a lack of appropriate infrastructure for cost-effective broadband distribution in rural areas, lower average incomes in rural areas and lower levels of educational attainment. Monthly cost of broadband provision for households in rural areas should be in the $20 - $50 range (depending on services provided) for significant penetration. Objective 2 has been accomplished successfully. Objective 2 - Based on the previous study, define broadband system requirements for rural communities in different geographical areas. Freedom Photonics has defined the broadband system specifications/requirements for rural communities in different geographical areas, depending on weather conditions and population density. We have analyzed the geographical and meteorological characteristics of various rural locations, as those vary significantly from one end of the country to the other. Free-space optical communications links’ performance is significantly impacted by adverse weather conditions (fog, rain and snow). From the systems design perspective, it is important to maintain the connectivity under all weather conditions. Based on our analysis of weather models and system characteristics, we have devised an architecture that will allow for Gigabit per second bandwidth availability for over 95% of the time, while still maintaining Megabit per second backup capabilityduring the few % of the time with extremely adverse weather conditions. Areas with larger amounts of rainfall will require shorter spans between repeaters and areas with low population density will require a larger number of repeaters between homes. The specifications/requirements have been defined in terms of optical carrier wavelength, transmission data rate, transmit power, link distance, path loss and receiver sensitivity for several weather conditions and population densities, as indicated above. Objective 3 has been accomplished successfully. Objective 3 - Reaserch and design Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication transceiver technology to meet the broadband requirements identified in objective 2. Optical Transmitter Design: A single-mode, 1550nm, high-power, eye-safe, c-mount laser transmitter has been selected and characterized in the laboratory. A peak power of 600mW was measured along with the shape of the far-field profile. A low-cost prototype drive circuit has been developed for the purpose of directly modulating the high power laser. The circuit consists of a pair of FETs in a half bridge configuration directly driving the laser. Enhancement mode GaN devices were chosen for their low on-state resistance, low gate charge, and high switching speed. This results in a dI/dt that is high enough to achieve the required data rate while dissipating low enough power to not require a large heatsink. The upper supply rail is a programmable voltage source whose set-point is determined by a DAC output from the microcontroller. In this prototype, a fixed voltage is set in an open-loop fashion such that the desired peak current is achieved. In an enhanced version of this circuit, the microcontroller can measure the drive current and set the rail voltage appropriately to compensate for an effective laser impedance change due to thermal effects or laser aging. In an effort to reduce future material costs for the laser module, Freedom Photonics is investigating a custom mechanical prototype design for aligning lenses. Utilizing a C-mount laser package, the mechanical prototype allows a single lens to be aligned and focused. Oversized holes in the lens mount give the lens 250um x-y planar alignment tolerance. Set screws lock the focusing axis in place so that the lens has full x-y-z rectangular alignment motion. Optical Receiver Design: A high speed Avalanche Photodiode (APD) sensitive to 1550 nm wavelength was selected for the receiver. This device, coupled to a low noise amplifier immediately following it, ensure the low noise performance and sensitivity required for mainatining performance over long distances and adverse weather conditions. Optical Train Design: A half inch diameter, commercially available, anti-reflection coated aspherical lens was selected for collimating the optical power from the c-mount laser. On the receiver, a one-inch diameter lens was used for increasing the aperture size of the detector. An optical bandpass filter was also used on the receiver to filter out ambient sun light. Objective 4 has been successfully accomplished Objective 4 - Build a prototype FSO communication link and demonstrate its performance. Freedom Photonics has successfully built and demonstrated a 1550nm FSO link indoor and outdoor long-distance demonstrator. The indoor optical link was used to test the limitations of a free-space optical link in the laboratory. Optical attenuation filters were used in the path of the beam to simulate atmospheric absorption while the bit-error rate was measured to determine the maximum link length. The system was able to communicate at 1Gbps error-free with up to 35dB of inline optical loss: with 1” lenses and a beam divergence of 0.1mrad, this attenuation level corresponds to a 7km link on a clear day. For demonstrating longer distance optical links, a high power diode laser generating 300 mW average output power and a high sensitivity receiver based on an InGaAs Avalanche Photodiode (APD) were utilized. The long-distance prototype demonstrates Freedom Photonics’ continued development of its FSO link capabilities. The transmitter and receiver were tested outdoors, in a Free-Space-Optical communications link configuration, carrying a 10 Mb/s signal over distances up to 1 kilometer. The outdoors demonstration was carried out in the community of Goleta, California. The prototype demonstration gives us great confidence that improvements planned for Phase II will allow the optical link to operate at 1 Gb/s for distances of up to 4 km.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Albrecht, Don E; "Addressing Rural Economic Disadvantage"; NARDeP Policy Brief 1; National Agriculture and Rural Development Policy Center.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Report on Broadband Access in Rural Communities, as part of this SBIR effort
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