[Commotion-dev] Serval Mesh Helper Device / ISM long-range meshing work

[Ben West]

Likewise, Ubiquiti also sells 900MHz versions of their Nanostation and
Bullet access points.  I understanding these units essentially just have
2.4/5.8GHz chipsets that have been translated to a different band, and with
some consequent penalty in spectral efficiency.

E.g.
http://www.wirelessnetworkproducts.com/locom900.aspx

I would like to assume OpenWRT and derivatives will run w/o complaint on
such 900MHz units, but I'm guessing it's not that simple.

On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 11:00 PM, Paul Gardner-Stephen <
paul at servalproject.org> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Just a heads up on some stuff we are doing at Serval that I think will
> be of interest to Commotion deployments more generally.
>
> We are now actively working on what we call our "Mesh Helper Device",
> the prototype of which will consist of a TP-LINK WR703N running
> Commotion OpenWRT + servald, connected to an RFD900 ISM 915MHz band
> packet radio and a rechargeable battery.
>
> This gives the potential for much greater range than just WiFi, as
> well as offering some resistance for 2.4GHz jamming in places where
> that is a problem.
>
> The RFD900s with current firmware in urban settings offer 5x to 10x
> range compared with WiFi.  For example, I could receive a decent
> signal with one radio sitting on my lounge, and the other radio with
> me walking around the block, up to about 150m away -- with the signal
> path obliquely through perhaps 8 or 10 houses, fences, cats, dogs,
> trees and everything else.
>
> With good clear line of sight, and a low noise floor, ranges of 10km
> or more are possible, with some evidence pointing to the actual limit
> being around 80km - 120km in very ideal conditions.
>
> We have already managed to get Serval Mesh traffic, including some
> Rhizome transfers (but not yet voice) running over one of these links:
>
> servalpaul.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/breaking-wifi-barrier-serval-mesh.html
>
> We think a complete Mesh Helper Device, including these really nice
> radios could be built and sell for <US$200.  It may also be possible
> to use a cheaper compatible (but slightly lower performance) radio and
> get the price down to <US$100.
>
> The RFD900 firmware only does point-to-point communications, but it is
> entirely possible to make it do "ad-hoc" point-to-multipoint
> communications.  Perhaps this is something for us to look at as a
> follow on after our current work block is complete.
>
> We are hoping to have a couple of these with us in New Zealand in a
> couple of weeks for the KiwiEx field trial. General outline of our
> thinking for KiwiEx at present is at:
>
>
> http://developer.servalproject.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=content:exercises:kiwiex2013
>
> If there are other things people would like tested while we are there,
> let me know, and we will endeavour to cover them.
>
> Paul.
>
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>
>


-- 
Ben West
http://gowasabi.net
ben at gowasabi.net
314-246-9434
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