Recommendations for Internet Access at Rubha Reidh, Scotland: Analysis

This report provides recommendations for internet access at Rubha Reidh, a remote lighthouse location in Scotland. The analysis begins by highlighting the importance of internet access in the modern world, especially within the hospitality industry, and emphasizes the challenges of providing connectivity in remote areas. The report examines the specific characteristics of Rubha Reidh, which include a lack of existing infrastructure such as cabling and mobile phone coverage, and then explores two primary solutions: satellite internet and Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP). It details the technologies, advantages, and disadvantages of each, including latency issues with satellite internet and the line-of-sight requirements of WISP. The report provides cost estimates and technical specifications for each option, ultimately aiming to offer viable solutions for providing internet access to this isolated location, catering to the needs of both the owners and the tourists. The report focuses on the technical aspects of each solution and provides enough information for the reader to consider various factors, such as bandwidth, latency, and cost.

<University>
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTERNET ACCESS AT
RUBHA REIDH, SCOTLAND
by
<Your Name>
13th November
2016
Word count:
<Lecturer’s Name and Course Number>
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 1 of 12

Internet is a necessity for modern-day connected world. Internet has come a long way
from its roots in military research to become a part and parcel of human life in every
part of the world. It holds a significance for hospitality industry also. Travellers
expect to be connected to Internet courtesy of the accommodation or the place they
are visiting. Now, customers demand Internet access, no matter the location of the
venue. This paper analyses Internet requirement for Rubha Reidh, Melvaig, Gairloch
IV21 2EA, Scotland and presents alternatives and recommendations along with
guidance on costs expected.
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 2 of 12

Recommendations For Internet Access At Rubha Reidh, Scotland
Internet is an important part of human existence, and it benefits each and every person
as per their requirement. As an illustration, while a citizen of USA may be consuming
megabytes of data per minute on a videoconferencing call (Klosowski, 2016), a
citizen of India may just be using kilobytes of data, but to apply for a competitive
exam. Internet elevates us all, connects us all. So essential is this technology to human
experience now, that United Nations has added Internet access to the list of basic
human rights (Alexander and Shore, 2016). Internet has come a long way from its
roots as a military research project (Licklider, 1963), to go on to level the playing
field for every individual in every part of the world, and also to eliminate the tyranny
of geography and time zones.
As per Martin (2004), many small firms in hospitality industry are not conversant
with the value Internet can bring to their business, and this deters them from gaining
advantages. As an unrelated example, in Scotland, providing Internet access (in the
form of WiFi) allows the tourist spot to be filtered in search results, where the tourists
can exclude those venues which do not provide Internet access (Visitscotland.com,
n.d.). This obviously means competitive advantage for those locations which provide
Internet access. Adding to the importance of an Internet connection in hospitality
industry, hotel guests now take Internet access for granted, and consider it more
important than a fitness centre or a free breakfast (Networks, n.d.). This requirement
of Internet access is a necessity for locations in well-connected places, but becomes
even more relevant for tourist spots in remote locations like villages, islands, etc.
However, remote locations also present challenges which are unlike those in well-
connected places like cities, suburbs, and metropolitans as the conventional means of
access (like underground copper or fiber-optic cabling, mobile phone coverage, WiFi
hotspots) are not usually implemented. This may be because the Internet Service
Provider (ISP) may not estimate a favourable return on investment (ROI) in such
remote places, and neither the miniscule native population of the place, nor the
tourists are willing to bear the costs of setting up an infrastructure, just for the few
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 3 of 12

people. This paper analyses the requirements for Rubha Reidh, Melvaig, Gairloch
IV21 2EA, Scotland.
Characteristics of Rubha Reidh
Rubha Reidh or Rua Reidh Lighthouse is a remote lighthouse standing close to the
entrance to Loch Ewe in Wester Ross, Scotland. This lighthouse was planned in 1853
and constructed and began operations in 1912 (Lighthouse Board, n.d.). Manual
operations were replaced by automations and the lighthouse was later
decommissioned in 1986 (Portal.historicenvironment.scot, 2016). The nearest place
with a shop to Rubha Reidh is 12 miles way. There is another spot closer, but it just a
camp site and an inn. Thus, Rubha Reidh is indeed a very remote location. It is a
scenic place to rest, to unwind and provides expansive ocean view, whale watching
and a quiet place away from the hustle and bustle of the modern day world. Also, it
appears to be a popular place among tourists with TripAdvisor rating of 4.5 out of 5
(LLC, 2016).
However, getting away from the modern world is not the true intention of every
tourist that visits this place, and neither the owners want to be out of touch with the
world. They both want Internet access. As an illustration, the owners of the venue are
active in maintaining the reputation of their accommodation on Internet, and can be
found actively helping, guiding tourists on various forums online. Also, many
businessmen would want to take a leisurely stroll across the lonely road, but be able to
reached via email. According to Fallows (2002), power users of email check email far
more often than standard users, checking them on weekends, after work, before work
and on vacations.
As per the infrastructure available, there is no cabling offered by any ISP, neither the
ground looks amenable to digging for laying out the wires (copper or fiber-optic), if
some company intends to. Similarly, no WiFi hotspots are available in the location.
Also, there is no mobile phone signal available, and the nearest reliable signal is about
7 miles into the mainland (Reidh Lighthouse, n.d.). So, what presents here is a remote
spot, adjacent to sea, with no Internet cable or mobile phone coverage, which is
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 4 of 12

popular among tourists and that requires Internet access. In the next section, these
characteristics are mapped to the technologies currently available, and alternative
ways to access Internet are presented.
Alternative Internet Access Technologies For Rubha Reidh
For the challenging scenario that Rubha Reidh, alternative means of accessing for
Internet are provided. Also, once the Internet access reaches the tourist spot, then a
different category of network takes over - Local Area Network (LAN). LAN is a
prerogative of the owners of the place and has to do with providing link to the
external Internet connection. They may choose to provide WiFi alone, or in addition
to wired outlets. LAN is beyond the scope of this paper, and will not be discussed
further. As per the unique characteristics of Rubha Reidh, two solutions are proposed
- satellite internet, and Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) - and are discussed
in detail next.
Satellite Internet
Satellite Internet is the access of internet using satellites. Similar to Direct-To-Home
television signal, some on-premises equipment including dish antenna is required.
Beyond that, no cables are required (Hughesnetinternet.net, n.d.). However, unlike the
uni-directional data stream (from satellite to the dish antenna) for television, Internet
requires bi-directional stream of data.
It is worth noting that Internet via satellites is provided by geostationary satellites.
Such satellites are a special class of satellites under geosynchronous satellite.
Geostationary satellites have the property that they remain permanently in the same
area of the sky. This however is an illusion, as every entity in space is in motion.
What happens is that its orbit is such that its fall matches the rotation of the Earth.
This is enabled by the satellites being launched to such an altitude that their rate of
orbit is the same as the rate of rotation of Earth. Thus, wherever from Earth these
satellites are looked at, they will remain permanently fixed in the same location. This
will hold for any observer that can spot a geostationary satellite on his side of Earth.
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 5 of 12

The advantage of such a setup is that the receivers on ground do not need to be
moved to track the satellite. This has the engineering advantage of simpler and
smaller dish antennas, while allowing the costs to be less, which can be passed on to
consumer. Once the downlink and uplink have been configured, the system is a go.
For a consumer, this means once the initial setup is done by the installation team, no
special maintenance is required on the user's part. Satellites are by default a broadcast
medium, and this implies that the network will always be available. It is an always-on
connection. Also, this connection is asymmetric is that the download speed is always
much more than the upload speed. However, this may not be an important criteria for
the situation at hand.
However, the physical distance between the two end-points (ground station and the
satellite) imply that the delay in moving one bit of information from ground
equipment to the output of satellite is massive. It is in the range of 240 ms to 280 ms,
and allowing for the (non-zero) delay of the equipment at the ground, and at the
satellite, the total delay comes to be about 290 ms (Tirró, 1993). For perspective, the
delay of a wired broadband connection is usually less than 100 ms, while 25 ms are
possible (Mitchell, 2016). This characteristic of satellite communication makes
telephone calls difficult as well as reduces the performance of Internet. This delay is
referred to as latency. It is worth noting that many Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) protocols, on which the Internet is based on are not designed for high-latency
environment as introduced by satellite Internet. However, the industry is not sitting
still, and the main components affected by the latency (which cannot be decreased
after a limit) are being optimized. The TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol /
Internet Protocol) is based on a three-way handshake, before any meaningful data can
be transferred. Technologies which attempt to handle this include TCP acceleration,
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) pre-fetching, DNS (Domain Name Service)
caching, etc. Nevertheless, this will be a factor which will play a role in the final
recommendation.
Satellite Internet, being passed as electromagnetic waves through the Earth's
atmosphere is susceptible to interference from moisture and other forms of
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 6 of 12

precipitation (e.g. rain or snow). The solutions are to use a bigger dish antenna to
increase the signal quality, but not every consumer may be willing to pay extra. This
too will factor in our recommendations for Internet access to Rubha Reidh.
As per implementation, a VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) dish antenna with a
transceiver is installed in the user's premises. As per Rytír (2009), these satellites
operate in the Ka-band (18.3–30 GHz) mode. As for the uplink Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA) is used, which is similar how mobile phones share a cell
tower.
As per costs, initial setup will be under 500 USD, and monthly rental will be under
100 USD, for download speeds around 10 Mbps, upload speeds around 1 Mbps and
data limit of around 100 GB per month (Teran, 2016).
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)
A Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) Internet connection moves the focus
away from the skies to the ground. This technology is based on terrestrial towers, that
require line-of-sight between two connecting towers to increase the range, as well as
providing access to end-users in the area covered by the range. They are directional
and do not spread their signal in all directions. This is evidenced by the uniquely
square shaped antennas for WISP as installed on user premises. This is an established
technology which is mainstream, as testified by the fact 51% of American population
is covered by WISP in America (Anderson, 2014). In fact, the initial consumers of
WISP were consumers in rural areas which were not covered by fixed-line Internet
connection (Blackwell, 2007), which is a scenario similar to Rubha Reidh. Also, as
per Geier (2013), the speeds offered by WISP are comparable to 4G and Long-Term
Evolution (LTE) networks, and often beats them. He, however contends that mobile
data companies do not expect heavy usage of data on their network and their charges
are prohibitive beyond the small cap on data they have, thus WISP are more suitable
for regular home or office use.
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 7 of 12

Each tower talks to another WISP tower and one of them talks to the company's main
Internet backbone. Depending upon the location, an end-user may catch the signal
form the first tower or after a chain of multiple towers (McDowell, 2009). So, WISP
is a coupling of wireless technologies with wired technologies. Another way to put
this implementation is that the "last mile" of the network is wireless. Also, this
technology is symmetrical in that the download and upload speeds are same (Wibre,
n.d.), though this may not be factor in the scenario at hand.
WISP technology requires line-of-sight to work (McDowell, 2009) and this is a factor
that will be taken into account while deciding on a recommendation for the unique
scenario at Rubha Reidh. The latency in this technology is very less as testified by
Wibre (n.d.), who achieve upload and download speeds in excess of 200 Mbps and
latency of 2 ms in their implementation. Also, the effects of interference due to
rainfall or other precipitation are less, and even if the speeds are degraded a little bit,
it will still be much better than fixed line Internet access.
As per costs uncapped 10 Mbps connection will cost from to 80 to 180 USD per
month (Mybroadband.co.za, n.d.).
Recommendations For Internet Access For Rubha Reidh
After detailing the two possible alternatives as to their underlying technology, pros
and cons, costs, etc, a recommendation and a plan of action will be provided. Before
that, it is noted that faster internet, with faster download and upload speeds, lesser
latency allows for newer and previously not possible applications to appear. As per
Wenus (2011), one Mr. Paul Barwick, who is getting 60 Mbps of speed in the WISP
technology clarifies how faster speed (in both directions) enabled him for applications
he never imagined before e.g. storing documents online and video calls. Thus, in our
recommendation for Rubha Reidh, we will keep future unseen requirements also in
mind.
Latency delay is a destroyer of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls, video
conferencing, online multiplayer gaming, etc. This goes against satellite Internet and
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 8 of 12

in the favour of WISP. Satellite Internet does not require much setup or support from
the local Internet Service Providers (ISP), while WISP requires substantial investment
by local ISPs. Satellite Internet is favourable in this regard for Rubha Reidh. Now,
considering the interference, WISP wins hands down over satellite Internet.
Finally, considering that businessmen come to spend their vacations here, the owners
would love to upload high-definition videos, tourists would want to do video-
conferring with their friends and family (and thus requiring high speed and low
latency), the technical choice is WISP. However, WISP is not yet implemented and
the city center is away from Rubha Reidh by 15 miles, which would require about
four towers to the Internet backbone (backhaul). The estimate for it is around 25,000
USD (Conaway, 2010), which is prohibitive. Even if the local government steps in
and sponsors this expense, still it is not clear if the ROI on this investment will be
worthwhile.
Thus, letting economics win over technical superiority, our recommendation is to go
with the best equipment and fastest plan for satellite Internet.
Conclusion
Rubha Reidh is a unique location in that the native population there can be counted
on hands, but it is a popular tourist attraction (LLC, 2016) and people demand
Internet. Not only that shying from Internet is a loss for hospitality industry (Martin,
2004), (Visitscotland.com, n.d.). As per the characteristics and ground realities of the
location, two alternatives were shortlisted and discussed at length. The paper detailed
their technical features, costs and parameters of significance to end-user. Though the
author of this paper is in favour of WISP solution, but prohibitive costs dictate that the
satellite Internet be recommended. It is worth noting that the technologies used on top
of base satellite Internet will help make it an acceptable solution, and the other criteria
must be kept in mind while passing a verdict on the suitability of a technology. It is
hoped that this recommendation will be a big step forward and will add to the
competitive advantage of the venue and provide an enjoyable and satisfying Internet
experience to the guests and owners of the venue.
 <Your Name> <Your Student Number> 2016 9 of 12

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