Sorry if this is a dupe, but a friend sent me this and it's pretty interesting but so far beyond anything I could afford to do more than watch a video.



Wave Relay Network:
https://www.persistentsystems.com/mpu5-capabilities/

It's a particular implementation of "MANET", or Mobile Ad-hoc NETworking. A mesh network.

They're really focused on broadband applications for live video along with voice. Mostly using government bands and chasing government/mil users (hence the pricing), although they've tried to promote some television media use also and they have a frequency module for the media remote band.

I've mentioned before the idea that something that I think would be very useful is a similar kind of functionality in an open protocol on amateur radio frequency bands. I'd suggest having at least a couple of data speeds (bandwidths) in order to fit it in to some niches on 6m and 2m, possibly squeezing it in on 1.25m, as well as ~6MHz bandwidths to use ATV channels on 70cm & 1.2GHz, as well as 900 and 2.4.

With the relaxing of data regulation on HF, could even extend a low-bandwidth channel for a gateway to HF for SMS-like messaging.

You could basically replace packet, APRS, JS8call, most ATV repeaters, and most of the 2.4 high-speed stuff with a single interoperable network. With the potential to cut into DMR/P25/Fusion/D-star use also.

Various LoRa implementations perform similarly, albeit with shorter range and much lower data rates.

While I think someday we may have better mobile satellite Internet cell phones, it would still be good to have alternatives....

https://satellitemap.space/

I have my one lora device but looking at home antenna setups.

To add on, the MPU5 is mostly like a box containing an android based computer with focused use software and a radio module similar to a mesh enabled Wifi radio, but operating using a different wave form and extra capabilities for encryption, higher power, and some feature sets overall tailored to MIL and LE use primarily.  When you see the modern MIL guys running cell phones and tablets on their plate carriers, those devices are hooked up to it and acting as a remote terminal to access the android software running on the MPU5.  Programs like ATAK allow the sharing of map and location data, video streaming, drone control, VoIP type voice comms, and so on.

There are various similar mesh network type setups that can do similar, mainly the high bandwidth and mesh networking.  Silvis and Harris have similar focused products catering to the same markets as Persistant.  Some hams are playing with AREDN setups, as well as non-hams repurposing COTS wifi gear to just use on standard wifi channels and configured to operate as a mesh.  Meshtastic/LoRa devices are used and mentioned above as well in MANET purposes by some, but with much lower throughput capabilities.

I played around a bit making MANET purposed devices from re-flashed Ubiquiti Rocket access points housed in a 3D printed housing with battery pack.  It's a neat concept if you want to share a lot of data on a mobile network, but the range limits are severe unless you have a large network of devices to form the mesh.  With clear line of sight, about 800 meters is the max point-to-point without having to break out beam antennas and all that.  Of course the MIL focused ones running higher power and all that can do a bit better, but they're still not very long range devices without the mesh to pass along data longer distances.

My "MPU5 I made at home".

One of the agencies I work with has a fleet of them for their SWAT guys.  
Stream video from the doorkicker's helmet camera to the tail guy in the stack, from there to the trailer.

They have their place, but I don't get the circlejerking around them.  

For regular voice, they still use their XL200/APX/NX/Viking P25 radios.

More antennas equals more capability? Brings me back to the very old Icom IC2-SRA and the IC4-SRA handheld with two antenna ports. One antenna was for a 2 meter or 440 unit while the other was for a wide band scanner.

They didn't sell well and were discontinued pretty quickly. The last ones I saw were used as movie props on the STARGATE movie.

The MPU-5 is pretty cool but 35K$ per? Low volume production? That money buys 4 APXs or a whole lot of major SHTF gear.

Your home build is cool. If only there was a PRC-152 or PRC-148 case that fits the Anytone 878 guts.

MIMO

Snowmule says the law-tac front guy wears a camera and the rear guy is head down with headset on. I'm no ex-mil guy or door kicker, but when I'm out and about, I want my eyes up and ears keen. In the real world, i know you can get fried from every direction including overhead. That's what this stuff is about and video gamers are best at it.

The guy in the back is wearing the radio that is relaying the wireless camera in the team, to the giant police RV with the fat commanders who need their generators to run Keurig coffee makers and watch a TV with the feed.

This write-up from a test NYPD ESU did several years ago is interesting if you're interested in this type of MANET application.  You can see how they planned to utilize it; streaming live high resolution video to the command center and team member from a bomb handling robot, and of course blue force tracking and voice comms.  It shows some of the shortcomings they experienced, particularly range limitations in the dense city environment and so on.

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OIC_MANET-NYPD-ESU-AAR_170921-508_0.pdf

dude

You are missing out on an entirely new (old) way to talk. This uses the same concept as a synthetic aperture RADAR or electrically steerable array.

For ever, we fought against multipath. This thing embraces it.

essentially, it is sending out the same intelligence via multiple parallel transmitters and antennas, just with a delay determined by the radios talking to each other and elfin magic.

This is old tech.

Remember a long time ago on a dusty part of the planet where it was rumored people were kicking in doors and being monitored in DC in, for all practical purposes, real time video and telematics? This is that, out where we can see it now.

The part about the front and back guy going in the house, each of these radios can either talk back to the base, or they can hop onto another radio, then use their vantage point to get back to the base. So, if you have an obstruction, you position one person/radio where they can see you and the base at the same time, and everyone just pipes through them.

Took me a little while to understand it, but been fascinated ever since.

@D_Man

Do you have any details on that enclosure and the battery/cables within? I have several Rockets running AREDN firmware and am decently happy with the performance, I just couldn't get the overall form factor and physical reliability (particularly with cable connections) to a reasonable level. It always ended up feeling like a spaghetti disaster, albeit with good throughput. When I did a field demo with Panasonic Toughpads connected via Ethernet, the whole thing felt like a 2004 Land Warrior prototype and was nearly the biggest PITA imaginable to actually use.

I'm running OpenWRT firmware with 802.11s mesh, so not sure if it's the same in AREDN, but most of the time I have no cabling in use. The attached battery does power and I use wifi to connect my phone, tablet, or PC to the rocket, it has both the wireless mesh and a wireless access point enabled on it simultaneously.

If I want to ethernet hard-wire to it, I designed the side connector to use a pogo-contact type connector. Inside the box, there is a short run of ethernet cable that's plugged into the Rocket, and from there the orange and green pairs of wires go out to pads on the side connector to provide wired data, and the blue and brown pairs handle POE power so they go through a power switch and then down to the battery terminals. The power leads also are tied into a pair of pads on the side connector, just in case I'd want to pull power out to something else for some reason. The connector only uses 6 pads, but I added more to sort of future proof it and use the PCBs in other projects.

Side connector and data-only ethernet cable:


Battery connection:

You designed all that?

That's fucking AMAZING!

Yeah that's really cool.

There's a reason I don't have a 3d printer... I'd never get anything else done

Thanks, yea it was an interesting project on the case, the work on setting up the access points as mesh radios was done by others though.

As Gamma said, having a 3D printer eventually leads to finding new projects and time wasters.  

Lock this thread before I am further tempted into diving down the 3D Printer rabbit hole.

I have said repeatedly, if the internet like now was available when I was little, I would be 450 pounds and never leave the house. I think the printer is the same thing.

God has kept me from having a garage / workspace for a real reason lol

And, even if someone else did the legwork on the firmware, you still figured out how to make it run for you. That's not nothing. AREDN has some stuff I have thought about playing with, but again, no room to do projects. Or karate. (shrugs)

I just imagine all the stuff I could have done with one back when I was 10 and building model rockets and RC cars.

Now I have a job and a family and no time to fiddle with it anymore.