During fall 2021, the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) had their annual Tech Summit Conference in Richfield, Utah. It was one of the first times that we were able to get together after COVID lockdowns. Schools in the state had returned to operation with some limitation still in place. Everyone masked up, excited to have an opportunity to meet to discuss education technology since the pandemic started.
During the pandemic, we had piloted a Private LTE network that I have talked about many times in this blog. That conference was the first time we got to play with the technology as a state outside of our offices. We had several excellent presentation on Private LTE.
One such presentation, was more of a question and answer with one of our vendors. I don’t remember who gave the presentation. I remember asking a simple question of the vendor about a Private LTE COW. COW in the cellular world stands for Cell on Wings or Cell on Wheels. That sparked an idea in our group to debate the benefits of having our own Private Cellular COW. The really caught Jason Eyre, from Murray School District’s attention.
The reason for that question came from an article I had read a few days prior. I first heard of a COW was the Winged version, or Cell on Wings. Yes a COW can fly over the moon. I knew that News agencies had broadcast trucks and had seen towers installed temporarily during disasters. I read an article on DroneDJ about AT&T using Drones to restore communication after Hurricane Ida. That sparked my interest in building a COW.
Jeep COW with Starlink
My first foray into my own COW was putting Starlink and a Celona Air Kit on my Jeep. As I talked about in a previous post, CBRS and Starlink were made for each other. During COVID, to expand the reach of Starlink without installing additional Dishes, that were difficult to find, Private LTE was used to share a Starlink terminal. Starlink opens up the possibility of providing a backhaul for a Private Cellular COW in almost any location in the US.
I more recently, installed a mast and used my Jeep COW to test out GXC Private Cellular Mesh. The Jeep COW rebroadcast the cellular signal either to extend or redirect around objects.
ITDRC and Celona COW
The technology just asks to be used to provide connectivity during and after disasters. Shortly after my post about using Private Cellular and Starlink together, a group called the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) approached me about using the idea. The ITDRC consists of volunteer technologists from across the United States. They help restore technology for businesses and residences after hurricanes, floods, tornados, and even the fire in Lahiana, Maui, Hawaii.
My good friend, Jeremy Rollinson, formerly of Celona, was one such volunteer. He helped the ITDRC in partnership with Celona to build a COW with Starlink and Private LTE radios. He mentioned me in his post on Celona’s Frequency community after he helped restore services to a community after a disaster.
Salt Flats Testing
My next attempt after my Jeep was more of a trial test. Having a COW would have been super helpful. We drove the hour and a half from Salt Lake City to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Since we didn’t have an official COW, we had to stand up masts right on the flats and configure everything on site. It took most of the day to get everything configured, which took away from precious testing time. We didn’t accomplish anywhere near what we wanted because of the setup time. A COW would have helped reduce that time.
The plan with our newly built COW, is to return to the Bonneville Salt Flats and have things ready to go before we arrive. The COW should give us ample time for testing more exhaustively. It also allows us to reach taller antennas installations, since it has a 40 foot mast. We are anxiously awaiting the Salt Flats drying out from winter.
UETN and Murray School District COW
Since that conversation at the UETN Tech Summit, we have been looking into how to build a COW economically. We have to built it on a school district budget and had several people offering different versions but they were all outside our budget. Then we were approached by another state government agency that had a COW they were looking to sell for really cheap. About a year ago, we went to check out the COW at one of their warehouses.
The COW we got was already built with everything we needed. It had a 40+ foot mast that is electronically extendable. Instead of having to borrow a generator, as I had to do for the Salt Flats testing, the trailer already has a generator with enough power to run the COW.
Inside the COW are server racks for mounting equipment. The state agency had used the trailer for VHF and HAM radio communication amongst other radio frequencies. Inside proper grounding was already in place. The COW was perfect for our needs. We just need to add the networking, Starlink, and Radios.
UCET
Finally, all the pieces came together a couple months ago. In preparation to show off the COW at the UCET conference in Salt Lake City, Murray School District had the COW wrapped with our COW’s mascot, Bessie. The AI generated Cow and Lavender Fields graphic fits perfectly with the Murray School District purple color scheme, their partnership with using Extreme Networks Wifi APs, and some lavender fields owned by a popular essential oils company an hour south of Salt Lake City. A cool coincidence is the fact that COW in education has another meaning, Classroom On Wheels. That is what we are looking at as one of our use cases for the COW.
UCET, the Utah Coalition of Education Technology Conference, is a collection of educators looking to improve technology use in the classroom. During the opening session of the conference of roughly 2,000 educators, Jason Eyre, showed off the COW that was stage right. We had it situated right next to the conference keynote stage. Anyone in attendance, had a clear view of the COW, with Bessie’s face staring back at them.
Mobile Classroom COW
The goal for the COW is to build interest in the industry amongst students around the state.
We are planning to use the COW to provide connectivity to a field trip, grow interest for tower climbers or cellular engineers, and build attention for our private cellular project. Private Cellular allows schools to teach the cellular technologies to students without having to get partnerships with carriers or purchasing their own spectrum licensing.
AP on a Stick COW
Lastly, another side effect of building the COW led to another idea. As we build our network to ensure radios are installed optimally, we can use the COW to do some pre-engineering. The idea for the use case comes from the Wifi industry, where Wifi engineers will mount Wifi APs on Wifi Stands then use tools to survey to better understand an environment.
Instead of spending money to install a tower on a school without seeing it in the environment first, we can use the COW to stand up a radio temporarily at a site. We can then test the cellular coverage into the community and test different locations to find the best real world location.
The Wifi industry uses this technique while designing Wifi networks. An engineer goes on site with a tripod to extend the radio to the desired height. We use batteries to turn the Wifi AP on and then use survey tools to measure the signal propagation in the actual space. This saves money as installation locations can be tested before cabling and switching is installed.
The COW is the battery, the cabling, the tripod (mast) all in one that can be installed before spending the money and allows us to discover potential issues before spending the capital.
When the survey, project, or mobile classroom is finished, you just hook up the hitch to a truck and haul the COW home. Having the whole setup compact in a trailer improves the stand up and take down of the COW time and makes the process much more simple.
Future Plans
Now that we have a working COW, we are planning to use it for the reasons above and exploring new opportunities. I’m super excited to return to the Salt Flats with the COW for better testing. We just have to await the Salt Flats drying out so we can drive across them.
I’ve also been exploring the idea of conducting some flying COW testing at the Salt Flats. Some of my friends, have contacts with drones companies that are able to lift a radio to test heights above the COW mast. Peter Mackenzie shared how he used a drone to do an AP-on-a-stick Survey with a Juniper Mist AP. Maybe we can test this at the Salt Flats to go even higher than our COW. I also might test out Wifi HaLow and maybe a Standard Power 6GHz AP. It’s an exciting time to be a Wireless Engineer.
Come June, July, or August 2024, Bessie the COW will be grazing the Bonneville Salt Flats, and covering the area with Private Cellular. I’m feeling a need for speed, salt, and maybe some BBQ on the flats.
