HPWREN's first 11GHz licensed link was installed between the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Mt. Soledad

As part of a plan to move near-coastal paths to licensed spectrum, HPWREN upgraded the link between the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Mt. Soledad backbone site from 5.8GHz radios to 11GHz. Two additional planned upgrades include the backbone sites at the San Diego State University and on Lyons Peak.

Jim Hale and Bud Hale are installing the equipment at the San Diego Supercomputer Center end of the link

These changes are part of a process to increase the robustness of the HPWREN backbone, with the main objective being to protect it from interference. While license-exempt radios were the right approach several years ago when HPWREN started, the broad proliferation of those have made it more and more difficult to maintain and extend an operational and predictable environment that critical applications can rely upon. With the increased robustness of the backbone network, individual access lines can be evaluated and architected on a case-by-case basis.

Left: The antenna of the link on Mt. Soledad points to the San Diego Supercomputer Center Right: The Mt. Soledad rack including the equipment for the licensed paths has the 11GHz link on top, and the 6GHz link towards the Fallbrook area below it

An updated topology of the HPWREN network can be obtained at /topo.html.