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December 31, 2023

The History of HPWREN: A Retrospective from 2023

This overview describes the evolution of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) Project. HPWREN originated as a wide-area wireless communications research project at the dawn of this millennium. Initially limited to San Diego County in support of Internet data applications in the research and education domains, it evolved over time. A substantial collaboration with first responder agencies emerged from at first very informal discussions, when those agencies assisted with HPWREN's need to deploy routers and wireless links on mountain tops.

December 21, 2023

Seeing Beyond the Visible: Hyperspectral Cameras and Their Superpower Vision

A recent collaboration between UC San Diego and UC Irvine ignited excitement about the potential of hyperspectral cameras. The project involved acquiring three cameras, each targeting different spectrum segments, for local testing and experiments. The long-term vision is to deploy them at an HPWREN backbone site, collecting baseline data over a year to understand their capabilities in our region. sion.

November 22, 2023

Palomar Observatory receives data via laser beam from far beyond the Moon

A few weeks ago, NASA's Psyche spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. This mission has enabled a new milestone at the Palomar Observatory, where its large 5-meter single-mirror telescope is now able to receive data streams via a laser beam from space. This advanced communication method is transmitting information from a distance well beyond the Moon, marking a significant advancement in deep space data transmission.

August 6, 2023

HPWREN adds Saddleback Community College as backup CENIC network path

An additional backup path to CENIC for the HPWREN network has been completed in Orange County. We have signed a cooperative agreement with Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo to use its campus as another off-ramp to the CENIC network from our multi-regional wireless network.

February 19, 2023

HPWREN 2021 - 2022 Accomplishments

This is a summary of the HPWREN 2021 and 2022 accomplishments. The impact of the 2020 Covid outbreak continued to be felt throughout 2021, while all but diminishing during 2022. Despite related challenges, HPWREN continued to make good progress, including increased bandwidth and network reach, as well as updated technologies. HPWREN accomplishments during this period, in addition to ongoing routine maintenance and repair of infrastructure, included the build out of new camera and network backbone sites with new Ubiquiti and Siae radio equipment, expansions beyond San Diego County into Orange and Riverside counties, and major upgrades to our networking and storage infrastructure. This ultimately culminated in the adoption of AWS cloud storage services.

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