A HOTSPOT IN THE ICY SILENCE OF THE ARCTIC REGION --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Intel Press Release from the North Pole
Ice camp Barneo located near the North Pole has become the first hotspot in the Arctic Region.

Soon wireless technologies will take duty at NP-33, the only drifting polar station in the world

NORTH POLE, BARNEO ICE CAMP, April 13th, 2005 ?Two employees of Intel Moscow office, who have recently participated in an expedition to the North Pole, have deployed the first hotspot (802.11b/g public wireless access point) in the Arctic Region at the territory of Barneo ice camp, which is located in about 80 kilometers from the northern "cap" of the planet. Participants of the arctic experiment have used wireless technologies and Intel?Centrino?Mobile Technology-based hardware to solve a wide range of tasks and have demonstrated digital home and digital enterprise functionality, which provide great benefits to users even in extreme natural conditions.

The Barneo camp is an inhabited tent complex, which is located on a block of ice at the 89th northern parallel. The camp has an autonomous life support system with a diesel generator, which provides heating of living quarters and power supply, canteen, etc. The camp is used to support scientific, ecological, archeological, biological, technical, rescue and other missions and expeditions at the Arctic Region. The camp is temporary and terms of its operation depend on natural conditions. Usually it is operated in April, when ice conditions are safe and the camp even has air communication through the airport of Longier (Spitsbergen, Norway).

Nevertheless, even the best weather conditions at Barneo camp are extreme for computer devices. Air temperature rarely rises above -300С, which is very negative for LCD displays and power batteries. 85% humidity and significant difference between temperatures inside and outside the living quarters cause forming of condensate on mechanical and other components of computing devices.

However, the ice camp is a place, where people live, and these people need to use digital devices for work and entertainment. In fact, the purpose of the expedition was to demonstrate that even most modern and at the same time affordable information and communication technologies can be used to meet the widest range of user requirements even in extreme Arctic conditions.

Intel employees have deployed a wireless access zone at the Barneo camp. A 802.11b/g access point was installed at the "headquarters", and a WLAN network of three IBM Т41 and Т42 Intel?Centrino?Mobile Technology-based notebooks was deployed. The network could be accessed by any camp visitor who had a mobile PC or a pocket PC supporting wireless standards. In addition to that, Iridium satellite phone was used to connect wireless LAN of Barneo camp to the Internet.

A network with Internet access gave residents of tent complex a chance to use the advantages of mobile technologies and to implement digital home and digital enterprise components even in extreme polar conditions. One of the notebooks, which was used by the expedition, has been directly at the North Pole where he has passed the cold test and kept normally functioning at the polar camp afterwards.

Ice digital home

Participants of the expedition have transformed one of Intel?Centrino?Mobile Technology-based PCs into a sort of multimedia library. Prior to expedition and during the expedition, various digital content including movies, music, games and pictures was loaded to the notebook. The pictures were constantly updated by the polar explorers. All network users got free access to the content, and it was possible to reproduce the content from any point of the camp using a network-enabled device, requesting the information from centralized multimedia storage.

Inhabitants of the Barneo camp got a chance to enjoy their favorite music and movies and to view digital memories on their own devices at any place and at any time, and when a satellite Internet channel was connected, they could surf the web and send email from public mailboxes.

"Where to test new equipment and technologies if not at the North Pole", ?said Dmitry Shparo, a famous Russian polar explorer who was at Barneo camp at the time of experiment. "Polar explorers need multimedia, mobile and communication technologies, as they really need to feel in touch with the rest of the planet, to communicate with people at the mainland, to view their favorite movies and listen to their favorite music. Modern high technologies provide a great progress even in purely personal plane".

Work anywhere

In addition to digital home, participants of the polar experiment managed to implement digital enterprise elements using wireless network and satellite Internet channel to access corporate databases and corporate mail service.

Intel employees have also considered specifics of the camp. A special meteorological software provided by Hydrometeocenter of Russia has been installed on one of the mobile PCs. This software was uses to get real-time weather forecast for the region where the expedition was located and to learn in advance about changes of different climate parameters such as temperature, wind speed, air pressure, cloud density, etc. The information was updated on Intel?Itanium?2?based server cluster at the data center of Hydrometeocenter in Moscow. Meteorological software provided expedition participants at Barneo camp with current weather forecast through remote connection with Hydrometeocenter cluster.

Participants of the polar experience have also used the possibility of remote financial transactions by using mobile technologies and satellite Internet channel. Right from the Barneo camp they paid the bill for cell phone of a Moscow operator and the utilities bill. Remote payment system and Faktura.ru software developed by CFT were used to replenish the account of cell phone owner at the distance of 3838 kilometers from the nearest office of cell network operator in Moscow.

Mobile in Mobilus: mobile technologies for a drifting station

Finally Intel employees have visited NP-33, the only drifting polar scientific station in the world. In the name of Intel and IBM expedition participants have presented an Intel?Centrino?Mobile Technology-based IBM T42 notebook to the station. In return, Alexey Visnevsky, director of NP-33 station, and Andrey Rumiantsev, manager of data center of the station, gave Intel representatives a diploma "Intel Centrino Mobile Technology ?Works at the North Pole".

Researchers at SP-33 continue long-term studies of the central Arctic Region, which have commenced in 1937 on North Pole ?1, the first drifting station in the world. Since that time 32 Russian stations have operated in the Arctic Ocean for 29726 days. NP-33 station, which is located on two-meter thick layer of ice and slowly drifts along the underwater Lomonosov range, was opened on September 9th, 2004. The station, which has 12 permanent residents, has many strategic tasks including collection of meteorological and hydrometeorological data, hydrology research, ice and ice movement research, etc. Information gathered by the station will enhance our knowledge about the processes that occur in natural environment of the central Arctic region, and will help us to understand the reasons of global climate changes and to improve weather forecasts. In general, the work of NP-33 is an important stage of Russia's preparation to participation in the International Polar Year, which is scheduled for 2007-2008.

Recently administration of the station and of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute, which coordinates the activities of Russian polar explorers, decided to equip NP-33 with modern computers. They have purchased an Intel?Xeon?processor-based server and a wireless hub supporting several dozens workplaces. The station already has several notebooks with wireless access features. An Intel?Centrino?based IBM T42, which has been presented to the scientists, will also be connected to the future wireless network of the station.

"Unfortunately, we have to make hard choices here in the Arctic region. When we have to decide whether we need more provisions or computers, we choose food", explains Andrey Rumiantsev. "Therefore, it is very important that modern mobile technologies greatly reduce weight and size of computers, at the same time providing wireless support and improving performance. Every little tack, every kilogram of cargo brought to the station becomes "golden", and therefore the issue of supply is very critical to us. We are planning to deploy a 36-user WLAN at the station (with some reserve, since we have 24 people here at the moment) and to provide PCs for this network. Of course, it is preferable to use notebooks, which are much more convenient and functional than desktops, especially in polar conditions. In future we would like to deploy a powerful graphical workstation, with which we could do primary processing of 3D data on ice movement and ice field positions right here at NP-33".



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