Off-the-Grid:

Off-the-Grid Test bed(s) in Mayaguez Puerto Rico and Amherst MA take shape.

CASA students have continued to develop the student-conceived, -designed, and -implemented Off-the-Grid testbeds in Mayaguez PR and Amherst MA. The OTG node is based on a Raymarine 24" radome radar, with a maximum range of 10 km and minimal reliance on existing infrastructure by incorporating wireless networking and solar power generation. The OTG nodes sit under the “umbrella” of larger radars providing ground truth data.

The Mayaguez testbed added a second umbrella node (donated by CASA industrial partner EWR) in Northwest Puerto Rico; a first set of data was collected during the summer of 2007. In Amherst, two FCC-licensed OTG nodes were installed in 2007 and are operational – one on UMass Amherst campus, and one on a firetower 10 Km north of campus.  A third node is being deployed, with all nodes communicating via wireless 802.11 links with directional antenna.