[Freedombox-discuss] Allied Efforts.

[Paul Gardner-Stephen]

Hi,

As the founder of the Serval Project I can certainly confirm that
while telephony is our head-line use-use that we certainly care about
data, and are absolutely making data distribution tools that operate
on our mesh layer, so I think you will find that our goals are even
more compatible than it may first appear.

We are also in the process of adding various other features that may
be of interest to the FreedomBox community, such as:

1. strong cryptography that is not reliant on any global certificate
authority. A key part of this crypto layer is that we are building a
team that can perform a credible and open security analysis of the
architecture, which is a step often omitted.

2. The Rhizome Retriever that you have already discovered allows the
distribution of files, open-source maps (more on that in a moment) and
messages (including updates to the Serval software) over the mesh.
One of the interesting challenges we are addressing with this is how
to secure the update process to prevent unlawful sabotaging of the
Serval network through seizing or reverse engineering the signing key.
 I am happy to explain more of our thinking on this if there is
interest.

3. The Serval Distributed Map Tool.  This uses locally cached open
street map tiles to provide mapping services without the use of
internet.  One of the really nice synergies of our platform is that we
can use the Rhizome Retriever to automatically copy cached map tiles
from other phones in the area.  Not only does this really enhance the
resilience of the mapping tool, but it also has the potential to get
map data faster, and allow for updated map tiles in field.

There are also other features that we are working on, but this is a
selection of ones that I thought might be of particular interest.  For
further reading, I would recommend having a look at our white paper:
http://developer.servalproject.org/site/docs/2011/Serval_Introduction.html

It should also be said that while we are targeting Android initially,
we are structuring the software so that it can run on any operating
system, and we have preliminary work underway for porting to Linux,
Symbian S60, iOS, and OSX.

In terms of the requirement for root access on the phone, we have
progressed the software so that for phones that can run as access
points we can institute a kind of dynamic tiling approach to get AP
and client devices to communicate in a kind of 2nd class mesh that is
possible to form using almost any WiFi capable device.  This allows
mesh phone calls over one to two hops (AP->Client or
Client->AP->Client), but more importantly it allows the Rhizome file
dissemination process to occur without impediment, as that already
spreads files one hop at a time to avoid the exponential decay in
available bandwidth that occurs when sending data many hops on a mesh
network.

We are also actively engaging in the IEEE 802.11 standards process to
get ad-hoc fixed (ask me if you need information about the problems
with using ad-hoc WiFi to form mesh networks), and also to standardise
the use of the cellular radio present in all phones to allow ad-hoc
packet radio in the ISM915 band to allow long-range mesh networking.

In terms of current progress for the Serval Project generally, we have
alpha-quality developer releases that we are making periodically to
help people find and report the glaring bugs and problems, as well as
get a taste of some of the functionality we are providing.

We have a dedicated community support engineer on the
serval-project-developers list (Romain) who will do his best to
respond to any issues, and we would welcome the FreedomBox community
to take advantage of that resource if trying out our software, or
suggesting feature enhancements.

While Serval does not operate as a democracy, preferring the
"benevolent dictatorship" approach to open source development while we
undertake our initial build-out of core features to help maintain
clear focus and keep development driving forward, we do have an
intentional culture of listening to potential user's requests and, as
far as is practical, taking them on board.  For instance, aspects of
the mapping service and Rhizome Retriever have been influenced by
input we have received from humanitarian and aid organisations. We
would thus welcome any input and suggestions from the FreedomBox
community as we progress our development and planning activities.  We
do also welcome assistance from the open source community, and aim to
work as cooperatively with others as we can.

Paul.
Founder, Serval Project,
Shuttleworth Telecommunications Fellow,
Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications Research Fellow,
Flinders University.

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 6:06 AM, ya knygar <knygar at gmail.com> wrote:
>> We've been keeping an eye on the Serval Project for a while.  They
>> have a slightly different but still compatible goal in mind
>> (telephony, as opposed to a general purpose data network).  One of the
>> ways we differ is that we are not designing custom hardware for
>> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity
>> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled
>> mobile devices).
>
> Hello,
>
> the Serval's site states "… without infrastructure, without mobile
> towers, without satellites, without wifi hotspots, and without
> carriers. Use existing off-the-shelf mobile cell phone handsets. Use
> your existing mobile phone number wherever you go, and never pay
> roaming charges again."
>
> "Rooting the phone will allow for adhoc mesh network capability and is
> required for
> full functionality of the software. By choosing not to root the phone,
> the software
> will still be able to provide free calls to phones that are connected
> to the same
> Access Point."
>
> actually [ http://developer.servalproject.org/files/Serval_Manual_Prototype_v0.05.pdf
> ] they provide
>
> "
> • Adhoc will enable you to participate in a mesh network. This option
> will only be
>   available if you have super-user privileges on the phone.
> • Client will enable you to connect to an access point.
> • Access Point will enable other phones in Client mode to connect to your phone.
> "
>
> possibilities.
>
> It is Village Telco that sells it's own Mesh Potatoes, AFAIK because
> they were willing to work with fully open source-able hardware and
> existed variants weren't able to provide this.
>
> That all means - Serval Project isn't about designing a custom hardware.
>
> Also, apparently from their mailing list, they have
>
> "subproject ... to create an application that allows to spread files
> over the mesh network by exchanging with servers that the handset can
> see (could be peers and web servers). This app will eventually be
> merged to batphone."
>
> some code here - https://github.com/rbochet/Rhizome-Retriever/
>
> -- that is for the "data network" aspect.
>
> also they have the well grown support and organization IMO,
> so i think - the allied efforts is a good idea.
>
> @The Doctor
>
>> Byzantium is a distribution of Linux which makes it easy to set up an
>> ad-hoc wireless mesh infrastructure.
>
>> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity
>> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled
>> mobile devices).
>
> That means - the users would need to install a separate Linux distro
> on all these devices?
>
> Do you plan to provide the packages or virtual "images" to the existing OS's?
>
> Distribution for the routers?
>
> Applications for the poor mobile devices which are messed and would be
> messed enough so user can't install another or replacing OS on them?
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
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