[MLB-WIRELESS] Fwd: Wireless convoys

[Clae]

>To: barrelfullofmonkeys at yahoogroups.com
>From: Rak Razam <shazaman at netspace.net.au>
>Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 13:23:27 +1100
>Subject: [BarrelfullofMonkeys] Wireless convoys
>Reply-To: BarrelfullofMonkeys at yahoogroups.com
>
>Wireless Caravan: Geeks on Parade 
>By Michelle Delio  |   Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1
>
>
>
>02:00 AM Feb. 22, 2003 PT
>A happy band of geek gypsies hit the road Friday. And they didn't 
>leave their technology behind.
>Traveling in what they call the Wifi Caravan, five members of the 
>Janus Wireless Project formed a rolling wireless network with the 
>intention of maintaining a constant connection throughout the 
>14-hour car journey from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco.
>   En route to the CodeCon 2.0 programmers' conference, passengers in 
>two cars sent e-mail and kept in touch on Internet relay chat, 
>surfed the Internet and shared files. To break up the monotony, they 
>streamed music between the cars using Icecast and played multiplayer 
>games.
>They also did a little war driving to see how many unprotected 
>wireless networks they could spot along the way.
>"Janus is essentially just a bunch of geeks with common interests," 
>said member Steven Cockayne. "We are open-source advocates, some of 
>us are programmers, and we also do quite a bit of research in the 
>wireless field in order to make whatever we discover public domain 
>in the hope that it can help better support the online community."
>The heart of the Wifi Caravan's mobile network is a custom-built 
>multiprocessor computer running Linux. The entire system fits into a 
>briefcase.
>Kyle Williams, a Janus researcher, said they were still tweaking the 
>system five hours before departure.
>"Things are never done with us," Williams said. "As soon as a 
>project is finished, we look at it and try to figure out how to make 
>it better. And then we take it apart again. What can I say -- we're 
>computer geeks. That's just how we are."
>According to Cockayne, roughly 130,000 miles of dark (that is, 
>unused) fiber-optic cable lie between Portland and Seattle, most of 
>which was put down by telecom providers who went out of business and 
>no longer own the cabling. One of the Janus road-trippers' goals was 
>to research that cable's potential.
>"There have been quite a few talks about the city (of Portland) 
>creating wireless broadband connections off of the fiber in order to 
>provide everyone in range with broadband connections at 11 Mbps for 
>roughly $20 a month," Cockayne said. "Janus would like to help 
>provide such a service.
>"We are basically aiming to eventually provide a similar ISP-style 
>system, and would possibly be using the same means. So this trip is 
>a proof-of-concept of sorts, to show that a 'wireless blanket' can 
>be created and all tied to a central network with ease."
>Janus is also hoping the trip will prove the stability of mobile 
>wireless networking.
>"We've done some extensive research in the field of wireless, and 
>this seems to be the next natural evolution," Cockayne said. "A 
>fully portable wireless network that functions similar to a small 
>NOC (network operations center)" -- essentially a command center 
>from which a network is monitored and problems are diagnosed and 
>fixed.
>The Wifi Caravan has rolled out before, but on a smaller scale, with 
>only one car carrying multiple laptops. The group will make its next 
>caravan trip to Defcon in Las Vegas in August.
>As of mid-morning on Friday, seven hours after the caravan left 
>Portland, all systems were still up and working. Janus members had 
>maintained a constant, reliable connection between the cars, even 
>when they pushed the speed limit by cruising at 80 mph.
>"We're not surprised. We knew this would work," Cockayne said. "It's 
>just way more fun to test it on a road trip."
>
>


-- 
"As a net is made up by a series of knots, so everything in this 
world is connected by a series of knots.  If anyone thinks that the 
mesh of a net is an independant, isolated thing, he is mistaken.
It is called a net because it is made up of a series of connected 
meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibilities in relation 
to other meshes."
- The Teaching Of Buddha, (c) Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Buddhist Promoting 
Foundation), Tokyo 1966,

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