Wireless Networking Research at Berkeley

zootallure writes "An interesting article about a self-configuring, wireless networking project going on at Berkeley's Wireless Research Center. Apparently, these Berkeley guys are convinced that they're going to leave Bluetooth and 802.11 in the dust."

Comments

Re:Err... I think the artcle post is a bit off...

[quintessent]

You're exactly right. The post doesn't even mention power, which is the whole point of this technology. This actually sounds cool. Do Slashdot's editors do this on purpose, or are they just being sloppy?

According to Rabaey, each node in the picoradio network will draw no more than 100 microwatts of power, three orders of magnitude less than 802.11b's 300 milliwatts. The benefits of such a low power network are obvious: no batteries are needed because each node can harvest all the energy it needs from its environment.

Re:Anyone can make a speedy network

[sketchy_gomez]

Actually, if you read the article, high speed is not the purpose of this research project. Rather, a self-configuring, micropower distributed network which appears to be geared towards sensor applications. In fact, each sensor requires so little power that ambient radiation is sufficient to run the thing!

It's likely that the true killer applications of this technology have not yet been proposed yet. For example, a network of biological implants might be possible that take measurements from several points and then perform some useful computations. The wireless communication and micropower features would be very attractive (provided that the body doesn't attenuate the operating frequency too much..)

Military Applications

[nurightshu]

As I was reading the article, I was thinking that picoradio would make an excellent addition to a modern soldier's loadout. As low-power as they are, the transceivers could be used to share data within the small-unit level without radiating enough energy to alert an enemy.

Combine these with the Army's Intervehicular Information System (IVIS), and commanders would have real-time, accurate information on the location of not just every tank, APC, and field artillery piece on the battlefield, but also each soldier. It would definitely work to reduce the number of friendly fire incidents that occur in a future conflict.

Plus, you could connect them to biomonitor equipment that would allow medic teams to both locate and triage injured personnel much faster.

Re:Military Applications

[aluminumcube]

I might not know what I am talking about here, but isn't the idea of putting a bunch of wireless sensors on individual infantry soldiers sort of a bad idea?

What is the possibility of a hostile force getting the very basic technology needed to pick up those transmissions and use them to locate said 'wireless enabled' soldier. Sure, the data itself would be encrypted, but with the location and movement vectors of a soldier who is using the system, you have all the information you need to make fairly dramatic changes in that soldier's biometric monitoring.

Re:Military Applications:Stealthy too!

[t0qer]

Since these things are the size of a shirt button, millions of them could probably be dumped from a C130. They're light enough to not smash into a billion pieces when they hit the ground and their sheer numbers would make it impossible for enemies to effectively wipe them out.
From the article:

the nodes would monitor variables like temperature variation, light conditions, humidity factors and building occupancy.

What would be neat is if they used natural packaging, such as faux rocks, or seeds. Even thistles that could stick to the enemy.