There are many heavy machines in a power plant, and so it is difficult for wireless signals (cellular, WiFi) to penetrate. As such, workers in the plant from time to time lose communication with the outside, which can cause severe safety issues.
BATS provides a low-cost and flexible solution to this problem. Workers in the plant can be reached through a wireless multi-hop network enabled by BATS. As long as two neighboring nodes in the network are within the light of sight, the wireless signal can go through regardless of the heavy machines close by.
With BATS, it is easy to build a wireless multi-hop network with a complicated configuration, be it permanent or ad hoc. Such a network not only can provide Internet access for communication throughout the workspace but also video surveillance for the safety of workers. In the case of an ad hoc network, the nodes may be battery powered for the ease of deployment. We have already done a POC in a power plant, where we succeeded in streaming a live video from the inside of the turbine to the outside through multiple hops.