ManchesterWireless

manchesterwireless summer shindig

It's been too long since we've held a meeting near the city centre, so hopefully this should attract plenty of newcomers, from Manchester, Salford, and Stockport. We have a room booked from 2pm on Sat 7th August at the Zion Arts Centre, in Hulme.

Current IDEAS for workshops/talks:

• Node building workshop
We are doing some work with Redbricks and Homes for Change (more to follow). This would be a good opportunity for everyone to come down and witness how easy it is to setup an access point.
• Constructing/Calibrating a VSWR meter

Raylab from London are keen to do this, and we apparently have access to some of the tools they need. I'll be inviting them along, although not yet sure if they'll be able to make it.
• 2.4GHz spanalyzer show & tell

Yes, we might have access to one of these babies!
• Digging tunnels through the pennines

We are planning to link some our access points to Sheffield's community wireless network. We could try to setup the links during the workshop.
• Setup greatermanchesterwireless VPN

Of the nodes that we have, very few can see each other. We plan to link them together using tunnels to form a Virtual manchesterwireless network.
• manchesterwireless.net website relaunch!

A tad optimistic perhaps
• Some talks / status reports

[General manchesterwireless status report],
[A status report from Warrington Wireless],
[Deploying a community wireless network in your back garden],
[Streaming a live gig from your house using VideoLAN (next gig is 08/08/04)],
[Cook ducks on Heaton park using 802.11b],
[Building a community wireless phone system with Asterisk],
[Website plans/relaunch: a call for volunteers]

wiPod - a free hotspot directory for your iPod

OK, it might be more of a gimmick than a useful utility, but this little piece of software sounds very cool. The BayAreaFreeFi website is offering free downloads of their wiPod hotspot directory, which lists locations of free-to-use hotspots in the Bay Area.

We'd love to be able to offer something similar in Manchester, but the first thing we'd need to do is to setup a database of open access points. There is some work being done on this, but we could always do with more help. If you could lend a hand, drop me an email

In other news, Atheros have announced the iminent (read at least a year) release of their new MIMO antenna technology. MIMO technology can potentially make more efficient use of the 2.4GHz band, providing more bandwidth, greater range, and more scalable networks.

Wi-Fi hardware developments

We've speculated in the past about how interesting things will become when you can use your mobile phone at a free Wi-Fi hotspot. Obviously we weren't the only ones thinking that way. Documents on the FCC website indicate that Motorola's CN620 handset, which is due in Q1 2005, can seamlessly transfer Wi-Fi Voice-Over-IP calls to GSM.

Other interesting bits of kit in the news include a Linux powered Wi-Fi + 3G router, and the debian based Meshcube. The Possio PX30 is a high end access point capable of providing net access via GPRS, 3G, or Bluetooth. The PX30 runs Linux on a 300MHz XScale processor, and judging by the number of expansion option, is eminently hackable.

The Meshcube (above), which we mentioned back in October is now finally available. Aside from the fact that it looks really cool, it also ships with a custom version of linux, designed to form meshes using the OLSR routing protocol. Equipped with a couple of radios, this device could potentially take the effort out of building scalable mesh networks.

Mesh networks and why they don't scale

For a long time, companies promoting wireless "mesh networks" have ridden a wave of media hype, as pundits queue up to present ad-hoc wireless networks as the answer to the "last mile problem".

We weren't the first when we pointed out that mesh networks don't scale, but since then startups have continued to burn their way through venture capital, selling a network model which just won't work.

The issue hit the news again, when Francis daCosta, founder of mesh networking company meshdynamics, admitted the flaws inhernet in Wi-Fi meshing in his article 'The Ugly truth about mesh networks'.

The article has spawned plenty of responses, notably from Sascha Meinrath of the CUWiN project, and Jim Thompson, formerly of Wayport, Musenki, and Vivato. Jim's analysis is particularly telling, and he offers some interesting conclusions.

1) '802.11 won't scale. Mesh based networks based on 802.11's MAC won't scale. I agree.

2) Mesh can scale.

3) Community wireless networks will happen, and there is nothing that the carriers or telcos can do that will stop it.

The most interesting nugget to take from this article is that Linux drivers for the Atheros chipset allow you to write your own wireless MAC layer!

We've known for a long time that Wi-Fi is extremely ill-suited for what we want to use it for, but I had never realised that we can take advantage of commodity hardware to design and implement a Community Wireless MAC protocol.

Instead of implementing mesh routing protocols over a network that won't scale, why don't we design ourselves a MAC layer that will?

helpyourselfmanchester gig webcast *almost* live

Well, the gig went ahead, and surprisingly almost everything went to plan. Live streaming of the gig proved difficult over ADSL, but the full stream is available over the wireless network.

Unfortunately the net connection is down, and if you want to see some of the clips, you'll have to wait a little while.

But for now, we've got a few pictures:

 

[That's Belle Epoque, the floor, and The Pines]

Video streams to re-appear later