Christine Thropp
Intel, Amazon Web Services and Megh Computing have formed a partnership to launch a Citizens Broadband Radio Service private network intended to provide a community IN Sacramento, California with broadband access to enable remote learning.
Intel said Tuesday the CBRS network is planned to cover a three-quarter-mile area and give high-speed internet connectivity access to Leataata Floyd Elementary School students living in three adjacent residential housing locations within the Sacramento City Unified School District.
“This private network solution on Intel technology provides students and teachers with the high-speed connectivity needed for equitable education and remote learning, and compute at the edge for video analytics applications,” said Caroline Chan, vice president and general manager of the 5G infrastructure division at Intel’s Network Platforms Group.
The partnership’s private network uses AWS’ Snowball Edge edge computing infrastructure and the JMA and CommScope-based radio access network. The video analytical applications of Megh Computing run on Snowball Edge and AWS Cloud EC2 instances while Intel-based Chromebooks have a MultiTech dongle to enable connection to the CBRS private network.
Prasad Rampalli, expert adviser at California Emerging Technology Fund, noted that lack of internet access is one of the hindrances to transitioning to distance learning and it must be addressed.
“Reliable high-speed internet is the equalizer in today’s education. As we move forward from the pandemic, we must continue to utilize high levels of educational technology in teaching and learning,” he said.
The partnership also plans to expand the CBRS private network deployment to more underserved school districts and select California state university system campuses over the next two years.
