[CWN-Summit] Trust is good - control is better

[Alexander List]

On 02/04/2011 05:39 PM, Paul Fuxjäger wrote:
> The relevance of community networks in this context is not a new thought,
> one commenter even points directly to guifi etc. But the text summarizes it
> well, doesn't it? Let's add a refined scope of "where innovation is needed":
>
> - layer 1 & 2 = freeing it spectrum-wise and make it efficient
> cooperative-communication-wise on the medium-access so that we are not as
> dependent on point-to-point links and installation of directive antennas on
> roofs etc 
> - parts of application-layer (distribute the DNS and the OSN platforms
> themselves).
> - layer 8: come up with "the delicious cake" so that it flourishes and grows
> fast 
>
> The remaining parts of the stack are more or less fine as they are, aren't
> they? 

More or less. The DRM sh*t on higher layers can get into your way as
well, in particular if you think about smartphones, where users have
almost no control over their devices.

Getting a bit off-topic now, but well... not entirely:

It's not just community networks, but also HAM operators. They have
always been involved in emergency communications. HAMs had packet radio
links years before WiFi came around, of course with ridiculously low
bandwidth (1200bps, later 9600bps). Early experiments started in 1978... [1]

Somehow, coinciding with increasing popularity of the Internet,
development of amateur packet radio networks, including TCP/IP over
packet radio (AMPRnet, 44.0.0.0/8), stalled in the early 1990s and there
was little progress after that. The limitation to run everything over
AX.25 (Amateur X.25) prevented innovation for a long time. Only in
recent years, amateurs picked up the developments in WiFi hardware and
started creating their own high bandwidth backbone IP networks. [2]

Recalling discussions from Vienna and some e-mails, there is
already something under way in Serbia/Croatia/Slovenia to have a
cooperation between community WiFi and HAM networks. The legal situation
in Europe doesnt' allow carrying non-amateur traffic or connecting to
the Internet. However, in case of a major disaster and/or other critical
event, HAMs should be able to "flip the switch" and enable routing for
others and from/to the Internet. And sharing knowledge/locations/passion
is still allowed...

Changing the routing in an emergency case means a lot of
reconfiguration, because AMPRnet uses private AS ranges to prevent
peering with the "public" Internet, and nobody ever made the effort to
get IPv6 off the ground in AMPRnet. [3]

I've met some of the Swiss amateurs yesterday and will most likely help
them build up their HAMnet infrastructure, providing my Linux and IP
network know-how. We almost have a greenfield situation here, so I'd
like to be able to do IPv6 from the start.

To come back to your original point: Amateurs definitely need more
innovation from the free software/free spectrum folks, but they fear
that somebody might take away or question their frequency allotments...
I wouldn't advocate that, because their chunks are rather small and can
be used for experiments (with a ham license)...

Alex

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio#Timeline
[2] HAMnet in Austria (OE),
http://wiki.oevsv.at/index.php/Kategorie:Digitaler_Backbone,
http://www.do4bz.de/
[3] http://wiki.oevsv.at/index.php/IP_Adressen