
Amazon wants govt permission to run mystery wireless tests in rural Washington - Fjolsvith
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-wants-government-permission-to-run-mystery-wireless-tests-in-rural-washington-2017-1
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ChuckMcM
Is it really a mystery when the uplink/downlink frequencies are all right in
the sweet spot for existing LTE radios?

I'd guess they are going to set up an LTE cell site with "off band" values use
LTE modems/radios/antennas on their drones to co-ordinate flight. Get it all
working and then go into Verizon and say "hey we'd like to piggyback on your
network for our drone services, this is how much traffic, spectrum, and
activity you can expect based on our test data ..."

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RileyKyeden
This is how smart meters work. How long before someone hijacks a drone's SIM
card?

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jai...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/stolen_sim_woman_jailed/)

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valarauca1
Drone to Drone mesh networking obviously. This is what packet switched
networks were literally invented for.

Obviously the infrastructure of building a drone delivery network would be
building all those towers.

You can avoid this by building a mesh network and attempting to ensure drones
are always within LOS of each other.

I guess they don't have the drones flying yet b/c there is no FAA permit
(unless they already acquired on).

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bastawhiz
I have no experience with this, but might the frequencies that they've
mentioned be telling of what they're going to be doing in these experiments?

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koheripbal
The frequencies are roughly the same as what is used for LTE cell phone
traffic. Which means they are probably looking for a frequency that has the
same atmospheric, foliage, and construction material absorption, and range.

Not sure it tells you much. They are obviously also limited to what portions
of the spectrum are available.

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JumpCrisscross
Do we know the max power levels involved?

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jwildeboer
Mesh nodes or landing guidance devices for drones is my estimated guess.

