Communications were a major problem for the staff of the remote Wyoming boy scout installation Camp Loll before Patton (News - Alert) came along. Existing mobile service was unreliable and costly. They needed secure phone service for emergencies and ordering supplies. The problem was finding quality, high-speed network access in the back country.

 

The distance from the tower on the mountain to the camp lodge was the biggest problem facing the volunteers. The dense forest obstructed any line of sight for wireless signals. A buried CAT-5 line connected the tower with the lodge, and the cable stretched 3500 feet–beyond the reach of standard Ethernet technology.

 

But the solution turned out to be simple, thanks to Patton’s CopperLink Ethernet Extenders. The general infrastructure already existed--there was a reception site with solar power on top of the mountain, and a 115-foot tower with a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection in town. With the towers linked by a wireless Ethernet bridge, a pair of CopperLink Model 2168s were installed at each end of the CAT-5 line.

 

Due to the ability of Patton’s Model 2168 to extend an Ethernet segment up to 1 mile over a single copper twisted-pair, the 3500-foot segment was completed. PBX features and router functions for the camp office were provided by a Patton SmartNode 4524 Gateway (News - Alert) Router. This simplified the network and eliminated the need for a separate piece of equipment. Another SmartNode 4524 in the scout headquarters provided the final link for total access from the mountains to the headquarters.