DARPA may have just solved everyone’s WiFi problems
Dan Seitz 
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), if you’re not familiar, is the government’s mad science division. No, seriously; all the crazy strange stuff, from invisibility cloaks to computer controlled cockroaches, that you hear about? DARPA. Oh, also, they invented modern computers and the Internet.
No, seriously. The first Internet was ARPANet, a networking of DARPA computers designed to prove it was possible to coordinate between government installations over long distances. They also invented the mouse, hyperlinks, windows on your screen, search engines, and presentation software. Yes, those PowerPoint presentations you sleep through are based on technology made by people currently building a freakin’ flying armored car. Seriously.
And they might have also just cracked ensuring your phone gets a signal no matter where it is.
Well, actually, they’ve cracked giving everybody in the military a high-speed network no matter where they are, but these technologies tend to filter down, big time.
DARPA is building a mobile hotspot for the military that guarantees 4G signals. Called “Fixed Wireless at a Distance”, it’s a mixture of air, fixed, and mobile nodes that basically pump out signal. Even better, each “node” deployed extends the range of the network, which is a fancy way of saying that these things don’t need existing towers to operate: just set it up and go.
How long before you’re cranking high speed downloads off your iPhone? Probably another five to ten years: it takes a while for DARPA tech to filter to the general public. But hey, the wait will be worth it. Now can we maybe get a chance to drive that flying armored car?
DARPA Planning High-Speed Network [Engadget]
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