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Linux-based Mesh Router Aims at VoIP and Video
An anonymous reader writes "A startup in Santa Clara, Calif. is shipping a Linux-based mesh router aimed at VoIP and video. The Mesh Dynamics Module uses multiple radios -- along with custom real-time Linux extensions -- to create a duplexing backhaul network said to improve bandwidth more than 64 times over conventional mesh technology. Normal, single-radio access points function in a half-duplex manner, a limitation that reduces bandwidth by 50 percent for each hop in the mesh. Mesh Dynamics is attempting to solve this problem by dedicating separate radios to upstream and downstream traffic of a 'backhaul' network that relays traffic between mesh nodes, thus simulating full-duplex operation."
I've commented on the math that Mesh Dynamics uses to justify their system on several occasions -- needless to say, it's wrong and overstates degradation. More importantly, their systems is _extremely_ expensive. Meanwhile, groups like CUWiN, FreiFunk and others are developing free open source mesh networking systems. CUWiN's software (and, for full disclosure, I cofounded and coordinate the project) can be downloaded by anyone, it's under an open source license, and everything (including the developers' environment) is freely available. We haven't implemented multi-radio solutions yet -- mainly because the bandwidth degredation hasn't been bad enough to justify it. But to do so, we're only talking about a few weeks of work -- which can be done by anyone who wants to add the feature -- and then you'd have a system that does the same thing as Mesh Dynamics, but is freely avaialable to anyone who wants it.