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GENRIP for Ultra Low Cost Wireless Deployments

Posted by michael on from the masochists-wanted dept.

Gregory Perry writes "A South Florida company just released GENRIP, an open source (as in GPL) project for Linux that turns low cost serial line devices (such as 900 Mhz radios) into IP addressable nodes; right now the technology is being used by various robotics groups to replace existing wired tethers on robots with wireless radio links, but the important thing to mention is the ability to use cheap radios to create wireless lan segments without the power and cost requirements associated with 802.11 WLANS."

6 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting Possiblilities by Pi+Kapp+142 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I could connect home devices for cheap with this, without having to lay a lot of wires throughout the house.

  2. Re:anyone got a... by Havoc'ing · · Score: 2, Interesting

    not quite the same but cool anyway... http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html

  3. Re:Guess I better... by Blaine+Hilton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What happens when you get a call? Even if you don't answer it the phone still sends the ring signal.

  4. Re:dare I ask by coryboehne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With a minimal amount of porting I'm sure this can be used on any platform. But for use in embedded systems *nix is (IMHO) always the best choice, so it's logical they decided to shoot that direction at first.

    As a side note, lan parties could get very interesting using this technology... :)

  5. Re:not a replacement by Jouster · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Yep, with my emphasis added:

    Unless you're moving relatively small amounts of non-critical information, GENRIP is probably not for you. GENRIP does not even attempt to compete with 802.11 wireless LAN equipment. That's not what it's for. GENRIP is SLOW! For example, the MHX-910 radios give approximately 120ms round trip ping times, and an actual streaming throughput (using TCP) of about 21K, which is slightly less than your average 28.8K modems. While this is certainly not bad, it's not going to help you if you're looking for fast wireless connectivity.


    Jouster
  6. Re:Low cost? by Hayzeus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The units under $20US are generally RF-only. As a rule, you need to implement at the very least some kind of encoding method (manchester or similar) before you can begin to use them (reasonably trivial). These units really aren't "modems". Abacom Technology and Laipac sell some pretty good examples of these units.

    There may be higher end units available for $20, but probably not in single-unit quantities.

    For those really interested, the OCI units that are used at Arrick can often be found on EBAY for cheap (I use a pair of these myself).

    --

    Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot