I want to start doing some experiments with roof to roof wifi.
I think it would be a worthwhile to get two portable satellite
antennas with tripods and see what we can get out of them.
With such a minor investment in equipment we will be able test whether
two rooftop locations can connect to each other before we go out and
buy dedicated equipment for installation.
The small direct tv dishes can be had for $15 to $25 on craigslist.
I found the following on craigslist for $35:
*Two satellite dish tripods
*Alignment compass
*Two small satellite dishes
The problem is that it's spread over two locations, one in Hayward and
one in Milpitas.
Are any of you going near Milpitas and/or Hayward this week and would
you have time to pick this up? If not, I can probably go on a field
trip.
If we get this stuff, then we would additionally need:
*Two sets of binoculars (we only need to borrow them)
*One more compass
*Two wifi usb adapters or smaller wifi to ethernet adapters
What would be really amazing is two sets of binoculars with built-in
compasses, but we can do without.
--
Marc Juul
Apologies for lateness!
=Attendees=
*Jenny, Marc Juul, Mark B, Bill, Eno
= Introduction =
*Applying for funding from OpenITP: https://pad.riseup.net/p/510penITPapp
*Wikipedia has some good info [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_networks here].
*See also: Mesh Projects Directory -
http://wiki.tidepools.co/view/Mesh_Directory
= Inventory =
== at sudo room ==
*Lots of coaxial cable.
*Some wireless routers that need to be checked for openwrt support.
*2 linksys routers which may be b0rked
== juul ==
*One Motorola C155 with osmocom-bb
*One USRP 1 software defined radio
:[https://www.ettus.com/product/details/WBX WBX 50-2200 Mhz rx/tx]
:[https://www.ettus.com/product/details/RFX2400 RFX2400 2.3-2.9 Ghz rx/tx]
== mark ==
*Three openwrt routers from [http://www.open-mesh.com/open-mesh.com].
= hardware =
== RONJA laser link ==
[http://ronja.twibright.com/ The RONJA project] has 1.4 km range and 10
mbps full duplex.
Material costs are about $100, but it's not clear if that is per node or
per link (per two nodes).
It does not use off-the-shelf hardware, so construction requires some work.
== wifi routers ==
*Ubiquity nanostation
*Ubiquity picostation
*raspberry pi (or similar) + usb wifi adapters such as the [
http://dx.com/s/2000mW 2000 mW $20 chinese models] or even just [
http://dx.com/s/500mw 500 mW $20 chinese models]
== antennas ==
*[
http://dx.com/p/2-4ghz-100w-18dbi[http://dx.com/p/2-4ghz-100w-18dbi-directi…
dBi
-directional-high-gain-18-unit-antenna-for-wifi-wireless-network-sma-34759
18 dBi for $18] including shipping.
=== parabolic ==
[http://www.provantage.com/premiertek-ant-grid-24dbi~4PREK014.htm 24 dBi
for $26.40] expensive shipping when ordering only one though.
= Firmware and routing algorithms =
*Should we use off the shelf firmware, how should we r00t our r0uters?
*Commotion wireless uses OLSR, but the current nodes in the 510pen network
use the batman-advanced.
*Other projects like Project Byzantium (targetting laptops) use the Babel
protocol.
*Performance Evaluation of BATMAN, DSR, OLSR Routing Protocols - A Review
Sandhu and Sharma 2012:
http://www.ijetae.com/files/Volume2Issue1/IJETAE_0112_35.pdf
: Maximum Number of nodes with Maximum Mobility: OLSR > BATMAN > DSR
: Maximum Number of nodes with Maximum Packet length: OLSR > DSR >
BATMAN
'''Currently, 510pen uses NG firmware extending OpenWRT with batman-adv'''
*OLSRD Configuration & Management:
https://code.commotionwireless.net/projecthttp://www.olsr.org/?q=node/13s/c…
= Action Items =
*Bill will look into OLSR and routing generally
*Saturday node-repair field trip
**jenny will ping beau
*Bring things to set up a node at sudo room next week!
**jenny will ping mark b :P
Notes archived here: http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/14_February_2013
--------
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
What kind of mesh-related equipment do you have lying around that you
are willing to donate to the mesh project?
Things we need:
*wifi usb adapters
*wifi antennas or satellite dish antennas
*antenna mounting gear
*cable: usb, ethernet, coaxial and 110 vac cable.
*access points and routers that are compatible with open-wrt
*working laptops (these can be used as nodes and for testing)
*switches of at least 100 mbit speed
*old android phones
Just reply to this mail with what you have or can get.
I'll go first. I have:
*A roll of coaxial cable of unspecified length.
*A PCMCIA 802.11b wifi card with external antenna hookup.
--
Marc Juul
Howdy, if you'd like to join us in some mesh network troubleshooting +
surveying in East Oakland tomorrow, we'll be meeting up at The Bikery
(International @ 23rd Ave) at 11:30am! Hope to see you there,
--mark B.
Pretty useful hardware suggestions I got from #olsr on freenode:
02:27 < soma> generally almost everything that bases on ar71xx is
probably the best hardware for openwrt (good cpu/ram and good ath9k wifi
driver)
02:27 < legind> I've heard that having 2 cpu cores is preferable in mesh
routing
02:28 < soma> for indoor there are a lot of options where some tp-links
are quite cheap. e.g. wr1043nd or wdr3600. there are also cheaper ones
like wr703 or wr741, but they only have 4MB flash. thats enough, but i
personally wouldn't want them because restricted space in flash is uncool
02:28 < soma> for outdoors ubiquiti stuff is my favorite
02:28 < soma> why 2 cores?
02:29 < soma> better 2 wifi interfaces
02:32 < legind> one core handles the mesh network and one for internal lan
02:33 < legind> thanks for the suggestions soma
02:34 < soma> that depens on your usecase then. maybe thats good if you
want to route traffic from e.g. lan to wan at 1gbps all the time, then
it could make sense. but for all normal needs 1 core is imo enough and i
also think platforms with 2 cores are just starting to come out
Hi friends,
As you probably know by now, I'm currently working with the Open Technology
Institute to design use cases and user stories around
Tidepools<http://tidepools.co>,
a mobile mapping platform for community mesh networks. Below is a talk
recently delivered at an FCC conference on network resilience by Georgia
Bullen, my primary mentor in the project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwfpihsjUY&feature=youtu.be
...which also exemplifies the social process by which mesh networks can be
effectively implemented. To see where I'm at in this research, feel free to
stop by this wiki <http://wiki.tidepools.co>.
Looking forward to meeting with y'all again on Thursday!
Cheers,
Jenny
http://jennyryan.nethttp://thepyre.orghttp://thevirtualcampfire.orghttp://technomadic.tumblr.com
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
-Laurie Anderson
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
-Hannah Arendt
"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stéphane Mallarmé
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
Thanks to all who came by tonight!
Cross-posted to the sudo room wiki here: http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh
==Attendees==
Alcides, Marc, Jenny, JC, David, George, Miguel
==Notes==
*Ham Radio Licenses allow for broadcasting up to 2.4Ghz
**Free class to procure ham radio license in one day at Noisebridge March
17th
**Has to be amateur / not paid-for services
**Can't be encrypted (What does that mean for HTTPS?)
**Definitely an area that needs further research!
*Hook into Downtown Berkeley WiFi?
*Hackerspace Darknets (accessible to other hackerspaces)
*CJDNS
*Bounce a signal off the moon / other satellites
*Direct connect several nodes (Andrew's place/Vagabond Ballroom; Mark B's
House, Adeline House, Sudo Room, Media Alliance, node in East Oakland)
*Need for directional antennas
**Should we make antennas?
**Lasers?
***10 mbps (RONJA)
***Not good in the rain
*Location triangulation
*Suggestion: East Bay Communications Resilience Group
*Software-defined radios
*Low-bandwidth radio receivers
*Boats in the bay could receive long-distance comms, for instance
*OpenBTS
*MonkeyBrains as backhaul for a mesh network
*Burning Man Community / San Francisco dark fiber opps
*JC - mobile ad hoc mesh network
**CB Radio backpacks for berkeley protest peacekeepers as inspiration for
mobile ad hoc networks
**Starts with communication (voice, over data)
*Solar power system for mesh box and mobile phone
*Pay phones as mesh nodes for anonymous hot-spotting
*Peet's running on a mesh backbone?
*[http://openmesh.com Open Mesh] - uses batman-adv, NG firmware
*ALIX
*AIS - boat radio communications
*Emergency Broadcast Band - airwaves set aside
*Cognitive Radio to detect currently broadcasting signals
*[http://www.accrc.org/ Alameda Country Computer Resource Center]
==Projects==
*Mobile ad hoc networks
**4GB of data to sync across the nodes
**Using git to update the nodes
**People moving around feeding the network
*[http://thepyre.org/wiki/Mycelia Mycelia] - geospatial mapping via
decentralized databases for inventory management, project and skill
matching (talk to marc juul and jenny if you want to work on this project!)
*[http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Router_Reuse Router Reuse Program] - Proposed
sudo room project :D
*DC415 - DefCon mesh in SF
==Action Items==
*Inventory / Donations of hardware
**Open call to hackerspaces for surplus routers / wifi devices
**ANTAC wifi cable modems
*Base repository of information
**See for instance The Pyre: http://thepyre.org/wiki (talk to jenny)
*Get a mesh node running at sudo room!
*Field survey trip to visit existing nodes
*Box in a Bag for activists
Hi. Im new to meshing. Ive been scouring the web though since November. ;)
Im currently purchasing 2 WNDR3800's to flash with OpenWrt and use either
batman-adv or olsr.
I am having trouble choosing between batman and olsr. Discussions online
seem to suggest development for olsr ongoing whereas its implied that
batman dev has gone stagnant? But batman is preinstalled on byzantium live
cds.
Also, I've been hanging out on efnet irc (#cjdns, #seattlemeshnet, etc)
with folks involved with cjdns. Pretty happening project. They got some
tunneled network called (#)Hyperboria. The way that network works is with
pgp key exchanges and you gotta actually approach some one to get in. Also
ipv6 native.
Im hoping to set up a linux box as a cjdns node and expose people to it via
nat66??? But my main objective is to (educate how to) install/modify
consumer routers to link up a olsr (or batman) network. Lots more work
ahead.
I also ran into open-mesh on my quest. I understand 510open encourages use
of their routers. Also from what I understand their older models (which I
believe are [broken-]linked to on their website) are preinstalled with
Robin, which I have no knowledge of but willing to explore. The newer
models (online discussions suggest) use NG, with which I am also
unfamiliar. Perhaps Mark D has more info?
Im hopin my energy here in Exelsior, SF can mesh well with whats going on
at 510pen. Perhaps more compatibilty in the future? Im definitely hoping to
bridge the gap with Seattles cjdns eventually. Though they already got a
decent following of testers internationally.
Anyway, cheers everyone!
Alcides Gutierrez
VaporOne.com
We had our first mesh meetup at sudoroom today! Here's some quick notes,
please add anything I missed.
attendees: Jenny, Steve D, Mark B.
Agenda:
- Mark: Status update on 510pen network
- To-do: Installs and tech support in East Oakland
- Redesign Splash page – integrate OaklandWiki? Make the splash page
editable- community bulletin board
- Current splash page can be seen at https://510pen.org/splash
- Hyperlocal- neighborhood specific splash page content
- Jenny suggests field research to determine what people would like to
see on the splash page
- Steve from OpenGarden - http://opengarden.com/ - Awesome mesh network
project: android, Windows, OS X app
- Jenny: working on http://tidepools.co/ - Social wi-fi mobile mapping
platform
Ideas:
Attend Open Oakland – tuesday meetups. Bring 510pen proposal/writeup
510pen should have a KML file of the network for integation w/ Tidepools
Next steps:
Mark: organize 510pen mesh support taskforce.
Steve and Jenny: Integrate opengarden and tidepools.
Jenny: Talk to george about wifi mast on roof @sudoroom.
Documents on Oakland open wi-fi: Eddan & Mark – need to make a list of
names, dates, time periods, types of documents to request
Talk to local groups re: Open wireless e.g. Internet Archive, Center for
Media Justice
wiki page: http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh
WHY DOES THIS WIKI USE HTTP INSTEAD OF HTTPS? :p
