Alberta networking: now with line of sight and winter.
Long before everybody had fibre running conveniently past their front door, getting internet connectivity across an industrial park could require creativity.
And by creativity, I mean pointing sophisticated electronics at another building and hoping for the best.
We experimented with free-space optical networking.
Instead of sending signals through fibre-optic cable, the idea was to transmit them through the air between two carefully aligned devices.
It was elegant.
It was clever.
It was also Alberta.
Which meant the environment occasionally had other plans.
Cold weather, rooftop access, line-of-sight alignment and industrial buildings made the entire enterprise somewhat more interesting than the brochure suggested.
Imagine explaining it to somebody unfamiliar with networking.
"So you're running fibre?"
"Sort of."
"Where's the cable?"
"There isn't one."
"Then how does it work?"
"We shoot the internet at the neighbours."
A remarkably accurate technical summary, really.
Naturally, the equipment still required power, networking cables and somebody willing to climb onto a roof.
It was fibre optics without the inconvenient fibre.
Unfortunately, Alberta hadn't agreed to eliminate the inconvenient weather.