The Harvard Forest Field Wireless Network (HFFW) provides Internet access to selected field sites across 1500 wooded acres of the Prospect Hill Tract, enabling scientists to monitor and control their equipment remotely and to collect and process data in real time. Operational since 2010, the HFFW is an extension of the university network into the forest and is jointly managed by Harvard Forest and Harvard University Network Operations.
Research sites currently on the HFFW include three eddy flux towers, four climate change experiments, two soil respiration sites, ten phenology cameras, four stream gages, two wetland gages, and the HF weather station. Examples of real-time data collected via the HFFW can be found by visiting Explore Real-Time Data.
The HFFW uses 5 GHz radios for line-of-sight connections between research towers and 900 MHz radios for ground-based sites; the 5 GHz radios offer higher bandwidth, while the 900 MHz radios better penetrate the forest canopy. Backhaul radios on the three main towers (barn, hemlock, hardwood) provide a high-capacity network backbone that is connected at the barn tower to the HF campus network.
Major improvements to the HFFW were completed in 2025 with support from the National Science Foundation. New radios were installed at every site, ruggedized switches and outdoor Wi-Fi access points (APs) were added to enclosure sites, and outdoor APs were added to selected shed sites. The fire tower was replaced with the hemlock tower in the network backbone to facilitate network maintenance, several inactive research sites were retired, and four new research sites were added.
These upgrades bring much faster network connections (10x in most cases), due to improvements in radio technology, plus Wi-Fi availability at every site—including the top of the hardwood tower. For research, higher bandwidth means better support for data-intensive projects. For education and outreach, the combination of higher bandwidth and Wi-Fi means that Zoom sessions on laptops, tablets, and mobile phones are now possible at all sites, expanding opportunities for online field trips and remote learning. And for network management, the new radios are significantly easier to manage and troubleshoot remotely than the old radios.
For more information on the HFFW and for assistance with connecting field equipment and setting up remote access over the Internet, please contact Emery Boose.