ARA is deploying advanced wireless as well as edge and cloud equipment across the Iowa State University (ISU) campus, City of Ames (where ISU resides), and surrounding research and producer farms as well as rural communities in central Iowa, expected to span a rural area with diameter over 60 km (i.e., 37.5 miles). The ARA cloud computing and storage resources are deployed in the ISU data center, and edge resources are deployed in a distributed manner across ARA farms and communities to enable low-latency wireless applications. ARA is connected, through VLANs, to other national infrastructures such as NSF FABRIC and Chameleon Cloud. (The current ARA capabilities are summarized here.)
AraHaul
As shown in the map below, the ARA ag farms and communities are interconnected through the AraHaul, a multi-modal, long-distance, and high-throughput wireless x-haul infrastructure spanning six rural cities and one ag farm. In total, there are 7 AraHaul nodes.
- Ames – ISU Wilson Hall Rooftop – Phase 1
- Ames – ISU Agronomy Farm Pole – Phase 1
- Boone – High School Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- Gilbert – StoryComm Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- Nevada – StoryComm Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- McCallsburg – IRUA (Iowa Regional Utilities Association) Water Tower – Aspiration
- State Center – IRUA Water Tower – Aspiration
- Story County – InfoBunker Wireless Tower – Aspiration
Phase 1: 6/1/21 – 5/31/23
Phase 2: 6/1/23 – 5/31/24
Aspiration: beyond PAWR program
AraRAN
As shown in the map below, within the ag farms and rural cities, the AraRAN wireless access infrastructure are being deployed to provide high-capacity, low-latency connectivity to user equipment (UE) such as ag ground vehicles and robots, phenotyping cameras and sensors, police cars, school buses, and students’ laptops. In total, there are 10 AraRAN base stations at fixed locations.
- Ames – ISU Curtiss Farm Pole – Phase 1
- Ames – ISU Research Park Rooftop – Phase 1
- Ames – ISU Wilson Hall Rooftop – Phase 1
- Boone – ISU Agronomy Farm Pole – Phase 1
- Boone – High School Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- Gilbert – StoryComm Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- Nevada – StoryComm Wireless Tower – Phase 2
- McCallsburg – IRUA Water Tower – Aspiration
- State Center – IRUA Water Tower – Aspiration
- Story County – InfoBunker Wireless Tower – Aspiration
Map of Planned ARA Deployment
Map of Current ARA Deployment
Call for participation:
ARA is expected to provide advanced wireless coverage for any locations within about 6 miles range from any of the ARA sites shown in the map above, and we are looking for volunteers to host ARA equipment at select locations to support experimental pilots, research, education, and innovation. Interested in trying out advanced ARA broadband systems and supporting rural broadband research, education, and innovation? Please fill in this ARA hosting form. If you may have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at infrastructure@arawireless.org.