Community Mesh Networks Status 2012

transcript

Community Mesh Networks

Status 2012

Sebastian Büttrich, sebastian@less.dk

NSRC / IT University of Copenhagen

Last edit: February 2012, ICTP Trieste

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Agenda

I was asked to present a case study –

but so much is changing in and around community mesh networks

That I will change my agenda

Agenda

‣ A timeline and historical perspective of community mesh networks

‣ What has changed over the last decade?

‣ Relevant developments in community mesh networks, 2012

‣ A case study from 2008 / revisited

Timeline

‣ 2002 Freifunk, Germany http://www.freifunk.net

‣ 2002 Djursland, Denmark

‣ 2003 Funkfeuer, Austria http://www.funkfeuer.at

‣ 2004 Guifi, Spain, http://guifi.net

‣ 2005 CuWin Champaign Urbana, USA

‣ 2005 Peebles Valley, South Africa

Timeline

‣ 2005 Dharamsala, India, http://airjaldi.com

‣ 2005 Ghana Wireless

‣ 2006 Linknet Zambia

‣ 2008 Sengerema Telecenter, Tanzania

… this is neither complete nor unbiased - find more here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region

a look back in time:

Mesh cases

• Community network started in Berlin/Germany, to fill a gap in broadband (DSL/Fiber) access

Now there is almost no gaps anymore ...

• Home of the Freifunk Firmware

• Number of Nodes: 500+ Berlin, many more with several 100s

The Freifunk movement

Mesh casesThe Freifunk movement

180 nodes (Oct 2005)this = graphviz visualization

Mesh casesCuWin / USA

Mesh casesDharamsala / India

• Using Linksys WRT54G with OpenWRT firmware

• Using OLSR with ETX

• Connecting non-profit organizations

• Developed by Dharamsala Information Technology Group / TibTec

Mesh casesPeebles Valley, Mpumalanga, South Africa

• Meraka Institute, CSIR Pretoria

• Using FreifunkFirmware

• < 10 nodes right now, but growing

• First node was the Aids care training and support (ACTS) clinic

Community mesh networks in 2012

Advice I would give a community network project today:

‣ 1) Lay fiber/cable if you can!

‣ 2) If you can not do fiber/cable, do wireless backbones and APs!

‣ 3) If you can not do 1) or 2), do mesh!

Open for discussion!

What has changed since 2005?

‣ Lots of new (highly mobile!) devices

‣ The stationary desktop computer is disappearing

‣ More bandwidth needed

‣ Mobile data cheaper and more available

‣ Some of the "community" mesh companies went the wrong (evil) way (Meraki, Fonera)

What has changed since 2005, technically?

‣ The Linksys WRT54 is no longer our "swiss army knife"

‣ OLSR is no longer our one and only choice for routing

‣ Dual (multiple) bands, multiple radios

‣ 802.11n is everywhere

‣ 802.11s, long believed to be dead or inferior, seems to come back to life (OLPC, Google)

One the other hand ...

‣ Ownership and freedom of networks more relevant than ever

‣ Mobile surveillance and shutdown in times of conflict, from USA to Germany to Egypt to Libya to … (insert your country here)

‣ New political momentum - from Egypt to Occupy (inspires projects like http://openmeshproject.org/, Commotion)

‣ Facebook and Google privacy disasters create support for community owned structures

What to watch in mesh 2012

What to watch in mesh 2012People's data, WSN, citizen scientists

What to watch in mesh 2012

… and here's the case study,

Sengerema, Tanzania2008

Case study:Sengerema TelecenterShared Mesh Network

On behalf of the Sengerema team: Sebastian Büttrich, wire.less.dk

edit: February 2009 @ ICTP

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Mesh casesSengerema, Tanzania

• Sengerema Telecenter• Part of Tanzania Telecenter Network

(TTN)• First shared mesh network in Tanzania• Supported by IICD (Netherlands)

Sengerema MeshBackground

• Sengerema multi-purpose Telecenter: computer services, printing, office, internet, education, FM Radio Station (reach 400,000 people) etc

• Has internet connection - VSAT 128/64 kbps through COSTECH(Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology) – newskies.com as VSAT provider

Sengerema Telecenter

SengeremaTelecenter:Tower

Sengerema MeshRemarkable aspects

• New business models aiming at sustainability independent of funding

• Network creation embedded in capacity building and community growing

• Addressing the “chicken – egg” problem of creating a rural IT environment

• Lakezone Wireless Expert Group

Sengerema Mesh

Customers

Sengerema MeshCustomers / Users

• First round:

• The Union of Disabled Association of Tanzania

• Sengerema Non-Governmental Network-SENGONET

• Sengerema Focal Development College (FDC)

• District Educational Office / DEO

• Sengerema Agricultural Office

• Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Commerce (TCCIA)

• UNDP/SLEM Entrepreneurs office

• Teachers Resource Centre (TRC)

• Tanzania Teachers Association (TTA)

• Home of the Elderly

• KIMOSA enterprises

• Ward

• Upcoming:

• Primary School

• Hotel Lisbon

• And many more ...

CeltelMobileOperatorTower

Sengerema MeshMap

Sengerema MeshWorkshop October 2008

Sengerema MeshTechnology choices

• Low budget (...) Mesh• Wireless routers: Linksys WRT54GL• Firmware: OpenWRT/Freifunk• Antennas: self built (with some

exceptions)• Antenna masts built locally

Sengerema Mesh: BudgetWiFi vs. Motorola Canopy

• Comparison Canopy Wifi

Initial costs per customer [USD]1200 150-200

Speed 54 Mbps 54 Mbps(With a VSAT connection of 128/64 kbps, the speed of the local wireless net will not be the bottleneck, in the foreseeable future)

Life span, expected10 years 5 years

Loss rateHardware failure, Theft, Power fluctuations, Animals, Water/climate

? 25% per year

Mesh cases

Sengerema:Nodehardware

Sengerema Mesh

Node hardware

Sengerema Mesh

Super node:Omni &BiquadAntenna

Sengerema MeshGPS recording of sites

SiteSurvey:

GPS,environment,technical &humanfactors

Sengerema MeshRadio Mobile Planning

Sengerema MeshRadioMobile Planning

Sengerema MeshNetwork Plan

Mesh cases

Sengerema:Installation

Sengerema MeshAntenna Masts

• 6 poles L- shape each six metres• 5 poles normal each six metres

Sengerema Mesh

Sengerema MeshIMAGE

Sengerema Mesh

Opening ceremony

Sengerema MeshChallenges & Next Steps

• 10+ sites (e.g. a school with hundreds of students) getting to use the web via 128/64 kbps ... bandwidth becomes an issue

• Complete Proxy / Cache configurations• Create Local Content• Configure Bandwidth Management

• Connect the next customers waiting• Upgrade the VSAT bandwidth

• Usage problems: Lismas, the technician, reports:“A customer told me there is a problem with the internet. When I checked it, I found out he typed only two w’s instead of three to enter the World Wide Web”.

• Virus protection• Tools and techniques

Sengerema MeshFurther Info

• http://telecentre.org• http://iicd.org• Many blogs and articles from Sengerema:• http://www.iicd.org/IICDCorporateBlog/sengerema-community-browsing-the-net

• http://www.telecentre.org/profiles/blogs/people-with-disabilities-hails

• http://www.telecentre.org/profiles/blog/list?user=366s7pcdpwq42

• http://www.iicd.org/articles/launch-of-wireless-internet-in-sengerema-tanzania/

• Flickr.com: search for “sengerema wireless mesh ...” :) e.g. John Kibuuka's stream: http://flickr.com/photos/kjohnah/

Community Mesh Networks Status 2012

Documents