frottle: Defeating the Wireless Hidden Node Problem

jasonjordan writes "The West Australian FreeNet Group was the first to go War Flying - and now we've released "frottle" (freenet throttle) - an open source project to control & manage traffic on fixed wireless networks. Such control eliminates the common hidden-node effect even on large scale wireless networks. frottle works by scheduling client traffic by using a master node to co-ordinate - effectively eliminating collisions! Developed and tested on the large community wireless network of WaFreeNet, We've found it has given us a significant improvement in network usability and throughput. "

Comments

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I *not* supposed to understand a word of that?

Token ring reborn!

[binaryDigit]

Fans of Madge, Thomas Conrad and IBM rejoice!

Re:Token ring reborn!

[MarcQuadra]

I was just thinking that!

This sounds a LOT like Token ring has gone to the, um... ether?

Re:Is Frottle.. is good

[cybermace5]

If you had 15 normal users, would there have been a problem to begin with?

Speed isn't the problem...

[Valar]

In a lot of cases, I have noticed, speed isn't the problem. A lot of times, I conenct to a WiFi network at full speed, and it is very responsive, and then suddenly it will drop link. It will go from full signal strength to none, seemingly instantly, then work again a minute or so later. This is because the problem is reliability of connection, especially in 'built up areas' i.e. the city. So, what we really need is a redundant, wireless backbone, so I can browse my pr0n-- err, open source software without gettting dropped signals.

Ah yes....

[cybermace5]

Yet another project following the tradition of allowing the developers' children to name it.

Wow

[BelugaParty]

before I could even understand the problem there is a solution. I'm impressed. And to think, these people do this in their spare time.

agreed

[jmarkantes]

I agree. Freenet? Again?

At least we know who to thank- on the bottom of frottle's page under the special thanks is:

jas for coming up with such a catchy name

Yay jas.... very catchy.

J

Re:They're reinvented Alohanet, circa 1970

[FattMattP]

They're reinvented Alohanet, circa 1970

They should have no problem getting a patent on it then.

Re:Just read the article..

[Tailhook]

Color me unimpressed.

Yeah, me too. You lamers. All you're doing is adapting old ideas that you didn't invent to new situations. You should just deal with the problem and stop trying to improve your situation. Who do you think you are? People with free will? WTF is wrong with you?

If you want good behavior from your wireless system, you're supposed to go forth and spend large sums of money on exotic, highly vertical equipment from specialized vendors. How do you expect to command respect from anyone if you don't do it that way?

Idiots.