[Cu-wireless] Reminder -- MEETING THIS SATURDAY: Feb 21 at Noon
at the CWN Office.
David Young
dyoung at pobox.com
Thu Feb 19 20:18:07 CST 2004
On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 09:44:32AM -0600, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Just to remind everyone, there will be a Community Wireless Network
> meeting this Saturday Feb 21 at Noon at the CWN Office (Second Floor of
> 115 W. Main St. in downtown Urbana). The meeting will start on time (so
> plan to arrive a few minutes early) and last for one hour (though working
> groups might wish to meet afterwards).
>
> Here's the tentative agenda:
>
> 1. Introductions
> 2. OSI Grant Summary/Update & Funding Disbursement Overview
> 3. Press Conference Follow-ups
> 4. Guaging Participants Interests & Skills
> 5. Finding Programmers
Here are some project ideas. I would like somebody to run with each
of them.
0) VoIP R&D for wireless.
Research and develop a VoIP solution for ad hoc wireless networks.
1) There are utilities that I use or that I would like to use in the
build script for C-U Wireless boot media that needlessly require
root privileges. These programs are
mkisofs(8)
pkg_add(1)
pkg_remove(1)
I have already done the research leg-work to program a privilegeless
alternative to mkisofs. It is best to ditch mkisofs(8), imho, and
start from scratch inside the framework that the makefs(8) utility
gives us.
I have a copy of a nascent pkg_* replacement that is a great starting
point for privilegeless versions.
2) Adapt the C-U Wireless software Realtek's RTL8181, an 802.11b
System-on-a-Chip (SoC).
The RTL8181 integrates a 200MHz MIPS CPU, two ethernet controllers,
an 802.11b MAC/baseband, a PCI bus controller, and lots of I/O on the
same piece of silicon. It's intended for use in APs, but it could be
used to make a low-cost rooftop router. The RTL8181 (google for it)
is famously used in the Minitar AP, which runs Linux.
I am working on an open-source driver (the first!) for the radio bits;
someone in Australia is working on a port of NetBSD/MIPS to the SoC.
I would like to see the C-U Wireless software running on the Minitar
AP or some other RTL8181 implementation, since that could lower our
costs a lot.
3) Port NetBSD to Atheros' 802.11a/b/g System-on-a-Chip.
The Atheros SoC is also a MIPS CPU with integrated 802.11a/b/g
MAC/baseband. It
could be used to make an inexpensive and featureful rooftop
router. Your mission is to find out the peculiarities of Atheros
MIPS implementation so that you can get NetBSD/MIPS to run on it.
There is a part open-, part closed-source driver for Atheros'
802.11a/b/g chipsets. You need to persuade Atheros to release a
version of the closed-source portion that suits the SoC. If that
does not already exist, it is probably in development.
I will think of more....
Dave
--
David Young OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933
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