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Automatic Wireless Network Organisation
babycakes writes "Interesting article over at the BBC about the future of wireless networks. Researchers at Intel are developing mesh networking technology that automatically organizes the best routes between wireless devices for better bandwidth control, now that the number of wireless devices is set to explode." Neat stuff, but they've yet to implement any sort of security controls. Until they do, it's going to be a real party for wireless eavesdroppers. timothy adds: La Camiseta writes "Wired has an article discussing the extent that some people will go to in order to stay connected. My favorite is their 4-way SMP system that fits into a briefcase."
So you wanta mesh networking? I givea youa the mesha networking...
..fits in 32mb.. ..can also be bought with a an miniITX puter to run on... for just $400.. ..has potential to change the world... or at least the telco industry.. ..is cool.. ...is developed on the right side of the atlantic... :)
Meshbox is a lightweight unix distro that does mesh networking over wifi and a gazillion other useful things..
SMP requires shared memory so this box doesn't fit the bill.
Best Regards,
Your friendly nitpicking geek.
That seems like a rather extreme case, and probably more to do with memory than with the actual processor. On most applications, using similar memory/bus technology, the VIA will come in only a little behind an Intel or AMD processor at the same clock rate. On the measure of "MIPS per milliwatt" it will come out way ahead, and that often matters even more. This is not a platform designed for raw performance. It's designed to balance performance with other factors, and does it quite well.
Also more power required, more heat, and more space. The nice thing about the Eden boards is that they do well in those three areas, which are more important in this application than raw computes, and yet they run everything that those hotter, more power-hungry processors plugged into bigger motherboards do. There are four of them because this is the sort of application where more slower processors provide benefits that fewer faster ones would not.
My quibble is not that they went with Eden, but that they didn't get the ME6000 which can run fanless. BTW, that board supports DDR SDRAM, so for a memory-bandwidth-bound application such as your squid server it would probably do quite well (assuming that the app isn't poorly coded to use more CPU cycles than necessary).
Disclaimer: I do have a VIA-based system (Shuttle SV24) but that's my only association with them. I also happen to know a couple of the Wifi Caravan folks.
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There have been several research efforts to ensure security and prevent misbehavior in ad hoc networks.
The following papers address many of the issues:
The Ariadne System (for secure routing)
Mitigating routing misbehavior
There are several others that solve similar problems in the research literature.
For wireless to really explode in the business arena, however, security needs to be built-in from the start.
Security is at least as important to the home user.
If P2P filesharing is going to keep from dying on the vine, a very robust IP masking security layer needs to be implemented soon. An IP address is like a license plate. Now that ISP's can be bullied into identifying thier users, there's really nothing we can take for granted. Those of you who take issue with filesharing may not agree, but the next application to be blacklisted may be yours.
IP anonymity is the 21st century equivalent of the proverbial "right to bear arms". It should be protected in order to ensure that we are protected from our government.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
If you want wireless security, there it is. Setup your access points (APs) with a DMZ. That's a small space in the networking architecture of the AP that anyone can access.
The only thing you will find in that DMZ is a portal to sign into the VPN server. You have a VPN account, you're in there. You don't have a VPN account? Sorry. Is it perfect? Maybe not, but it's a helluva lot better then relying on WEP.
Craenor
I fail to share your concerns. A hardwire network has only access security. Anyone is able to plug into it and your so called security turns instantly into anti-security.
You should be using encryption at the software level, and the data level, not the hardwire level. Software level encryption and data level encryption can be changed on a daily basis. hardware level security is permanent and once broken you can toss your foolish devices in the toilet.
Actually, the people who design ad-hoc routing protocols are very much aware of this issue. If there's an alternative route through plugged-in stations, it will be preferred. If your battery power, as reported through the routing protocol, is low, traffic will be routed somewhere else if possible. Sometimes, though, you might be the only link between two network segments, and there's no choice but to route through you. You don't even know whether that's the case, but that's the risk you have to be willing to take as the cost of participating in such a network. If you want guarantees, you can always use a traditional "infrastructure mode" AP setup that's under your own complete control.
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