Microwave routes (Toyosu and Shinonome)

Original: Ryota / JJ1WTL — 499593521 · Original Japanese HTML

Published: 2023-06-04

English translation of the archived article text. The author’s first-person observations, uncertainty and later additions are preserved; this is not the research summary. Image contents are preserved as images, not silently incorporated into the translated prose.

Searching for the microwave routes from Chikura to central Tokyo, which offer lower latency than optical fibre. I could almost hear people saying, ‘Go and look there first!’ So I took the Yurikamome and explored two areas: Toyosu, where the destination data centres are, and Shinonome, where a comment had suggested there might be a relay. Saturday, June 3, after the typhoon had passed.

I seem to have narrowed things down—or perhaps not…

Targets

In the end, there were five sites:

Shin-Toyosu Cube, AT TOKYO's Central Centre 2.
TEPCO Toyosu Building.
Marusada Ariake Building.
No. 5 Inoue Building.
Kyowa Bussan Ariake Centre.

I have added the findings to the map below, but the pieces do not quite connect.

The picture beginning to emerge, with the findings included:

Shin-Toyosu Cube

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6485344,139.7928207,183m/data=!3m1!1e3

The website of JOSADA TELECOM's parent company:

https://www.mckay-brothers.com/product-page/#Networkmap

lists the network destination as:

Tokyo - @Tokyo, CC2

That means AT TOKYO's Central Centre 2. As for where it is, the available information points, somewhat vaguely, to Shin-Toyosu Cube.

See ‘Visiting AT TOKYO, one of the world's largest data centres’:

https://cloud.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/special/757800.html

It is indeed a windowless building. This photograph is from the south, across Shinonome Canal.

I can identify three rooftop dishes: two small and one large. They cannot be made out in the satellite image.

A close-up of the large dish. It seems to face Kyowa Bussan, discussed below, but I am not confident.

AT TOKYO's partner list:

https://www.attokyo.co.jp/connectivity/carrier.html

includes GTT Communications, Inc. and Josada Telecom K.K. At least those two companies should connect to an AT TOKYO data centre, although it could be a different data centre belonging to the company.

High Bar Communications and NuVo might instead connect to some other operator's data centre. Please contact the ‘I saw a dish on a data-centre roof’ department with any sightings. In Koto Ward, that is.

TEPCO Toyosu Building

Perhaps because the Boso Peninsula's hills cannot be seen directly from Shin-Toyosu Cube, the building immediately to its west also has dishes.

Looking for a tall building I could enter freely, I made my first visit to the upscale Ariake Garden. From its rooftop, three groups of dishes are visible on the roof of the round TEPCO Toyosu Building:

At the left end, facing left, west-southwest.
At the left end, facing this way, south by east.
In the centre, facing this way, south-southeast.

Facing west-southwest

From ground level on the west side. Could this be towards Mount Oyama?

A side close-up.

A close-up of the upper antenna.

Facing south by east

It would fit if this beam were towards Marusada Ariake Building, but it seems to be pointed a little too far west.

A close-up of the upper antenna.

Facing south-southeast

A conventional dish without the deep body. With that combination of counterparts, could it be towards Mount Tsumori in Kyonan?

Marusada Ariake Building

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6382021,139.7997745,44m/data=!3m1!1e3

Someone told me about this in the comments on the earlier JS2RA / JS2RB article (English translation). Thanks!

The moment I got off at Ariake Station, it was already quite conspicuous. Ha ha. At the lower right of the photograph is No. 5 Inoue Building, discussed next.

Approaching on foot.

The RFcell logo shining on the antenna is evidence that this station belongs to JOSADA TELECOM: the same logo appears at Kanozan, and JOSADA is the only one of these companies whose route passes through Kimitsu. I infer that the two small dishes piggybacking here carry backhaul for mobile-phone base stations.

The single north-facing dish on the opposite side of the sign, viewed from Ariake Garden.

Zoomed in from the ground.

With help from the RFcell logo, I have traced quite a bit of JOSADA TELECOM's route. Combining the fieldwork with information people supplied gives the diagram below. I am still unsure about the TEPCO Toyosu Building–Marusada Ariake Building connection.

There is no well-known data centre in Yokkaichi, the endpoint, is there? Perhaps it uses microwave as far as the crossing of Ise Bay, then optical fibre beyond that.

No. 5 Inoue Building

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6379127,139.7993943,44m/data=!3m1!1e3

From the south. Is diagonal placement of space-diversity antennas a thing?

From the north.

If the little dish at the base operates in the 14 GHz band, I could say definitively that it belongs to NuVo.

[Added November 10, 2024] I have identified NuVo and GTT at the Mother Farm end, using NuVo's electrical service panel. Comparing antenna shapes makes this the GTT station.

As mentioned above, Shin-Toyosu Cube's roof also has two similar small dishes.

Kyowa Bussan Ariake Centre

An unplanned extra site I noticed from Ariake Garden.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6430246,139.7966904,44m/data=!3m1!1e3

Spotted from the rooftop passage between Ariake Garden's fifth floor and its car park, at the far left of the photograph.

Approaching at ground level, from the south. The link across Tokyo Bay uses space diversity. Is the grey surface intended to reduce light pollution or glare?

[Added November 10, 2024] I have identified NuVo and GTT at the Mother Farm end, using NuVo's electrical service panel. Comparing antenna shapes makes this the NuVo station.

Going round to the north. There is a single dish on this side. Could this be towards Shin-Toyosu Cube?