5 Cool Wireless Reseach Projects

Bob B writes "Including an effort by MIT researchers to exploit dense urban networks of existing Wi-Fi access points to create municipal wireless networks rather than relying on EarthLink and cities to fund and build such wireless projects. Secure tunneling is the secret sauce for making it work and not making wireless AP owners liable for miscreants who might use the bandwidth, the researchers say."

Re:

[fyngyrz]

If a story looks like a dup to me, I just don't read it. On the other hand, slashdot's completely broken moderation forces me to read everything, unless I want to miss some really good posts. So if they were going to fix anything, I'd say moderation is where to put the effort, priority #1.

As for the story, someone has to provide access to the net. Distributing it so that people get it from wifi puts the load - and the bill - on the people with the connections. As long as the Internet pipes are a commerc

Re:

[BlueParrot]

As for the story, someone has to provide access to the net.

Why? No, really, why? If the number of people using wifi this way gets large enough you effectively have a p2p network on the physical layer. The only place you need a traditional ISP is for connections outside the city, and this is where the fun part comes in. You then don't have to live in the ISP's coverage area. Any company with a large quantity of bandwidth (Google, IBM ... ) could start acting like an ISP by hooking into the wireless network a

Re:

[fyngyrz]

Why? No, really, why?

...because 99.9999% of the things you want to get to are not in the local area — no matter where you are — if you're like 99.9999% of the rest of the people on the net. I don't even get my news from a US outlet, because they can't be trusted on the one hand, and because they would rather cover Britney Spears news than actual world events or even national US events. What am I going to do for news with only a local network?

Re:

[eufreka]

this model was demonstrated YEARS ago...in a land far away. http://www.stockholmopen.net/index.php [stockholmopen.net] but no one will listen, even today. a muni wifi network does NOT have to offer free INTERNET access...it just has to provide ubiquitous access to commercial ISPs...http://software.stockholmopen.net/stockholmopen_1.shtml#SEC1 [stockholmopen.net] the muni network provides a single infrastructure and sells access not to users but to the ISPs, which then resell it to their customers. so the local cable co pays the city $3/mo per us

troll?

[SuperBanana]

Christ, can't anyone take a joke? The summary reads like they completely left out a sentence or three.

ISP EULAs

[nurb432]

This might ( most likely does ) violate most any ISP's eula. That also has to be dealt with as they want their cut too.

ISP EULAs

[CustomDesigned]

This is only true for bottom tier discount service. Most reputable ISPs have higher grade plans that allow doing anything you want with the bandwidth - including sharing it. For instance, I currently use Cox cable budget plan, which in fact prohibits sharing, public servers, etc. However, for another $25 / mo (last I checked 2 years ago), I can get the "home business" plan with a static IP, no ports blocked, no monthly usage limits (except those implicit in the cable modem instantaneous bandwidth cap and

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

http://itsmeusvita.blogspot.com/2007/03/legal-problems-with-municipal-wireless.html [blogspot.com]

http://itsmeusvita.blogspot.com/2006/12/is-it-illegal-to-use-someones-open-wifi.html [blogspot.com]

Re:

[LeafOnTheWind]

According to one of the MIT professors that I talked to when I went there, MIT, as one of the founding members of the internet, retains Tier 1 status - so they actually have more independence and power than most ISPs ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_carrier [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Hidyman]

The wiki article you linked would seem to disagree with what you say.

Re:

[LeafOnTheWind]

They are arguing the merits of being Tier 1 vs Tier 2 or another node - the point is that MIT is in effect their own service provider and doesn't have to answer to an ISP - which are mostly Tier 3s, or what some call "resellers." (Obviously there's some debate over the practical status, but I think you missed the point that MIT is independent and thus not subject to a "EULA".)

Re:

[LeafOnTheWind]

I take it back - they are not listed. The guy I spoke to must have been smokin' something. I wonder what he meant.... Maybe I2?

Re:

[LeafOnTheWind]

Heh, sorry for posting so many times: a follow-up. A couple traceroutes show that I'm being bounced directly from Level3 to MIT. If there are no other middle-men (none as I can see) that would make MIT a Tier 2 network which, as far as I can tell, would allow them to lease their backbone to whomever they want, but IANAL. http://www.level3.com/legal/acceptable_use_policy.html [level3.com] They do prohibit illegal activity, which could be a problem in public wifi.

Re:

[abb3w]

This might ( most likely does ) violate most any ISP's eula.

The last time I checked my Embarq (formerly Sprint) DSL TOS and AUP, it not only didn't violate it, it discussed a few requirements for when you shared your access. (Namely, that your end-users also not $%^& up the network hardware upstream from you.) YMMV.

Municipal Wireless using existing (private) APs

[compumike]

The first project they discuss is using everyone's existing access points to effectively form a municipal wifi network. The paper linked from the article [gatech.edu] talks a lot about the security concerns, etc. It's an interesting concept, and I've thought about trying to use the fairly dense wifi network access outdoors in an effort to move data (GPS, etc) between my vehicle and my home.

However, based on my experience with wifi, there seem to be one major problem here: interference effects. I already have problems that I can see about 6 different access points from my desk... on four different networks and SSIDs. The 802.11 spec only allows for three non-overlapping channels (in the US frequency bands, anyway). This problem gets worse as the capacity utilization factor approaches 100%, as it's more and more likely that two packets will happen to collide. This might be a huge problem for this kind of large-scale wifi, as 802.11b/g isn't really designed to operate well when you can see so many APs at once.

In any case, I wonder if they're also overestimating the infrastructure deployment costs. One of the most amazing things to me was how, within a decade, everyone suddenly had wireless in their home and workplace. In fact, in urban areas, it wouldn't surprise me if there were 1 private access point for every 10 or 20 people. People aren't afraid to pay to get cool technology -- although it's a bit different when the government does it.

--
Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation. [nerdkits.com]

Re:

[UltraMathMan]

Seconded, I volunteer at a small elementary school with a one to one laptop program just a couple blocks from a major university, and interference effects are becoming more and more of a problem. Last I counted I could see something like 15-20 APs in one of the classrooms, and while sitting on the school's wireless network in that room you are guaranteed to lose all signal at least once an hour. This is obviously a problem, but moreover a dropped connection when using one of the network based programs (such

Re:

[RGRistroph]

I don't think that carrying out a full-coverage municipal wi-fi project requires adding access points where there are already access points. That was kind of the point of the article. New access points would be added were there are currently none, possibly. Existing access points would be used where they are available, and traffic tunneled over them in an encrypted form, for social and legal reasons.

I think that this structure should help, not hurt, the access point clashing that goes on in highly dense

Re:

[IhuntCIA]

Another solution, would be to open up more bandwidth to the 802.11x protocols.

Looks like 802.11n [wikipedia.org] is the new one that maybe could satisfy the need for the bandwidth, and maybe slightly better range.
However that won't solve the main problem, interference effects, as parent noted.

Re:Municipal Wireless using existing (private) APs

[mpeg4codec]

It's an interesting concept, and I've thought about trying to use the fairly dense wifi network access outdoors in an effort to move data (GPS, etc) between my vehicle and my home.

You may be interested in this gentleman's setup [gritch.org]. It's somewhat light on details, but it proves that it definitely can be done.

Re:

[randyjg]

THere is plenty of highly effective interference mitigation techniques, time domain correlation and transform domain excision, for example. I have no idea why current wifi doesn't use these techniques to their fullest. Still, interference is an issue only because it is not being adressed, not because it is insoluable.

As for ISP bandwidth, technically, if you have a CDN (via satellite downlink) the amount of bandwidth actually needed is minimal. Thats because if you are dealing with these neighborhood intern

Reseach projects...

[jalet]

Are they related to spelling checkers ?

Downside?

[thatskinnyguy]

If someone was leaching all of my bandwidth to the point of me not being able to get my email with something like BitTorrent, I would be absolutely pissed!

Re:Downside?

[antifoidulus]

Dude, if you are checking your email with bittorrent, you are doing it wrong.

Re:

[psychicsword]

What you haven't tried the new P2P email it is all the rage with today's youth. It goes directly trough the government using the bitorrent protocol. They even forward it to your desired destination. They even take the time to throttle it for you because you don't want to use too much bandwidth on emails now do you?

Re:

[corychristison]

Today's youth still uses e-mail? I was under the impression that Facebook, MySpace, etc. were the latest things...
Facebook on Bittorrent, eh? Sounds like an interesting project! Anyone interested?

Re:

[LingNoi]

I have a good friend that uses facebook to talk to me. It's fking annoying as I have an email saying "so and so sent you a message" and then I have to go to the website to read what they said.. ugh.. Talk about having to jump through hoops.

Re:

[Shadow-isoHunt]

His inbox simply has *that much* porn.

Re:

[Warbothong]

That seems to be the only argument against sharing bandwidth. The problem with it is that you're ALREADY sharing your bandwidth, since your ISP will have sold the bandwidth you have payed for to many many other people. Thus, the only real difference between sharing a Wifi network and not sharing it is that in one scenario your ISP (which is shafting you) gets payed again and again for the same tubes.

Re:

[LingNoi]

Reading this is making my brain work overtime to try and decipher its meaning.

It's like a one of those Nintendo DS brain training games except it hurts your head.

reseach [sic]

[ikebuma]

6. wireless spellcheck

"Secure Tunnelling?"

[LM741N]

Isn't that how the gophers communicated so efficiently in Caddyshack?

FON wireless

[subitophoto]

Sharing wireless look what these guys have done. http://www.fon.com/en/ [fon.com]

Re:

[sciurus0]

For a noncommercial version, try coova [coova.org]. They release firmware based on OpenWRT that's makes running a hotspot relatively easy. More importantly, they run a service called AAA, which I think is basically a public RADIUS server. Set any wifi router that supports WPA/WPA2 Enterprise to use it and anyone with a coova.org account can log in. It even supports OpenID!

Re:

[dogs4ar]

Finally, someone who gets it! I'm sick of all of these whiners who say "I can see 10 or 20 wireless AP's within range of my system, and it's killing me!" Gee, imagine all of those AP's converted into one mesh network. You'd only see 1.

That's right, 1 network to rule them all. If that's too paranoid for you, break it up into 3 overlapping networks. Call them NBC, ABC, and CBS for historical reasons. I don't care. Don't assume that if this model gets implemented any time soon, though, that you are go

So.. What do I need to do?

[Kludge]

So I leave my wifi open, but I only allow outgoing secure OpenVPN connections?
Is that the idea?

why do i want to open my AP?

[atarione]

what is in it for me?

NOTHING...???

have a bunch of moochers sapping my bandwidth

opening my network to possible security risks

quite possibly get deprovisioned for breaking my ISP's EULA

run the risk that one of the moochers was d/l'ing child pr0n or was Al-queda and then spend much time trying to explain it was not me...NO REALLY

it is a neat idea... but the downsides for the people you need in order to make it work... seem to really be unsurmountable.

plus besides convincing them to do it... (even if you could

First Responders - Data sharing in Emergencies

[Furmy]

The paper describes outfitting such devices as the handheld computers used by first responders with elements dubbed a "device root key" and a "storage root hash" to enable temporary access to information.

I think this idea needs to be pursued. Having immediate but temporary access to need-to-know info such as medical history, contact phone numbers, and even a programmable access card for building (apt or condo) access to respond to 911 calls would be excellent.

The temporary, secure design would reduc