7.6: Case Study: Village of Hilton Beach
This case study will allow the effectiveness of the algorithms to be tested when the target area is a densely-populated community. Hilton Beach is a village on the northeastern shore of St. Joseph Island in the North Channel of Lake Huron. There are about 200 permanent residents in Hilton Beach, but the population doubles or triples when cottagers return in the summer. The village is about 2.5 square kilometres in size, giving it a population density of about 80 people per square kilometre. Thus, it clearly isn't a rural area.
The village has electricity from Great Lakes Power, telephone service from Bell Canada, and cable TV service from Persona Communications. BPL, DSL and Cable Internet service are not available in Hilton Beach; the only options are dial-up or satellite. There has always been demand for high-speed Internet service in Hilton Beach. The village was expecting to be hooked up to the backbone during the big COBRA-funded fibre rollout in 2001-2003, but it never happened. Instead, a single DirecWay satellite system was supplied to the local Community Access Program site. Today, the village is ready to independently start exploring available technologies with the hopes that something might be able to feasibly solve its connectedness problem. Both the pipeline and last-mile algorithms will be of assistance here to identify feasible technologies for Hilton Beach.
The closest fibre backbone runs along Highway 17 where it intersects Thompson Drive. There are no major physical barriers between this point and Hilton Beach, so the answer to the first question will be “yes”.
Hilton Beach is connected to the medium-voltage electrical grid. All of St. Joseph Island is served by a single electrical substation; it's about 11km from Hilton Beach. Since a fibre pipeline exists on the northwest side of St. Joseph Island, the answer to the second question will be “yes”.
Hilton Beach has a clear line of sight across water to the Bruce Mines Lighthouse, which is about 8km to the northeast. A fibre pipeline exists in Bruce Mines, which could possibly be extended to the Lighthouse. Several tall buildings exist in Hilton Beach where an access point cluster could be installed. Therefore, there is a clear, unobstructed view to some remote broadband-connected location within 50km, so the answer to the third question will be “yes”.
There is nothing in Hilton Beach obstructing the view of the southern sky for the entire community. Therefore, the answer to the fourth question will be “yes”.
The length of the path the fibre would take is approximately 7km. This is entered as the answer to the fifth question. The closest point on the electrical grid with access to a fibre pipeline is Richards Landing, about 20km away along Highway 548. Thus, the length of the path that a BPL pipeline would take is about 20km, so this is entered for the sixth question. The line-of-sight length to the Bruce Mines lighthouse is approximately 8km, so this is entered as the answer to the seventh question.
Finally, the results come in. Fibre is physically feasible, and the price range is $70,000 to $140,000. BPL is physically feasible, and the cost to deploy repeaters from Richards Landing to Hilton Beach would be at least $66,000. Since the line-of-sight distance is under 20km, a WiFi pipeline is physically feasible. This equipment starts at about $500. Since the line-of-sight distance is under 200km, a Canopy or WiMAX pipeline is physically feasible, with prices starting around $20,000. Since a clear view of the southern sky is possible, a satellite pipeline is physically feasible. Hilton Beach will probably need more bandwidth out of a pipeline than the maximum 54 Mbps that a WiFi connection can provide, so this option is eliminated. A BPL pipeline certainly is feasible, but the interference issue may prevent this kind of deployment. A BPL pipeline using Corridor Systems' innovative repeaters may be something to consider, however. A fibre pipeline is physically feasible, and with significant government funding, may be economically feasible as well. Using a Canopy or WiMAX pipeline appears to be both affordable and physically feasible for Hilton Beach.
A wireless pipeline could be established between Bruce Mines and Hilton Beach if a Canopy or WiMAX backhaul unit were installed at the Bruce Mines Lighthouse and, say, the Hilton Beach Marina building. The lighthouse would need to be connected to the backbone running along the highway, probably with fibre (for $30,000 to $60,000) because a line of sight between the lighthouse and the highway is unlikely. For an investment of about $20,000, a 300 Mbps wireless link could then be established to Hilton Beach. Based on the small population of the community, however, a pipeline of 100 Mbps would likely be sufficient, and this could lower the cost of the pipeline to about $10,000. Thus, for a total cost of between $40,000 and $70,000, a broadband Internet pipeline could be brought to Hilton Beach. Now we need to explore options for last-mile networks.
Clearly, Hilton Beach is a community and not a single building, so the answer to the first question is “community”. The entire village of Hilton Beach is connected to the telephone network, and a 5.5km distance from the CO easily covers the entire community, so the answer to the second question is “yes”. The entire village of Hilton Beach is connected to the cable television network, so the answer to the third question is “yes”. Hilton Beach is connected to a medium-voltage electrical grid, so the answer to the fourth question is “yes”. Hilton Beach does have a somewhat high population density, and telephone poles exist throughout the community, so the answer to the fifth question is “yes”. There are a number of tall sites throughout the village where antennas could be installed, including the community hall, the marina building, the Waterfront Centre, and other sites. All of these sites have a line-of-sight range covering the entire community and beyond. Therefore, the answer the sixth question is “yes”.
The next page presents the summarized list of technologies. DSL is physically feasible, and the cost to deploy it would be about $200,000. Cable is physically feasible, and the cost to deploy it would also be in the area of $200,000. BPL is also physically feasible, but its interference problems and experimental status make it an unattractive option. WiFi mesh is physically feasible. Conservatively estimating the range of a mesh node to be 250m, it would take about 13 nodes to cover the entire village. At $4,000 to $10,000 per node, this wireless mesh last-mile network would cost between $52,000 and $130,000 to deploy. Using Canopy or WiMAX as a last-mile network appears to be both physically feasible and affordable.
A number of buildings in Hilton Beach are tall and centrally-located. If we're using a Canopy or WiMAX pipeline, however, the choices are narrowed down to the Marina building or the Waterfront Centre, because those are the only two buildings with a clear line of sight to Bruce Mines. If a Canopy or WiMAX antenna cluster were installed on either of these buildings, a 3km non-line-of-sight range and 45km line-of-sight range would easily cover the entire village of Hilton Beach and surrounding area. In fact, this kind of deployment would also be within reach of The Cottage, solving its connectedness problem as well. The cost to deploy a Canopy or WiMAX access point cluster would likely be between $15,000 and $20,000, with the cost of the subscriber modules ($600 each) on top of that. Hence, this is an economically feasible option for Hilton Beach, and, with some funding assistance from the NOHFC, could easily be implemented by the municipality itself.
Bringing the results of these two algorithms together, it would appear that the best pipeline technology is a Canopy or WiMAX backhaul, and the best last-mile technology is also Canopy or WiMAX. The pipeline, needing a fibre pipeline itself to the Bruce Mines lighthouse, would cost $40,000 to $70,000, and the access point cluster comes in at $15,000 to $20,000. Thus the total deployment cost to connect Hilton Beach to the high speed Internet would likely fall between $55,000 and $90,000. That's $275 to $450 per resident, which is very economically feasible for this community.
© Jake Cormier, 2006 [jake (at) stormcloudstudios.com]
Completed as a partial requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Science (specialized)
Department of Computer Science :: Algoma University College :: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario :: Spring 2006