A new patented wireless technology developed in Australia could potentially cut billions of dollars from the cost of the regional parts of the National Broadband Network.

CSIRO has told the Senate Select Committee into the National Broadband Network that its technology — now in prototype stage— could save $5 billion from the proposed network’s cost.

CSIRO’s Dr Alex Zelinksy says the technology could potentially offer speeds of 100Mbps and would require 30MHz of the analogue TV spectrum that is scheduled to be vacated in the next few years. Its backhaul component also provides for 10Gbps throughputs at distances of up to 50km.

Zelinsky has authored a submission to the committee that makes the claim that the technology is patented and now in prototype stage—while giving few detailed technical specifications.

“Over the last 6 months, CSIRO has successfully lodged patent applications for both backhaul and access technologies, and is now proceeding with prototyping of the access solution. Various prototypes for CSIRO’s backhaul technologies are already available. However, prototypes are not yet finalised for the most recent patent in this field. In parallel to the development program, CSIRO has been considering the path to market, and discussions are now underway with potential equipment manufacturers and system integrators” its submission says.

“As the prototyping program unfolds over the next year, CSIRO will participate in the definition of international industry standards based upon CSIRO’s approach, as well as collaborating with regional operators and industry suppliers for the proof-of- concept deployments.”

Zelinsky believes that the technology could also potentially generate billions of dollars of exports for Australia.

The technology’s performance and cost advantages over other potential solutions such as LTE and WiMAX apparently come from its use of “beams using new synchronisation and cooperative networking methods.”

“In addition, because the CSIRO technology maximises the digital dividend by utilising current analogue television broadcast infrastructure, CSIRO believes that this higher quality of service can be delivered with fewer base stations at a significantly lower capital cost, and therefore worthy of being utilised strategically throughout the NBN program.”

Using the Griffith, NSW as a model, it projects that a 100Mbps 3G/LTE deployment to that town would require 31 base stations and a WiMAX deployment some 23 base stations—while the CSIRO access solution could employ just two.

It also says use of its wireless technologies for backhaul would save considerable sums of money. A fibre backhaul deployment for the last 10% of premises would cost $1.65b, microwave $865m and its own solution — just $255m.

CSIRO is dismissive of the potential for satellite technologies to serve more than 50,000 customers in the last 1-2% of the population given the relatively limited capacity of individual satellites.

Grahame Lynch