[Freedombox-discuss] Fwd: [HacDC:Byzantium] DC Open Mesh Network?

[FreedomBox-Discuss.NeoPhyte_Rep at OrdinaryAmerican.net]

Just so everyone knows about the existence of everyone else, here's a
posting to the Byzantium list that might prove interesting to someone:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
Date: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [HacDC:Byzantium] DC Open Mesh Network?
To: byzantium at hacdc.org
Cc: Preston Rhea <rhea at newamerica.net>, Josh Breitbart
<breitbart at newamerica.net>, Josh King <joshking at newamerica.net>

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know that we've begun deploying Commotion nodes (see:
https://tech.chambana.net/projects/commotion) around DC and should be greatly
expanding that network over the next few months.  This local deployment
complements the networks we have in Detroit, Urbana, and (soon) Philadelphia.
Folks have been heading out fairly regularly to scout locations and deploy nodes
-- if folks are interested, I've cc-ed Preston Rhea from my team, who is heading
up logistics coordination for the DC installations.

I'm hoping that several folks from the Open Technology Initiative will be able
to make this month's Byzantium hack, in the interim, we'd be happy to work with
folks who were interested in deploying networks and learning the ropes for
outdoor installations.

--Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
Founder, Commotion Wireless Project
New America Foundation

***

Topic: DC Open Mesh Network?

   psypete <psypete at gmail.com> Oct 11 10:45AM -0400 ^

   I know it's still early in the game for this, but i'm really really
   excited about starting to build real nodes within DC and bypass the
   internet completely.

   I was thinking about node types, and someone mentioned plug computers
   which are cheap and simple to set up - great idea. There's also the
   $25 Raspberry Pi which you can add a USB wifi dongle to. Also HacDC
   has a drawer full of OLPC lappies which are designed to become a mesh
   network. I have a couple laptops I can deploy. OpenWRT is another good
   node type (once we get to that stage of the project)

   As far as getting link, I live in Petworth. This should work for me in
   relation to HacDC because i'm at a higher elevation, thus it may be
   possible to set up a directional link between the church and my house.
   A second option is to use the layout of the city to our benefit. Most
   major roads are in straight lines and have a slight elevation change,
   so pointing a link down the road with nodes every mile or two might be
   a simple way to link up more of the city. Assuming the power goes out
   again in major parts of the city during winter this would be a great
   test of the network and get people online for a couple hours a day
   until their internets come back.

   Eventually it would be useful to have client software for regular
   computers which would bundle the routing protocols and core services
   so turn-key mesh nodes could be turned up without requiring Linux to
   boot. Is this a future goal? I researched it a bit and a large amount
   of the code/apps has already been written as PoCs by research
   institutions.

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