fluxNode/3

Tri-Pole Distributed Edge Compute Cluster

Product Specification — Revision A

Document class: Hardware reference design

Prepared for: theFlux.ca — Flux Capacitor programme

Date: July 2026

Status: Draft for engineering review

This document defines the reference hardware, radio, power, and resilience specification for fluxNode/3, the minimum-quorum three-pole configuration of the Flux Capacitor distributed compute mesh. It is intended for engineering review, procurement planning, and regulatory pre-consultation. It is not a construction drawing set.

1. Scope and product definition

fluxNode/3 is a community-scale sovereign compute node composed of three fluxPoles arranged as a full-mesh radio triangle with edge lengths up to 2 km. Each fluxPole is a self-contained pole-mounted unit combining an edge compute triad, dual-path wide-area connectivity, solar generation, and battery storage. The three-pole configuration is the minimum deployment that provides pole-level quorum: the cluster remains connected, quorate, and in service through the loss of any single inter-pole link, any single backhaul path, or any single complete pole.

The design intent follows the Flux Capacitor architecture: commodity, off-the-shelf hardware; community ownership of the physical substrate; separation of secure-side identity from open-side services; and graceful degradation under power, backhaul, or equipment failure.

2. System overview

Attribute

Value

Configuration

3 fluxPoles, full-mesh triangle, edges ≤ 2 km line of sight

Compute

9 × Apple Mac Mini M4 Pro (3 per pole)

Aggregate CPU / GPU

126 CPU cores / 180 GPU cores

Aggregate memory

432 GB unified memory (48 GB per unit)

Aggregate storage

18 TB NVMe raw; ≈ 12 TB usable under 6+3 erasure coding

Cluster power

≈ 1.25 kW continuous; ≈ 30 kWh/day

Generation

5.4 kW solar (1.8 kW per pole)

Storage (energy)

30.7 kWh LiFePO4 (10.24 kWh per pole)

Autonomy

≈ 20 h full load per pole; > 48 h in shed mode

Backhaul

3 × independent 5G cellular links (dual-carrier recommended)

Mesh interior

≈ 1.7 km² at 2 km edge length

Quorum model

2-of-3 poles; 2-of-3 compute units within each pole

The nine compute units form a two-level consensus hierarchy. Within a pole, the three Mac Minis run a local replica group (2-of-3). Across the cluster, the three poles form the node-level quorum (2-of-3). The cluster therefore tolerates the simultaneous loss of one entire pole and one compute unit at a surviving pole without loss of service or data availability.

3. fluxPole hardware specification (per pole)

3.1 Compute triad

Item

Specification

Unit

Apple Mac Mini, M4 Pro

CPU / GPU

14-core CPU / 20-core GPU per unit

Memory

48 GB unified memory per unit (144 GB per pole)

Storage

2 TB NVMe per unit (6 TB per pole)

Networking

10 Gb Ethernet (built-in) per unit

Power draw

≈ 4 W idle / ≈ 100 W sustained design point / 140 W peak per unit

Duty

Continuous 24/7; N+1 within pole (any one unit may fail)

Workload envelope

≈ 70B-class quantized model sharded across triad, or 3 independent 30B-class services, plus L0–L6 monitoring stack

3.2 Networking and radio

Item

Specification

Intra-pole fabric

Fanless managed switch, ≥ 4 × 10GbE (RJ45/SFP+), ≈ 20 W

Mesh radios

2 × 5 GHz PtP links per pole (one per triangle edge), 500 Mbps–1 Gbps each at 2 km LoS, ≈ 15 W each

Mesh fallback

Optional 900 MHz radio for non-line-of-sight terrain, ≈ 8 W

Cellular backhaul

5G/LTE modem-router with pole-top directional donor antenna to serving cell tower, ≈ 12 W

Local access

Wi-Fi 6E / 5G LAN cell radio head for registered thin-client devices (secure side)

Timing

GPS-disciplined clock at pole crown

3.3 Power and energy

Item

Specification

Bus architecture

48 V DC bus; AC service via rectifier (primary); solar via MPPT; battery float

Inverter

600 W pure sine (compute units are AC-input), ≈ 92% efficiency

Continuous load

≈ 415 W per pole (incl. second PtP radio and conversion losses)

Daily energy

≈ 10 kWh per pole

Solar array

4 × 450 W bifacial pole-top petals = 1.8 kW; ≈ 3.9 kWh/day coastal BC annual average (≈ 1.5 kWh/day December)

Battery

2 × 48 V / 100 Ah LiFePO4 = 10.24 kWh; 8.2 kWh usable at 80% DoD

Autonomy

≈ 20 h at full load; > 48 h shed to one compute unit plus radios (≈ 150 W)

Cold option

Third battery module for winter island deployments

3.4 Physical and environmental

Item

Specification

Structure

10.7 m (35 ft) steel monopole, engineered foundation

Compute cabinet

NEMA 4X insulated enclosure, mid-mounted ≈ 3 m AGL; filtered forced-air cooling; thermostat heater strip

Battery cabinet

Separate ground-level ballast cabinet (≈ 70 kg per module)

Crown equipment

Solar petals, 5G donor antenna, 2 × PtP dishes, GPS

Sensor ring

Cameras, RF spectrum monitor, environmental sensors at cabinet collar (feeds L0 monitoring)

Operating envelope

–30 °C to +45 °C

Security

Tamper-switched cabinets; biometric-gated service access; terms-of-service ROM per pole

4. Cluster topology and radio plan

The three poles are sited at the vertices of a triangle with edge lengths up to 2 km, subject to line of sight for the 5 GHz links. Each edge is a dedicated point-to-point link terminated on its own radio at each end, giving six radios across the cluster and eliminating shared-medium contention. Any single link failure leaves the mesh connected through the remaining two edges; any single pole failure leaves the surviving two poles directly linked.

Edge capacity: 500 Mbps–1 Gbps per link at 2 km with clear Fresnel zone; reduce spacing or substitute 900 MHz on treed terrain.
Backhaul diversity: three independent 5G donor links; split across at least two carriers where coverage permits. Cluster-level WAN survives any single carrier or tower outage.
Routing: mesh-aware routing at layer 3; backhaul is load-shared in normal operation and fully re-routable through any surviving pole.
Coverage: the ≈ 1.7 km² triangle interior plus per-pole local-access radius defines the initial fluxResident service area.

5. Resilience and consensus model

Failure event

Cluster behaviour

One compute unit fails

Pole degrades to 2-of-3 local replica group; no service impact

One mesh link fails

Traffic reroutes via remaining two edges; no service impact

One 5G backhaul fails

WAN traffic reroutes through surviving backhaul links

One complete pole fails

Cluster remains quorate at 2-of-3; data available via erasure coding; capacity reduced ≈ 33%

Grid outage, all poles

≈ 20 h full service on battery; shed mode extends past 48 h; solar extends further in season

Pole loss + unit loss elsewhere

Service maintained; minimum surviving set is one full replica group plus quorum partner

Data placement uses 6+3 erasure coding across the nine units, yielding approximately 12 TB usable from 18 TB raw while tolerating any three simultaneous device losses, including the correlated loss of one pole's three devices.

6. Bill of materials and indicative costing (CAD)

Parts-level estimates at July 2026 Canadian retail/distribution pricing; excludes taxes, freight, and spectrum/licensing fees. Site work varies materially by terrain and jurisdiction.

Line item

Unit (CAD)

Qty/pole

Per pole (CAD)

Mac Mini M4 Pro 14c/20c, 48 GB, 2 TB, 10GbE

3,100

9,300

Managed 10GbE switch (fanless)

600

5G router + directional donor antenna

900

5 GHz PtP radio pair share (2 radios)

600

1,200

Inverter / rectifier / MPPT / bus hardware

1,500

Solar petals, 4 × 450 W bifacial + mounts

1,800

LiFePO4 modules, 48 V 100 Ah

2,200

4,400

Cabinets (NEMA 4X compute + battery ballast)

2,000

Sensors, L0 controller, cabling, misc.

1,000

Electronics subtotal

22,700

Monopole, foundation, installation (range)

8,000–12,000

Per-pole installed (range)

30,700–34,700

Cluster roll-up

CAD

fluxNode/3 electronics (3 poles)

68,100

fluxNode/3 installed (3 poles, range)

92,100–104,100

Indicative with engineering, permits, contingency (15%)

≈ 106,000–120,000

7. Regulatory and siting notes

5 GHz PtP links operate under ISED licence-exempt RSS-247 rules (band and EIRP limits apply; U-NII-3 preferred for PtP).
Pole siting on Islands Trust lands engages local trust committee land-use processes; ISED antenna-siting procedures (CPC-2-0-03) apply to new structures.
5G backhaul is carrier-subscribed service; dual-carrier SIM provisioning recommended.
Structural, electrical, and battery-storage installations to applicable BC Building Code, CSA, and local permitting.
Deployments on First Nations territory proceed under OCAP principles and community agreement, consistent with the Flux Capacitor governance framework (CAMA).

8. Configuration options

Option

Description

fluxNode/3-W (winter)

Third battery module per pole; 15.4 kWh; ≈ 30 h full-load autonomy

fluxNode/3-NLOS

900 MHz mesh radios substituted or added for treed/obstructed terrain

fluxNode/3-G

Grid-independent variant: 5 kW ground-mount array per pole in lieu of pole-top petals

M5 Pro forward option

Drop-in compute upgrade; near-identical power envelope; no power-system change

fluxNode/5 growth path

Two additional poles federate the triangle into the five-node reference mesh

9. Revision history

Rev

Date

Notes

2026-07-02

Initial release: tri-pole topology, M4 Pro triad per pole, power and BOM baselines