Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Being Wireless: Viral Telecommunications

Posted by Hemos on from the but-what-about-frogger dept.

sh4na writes "3G is out before it is ever in... because, as Nicholas Negroponte puts it, the *real* next generation is the Wi-Fi "lily pads and frogs" concept. Wouldn't it be great?"

10 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. It has potential, but... by warpSpeed · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You need a fundamenatly different method of IP addressing, new routing protocols, and methods for interacting with the current net as it exists. Do you think that IANA will easly start putting out IP addresses for Mesh networks? Even with IPV6? The hardware is there, but more work needs to be done on the practical implementations of mesh networks and integrating them into the current infrastructure.

    Then lets consider how ling it will take the "Bells" to wake up and notcie that thier stangle hold on the local telco market is threatened. It will not take too long for Congress to churn out some back-assward laws that stifle any creative use of Wi-Fi.

    1. Re:It has potential, but... by Golias · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Having your local city or county library provide a DS3 drop or two for all the "lillypads" in the city seems like a great way to get that done. I'm all for it.

      Unfortunately, I can't think of any "emerging trend" that Negroponte has ever written about that actually ended up happening after he wrote about it. It's almost like the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse (for non-sports-fan geeks, it's kind of a murphy's law of sports... any athelete who gets his picture on the cover of SI will have a terrible week immediately afterwards).

      Negroponte's columns are often the stuff of cyberpunk novels, not future reality. In this case, I hope he's right though. Connecting a laptop to the Internet from some non-wired coffee shop costs you a fortune right now, and it shouldn't.

      The one potential problem I see with this is that if we all ababndon the wires, and cheap DSL goes away as a result, where the hell am I going to connect my static-ip web server? I'm one of those people who values the Internet as a means of distribution as much as a means of getting information.

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  2. For this to work.. by N3WBI3 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    For something like this to work the average user has to do alot of evolving. As we saw with the warchalking article last week there is a good amount of room for someone to try and abuse your network. In the case of most war-chalkers its harmless but there are occasions when it would not be.

    I really like the Linksys Wireless Routers/Firewalls, you can set up a dhcp reservation list by MAC address so if you want to share with your neighbors you can get their mac and let them in. things like that combined with keeping track of security notices, and basic security masures could make such a network as secure as your average broadband connection.

    --
  3. Do not Underestimate 3G by e8johan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    3G will not fail! Everyone just need to remember that it took more than 10 years for GSM to explode here in Europe, and it will probably take even longer for 3G since GSM allready handles talking. What the suppliers do not see is that we lack good services and a good way of charging for it. What is needed is a global standard for micropayments. I think that it would be great to get all the micropayments on my phonebill, even better if I could surf over to my service provider and check my spendings over the web using my phone/computer/camera/mp3-player/calendar/gamecent re...
    And by the by, why isn'n there a plug-in enabling the new photo and video phone to show their images on a TV (when connected to the powergrid, the batteries will burn otherwise), and a plug-in to be able to play more advanced games... it would be (ta-da) the return of the cartridge games...

  4. Re:What am I missing? by vadim_t · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What ISP? If I understood correctly, there's nothing that's stopping me from buying wireless equipment, connecting it to a mail server and putting a few CGIs on it to let anybody have an account. No ISPs, and no bills to be paid with the exception of electricity.

    If I offer a mail server, somebody else gives a web server, a few people set up chat servers and so on we could have a new network pretty soon. People could link it to the internet, but if it got big enough it wouldn't be really necessary.

  5. Already happening in my town... by ites · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Check out http://reseaucitoyen.be/, a project in Brussels that has been pushing this idea for some time.
    It's in French. Translation: take a WiFi card, attach an external antenna.
    Next, take an old Linux box, turn it into a router.
    Aim towards another node, and you join the network.
    Security is easy: treat this segment as being unsecure and use your existing firewalls.
    Basically such an architecture creates a public infrastructure on which all kinds of services are possible.
    It's cheap, robust, and a serious threat to the telcos.
    Negroponte is right: 3G is the Telcos trying to define the future, when the future is busy happening somewhere else entirely!

    --
    Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
  6. Routing in a mesh network by nchip · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nice idea..

    Unfortunatly reality isn't that simple. First, the routing problems are a lot different from those in tradiotional ip or gsm networks. Suppose you would have 1000+ wifi node network in your city, how would you find the way hopping from node to node to your friend? Even worse, many of the nodes are moving in cars and busses, and just as you have found a nice route through the network some of the nodes have moved or went down.

    I'm not saying routing dynamic mesh network is impossible, it's just very hard, and can easily consume most of the bandwidth available.

    Besides, if a hop is aroung 100m, a packet travelling 100km would be a 1000 hops away! A user of mesh network will miss the low latency and reliability of gprs networks with the current technology.

    The main problem with mesh networks is that they do not scale very well.

    --
    signatures pending - ansa@kos.to - (dont mail there)
    1. Re:Routing in a mesh network by Jordy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunatly reality isn't that simple. First, the routing problems are a lot different from those in tradiotional ip or gsm networks.

      Actually they are pretty much identical to IP networks. Multihomed networks with varying speed connections have existed and for a long time.

      Suppose you would have 1000+ wifi node network in your city, how would you find the way hopping from node to node to your friend?

      Stick a good amount of RAM and a decent CPU in your wireless device and call it a router. Then put in a vector routing protocol such as OSPF. Combine with a less memory intensive routing protocol for accessing nodes outside your MAN. Stir.

      Besides, if a hop is aroung 100m, a packet travelling 100km would be a 1000 hops away! A user of mesh network will miss the low latency and reliability of gprs networks with the current technology.

      It may happy that going wireless the entire way there isn't as efficient as going wireless-to-wire-to-wireless. The only challenge in doing this is the fact your average home broadband connection doesn't include a routing table feed. This can be overcome, but it won't win any awards for efficiency.

      The main problem with mesh networks is that they do not scale very well.

      The Internet is one giant partially-meshed network. No one said that these wireless networks would be fully-meshed. In fact, that's next to impossible unless they were within 100 meters of eachother.

      --
      The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
  7. Re:My thoughts... by Corgha · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unless my data could somehow have priority over my neighbors.

    It's called shaping

    IOW, set up a capable router and configure it give priority to your traffic. Linux routers can do this, as in the HOWTO above, as can many other routers.

  8. No More FUD by Gerry+Gleason · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Technical issues have technical solutions. There is no reason you can't use more power in low density areas. If you don't want all that power concentrated next to your head, then use a local repeater (mounted on the pickup, of course).

    If this takes off, it really will create a mesh so that even in rural areas, the base station on top of your house (or better yet, the silo) will be able to connect to a handful of neighbors, and provide a fully redundant connection. I will be the only one suffering if I cut the power line to the router with the backhoe, because all the neighbors won't make the same mistake all at once.

    Commercial providers aren't even interested in the remote areas, because there just aren't enough dollars to extract. Those annoying "can you hear me now" commercials just confirm my long time theory about corporate image advertising. They are always trying to reverse a real or perceived problem in their public image, and typically this is instead of actually trying to fix the problem. Anyone remember AT&T's "easy to do business with" campaign?