Rural broadband project wins Engineering Excellence Award

A project that will deliver the world’s fastest high-performance wireless broadband to rural areas was awarded the Engineering Innovation Award at the 2012 Australian Engineering Excellence Awards.

The CSIRO Ngara Rural Point to Point Microwave Backhaul Technology project won the award, which was presented by AusIndustry. The project proposes a new technology that has the ability to bridge the digital divide between metropolitan and rural communities, according to Ian Pedersen, Chair of the National Engineering Excellence Awards National Judging Panel.

“The technology involved in this project is estimated to be almost 10 times faster in delivering high-speed broadband to rural communities via a wireless network,” Pedersen said.

“The project proposes the world’s fastest microwave system which provides 10 gigabits per second data rate over distances up to 50 km. Fewer communication transmitters will be required in applying this project, which will significantly lower deployment costs and therefore reduce environmental impact.

“This concept will augment what’s currently planned for the National Broadband Network (NBN), the major national high-speed broadband infrastructure project which Engineers Australia supports. At present, the NBN is planned to deliver fibre networks to cover major cities and townships. However, there are some communities with fewer than 1000 residents who will not be connected by fibre, instead low-performance wireless is proposed. The CSIRO’s project technology is suited to applications where laying fibre is prohibitively expensive or infeasible.

Small rural communities have a strong need for broadband services to assist healthcare and education, as well as the running of businesses and farms, Pedersen said. The CSIRO project can potentially provide communities with high-speed access to data, which will increase capacity to download and upload data, as well as fluent video and audio streaming.

“The technology involved in this project provides an alternate cost-effective solution to fibre-optic cabling in delivering high-speed broadband telecommunication services to regional Australia as compared to the current government plan for the NBN,” Pedersen said.

“In order for Australia to advance and be able to compete in the current knowledge-economy, high-speed communication and access to data in every corner of Australia is necessary,” said Pedersen. “Engineers are critical players when it comes to most major policy debates, as they have the ability, based on their skills, to provide advice to decision-makers who are transforming the economy.”