---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Steve Song" &lt;steve(a)villagetelco.org&gt; Date: Sep 1, 2013 7:39 AM Subject: A discussion item for Berlin: an Open Hardware WiFi platform To: "Ben West" &lt;ben(a)gowasabi.net&gt;et>, "Musti" &lt;musti(a)wlan-si.net&gt;et>, "L. Aaron Kaplan" &lt;aaron(a)lo-res.org&gt;rg>, &quot;team(a)wirelesssummit.org&quot; < team(a)wirelesssummit.org&gt;gt;, "Andrew Reynolds" &lt;andrew(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;rg>, &lt;al.banda(a)activspaces.com&gt;om>, &lt;atunpan(a)ait.asia&gt;ia>, &lt;alwalid(a)accessnow.org&gt;rg>, < aabdelaal(a)unomaha.edu&gt;gt;, "Andy Gunn" &lt;andygunn(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;rg>, < behravan(a)demcouncil.org&gt;gt;, &lt;daniel.kitscha(a)ec.europa.eu&gt;eu>, "Michael Calabrese" &lt;Calabrese(a)newamerica.net&gt;et>, "Brian Duggan" < bcduggan(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;gt;, "Daniel Staples" < danstaples(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;gt;, "Darby Hickey" < darbyhickey(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;gt;, "Andres Astudillo" &lt;astudillo(a)ieee.org&gt;rg>, "Dillip Pattanaik" &lt;dillippattanaik(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, &lt;fostee21(a)rpi.edu&gt;du>, "Andrew Bolden" &lt;bolden(a)newamerica.net&gt;et>, "Ermanno Pietrosemoli" &lt;ermanno(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, "Georgia Bullen" &lt;georgia(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt;rg>, "Geneviève Bastien" < gbastien(a)versatic.net&gt;gt;, &lt;hemant(a)nomadindia.net&gt;et>, "Greg Bloom" < greg.bloom(a)gmail.com&gt;gt;, &lt;horvitz(a)volny.cz&gt;cz>, "Grady Johnson" < grady(a)opentechinstitute.org&gt; Cc: Hi all, I am looking forward to seeing you all in Berlin in October. As a primer for the summit, there is something that Nico and Guido from Altermundi and I have been talking about that we'd like to raise as an informal discussion item at the summit. We'd like to seek out interest from other groups in participating in a project to establish an Open Hardware WiFi platform. The community wireless movement has grown thanks the ability of Open Source pioneers to adapt and evolve the OpenWRT operating system which provides a platform for networks to implement the protocols and services that they like. The ability to customise commodity wireless routers is at the foundation of the community wireless movement. While OpenWRT has grown steadily in robustness and sophistication, another revolution has been taking place, the Open Hardware movement. Open Hardware has brought groundbreaking innovations like the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. It has galvanised the maker movement and opened the door to hardware creativity. Perhaps the time has come for an Open Hardware wireless platform that can be a platform for WiFi hardware innovation and something that all community wireless networks can benefit from. The Atheros AR9344 platform is a affordable yet powerful dual radio platform featuring: - IEEE 802.11n 2x2 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz System on-a-Chip (SoC) - 74Kc MIPS processor operating at up to 560 MHz - 10/100 Ethernet Switch with five IEEE 802.3 Ethernet LAN ports - USB 2.0 controller with built-in MAC/ PHY supports Host or Device mode - I2S/SPDIF-out audio interface - SLIC for VOIP/PCM - One low-speed UART (115 Kbps), one highspeed UART (3 Mbps), and multiple GPIO pins for general purpose I/O It could be the foundation of an Open Hardware WiFi device designed for community wireless network deployment. In Berlin, Village Telco and Altermundi would like to invite you discuss the merits of building an Open Hardware WiFi platform that will be the commodity WiFi device we always wanted. Thoughts welcome :)