[Noisebridge-discuss] Mesh Thursdays @ Noisebridge?

Jonathan Lassoff jof at thejof.com
Sat Feb 9 00:31:25 UTC 2013


Hey Alcides, I'm quite interested in making mesh and other dynamic
topologies work well, however it's quite tough.

In my spare time, I've been volunteering for a small group that works
with one person in the Department of Technology in the SF Government
that coordinates connecting up city optical fiber and RF tower access
to public housing and other public sites (like libraries, etc.) to
provide free WiFi to those that need it most.
We often refer to this project as the "Community Broadband Network" (CBN).

It's not really mesh, but instead a network of fixed links, many of
which are 802.11a/Ubiquiti Airmax.
Noisebridge hosts a node that we were going to utilize for access, but
it feeds off of an AP on Twin Peaks that is way overloaded and
RF-noisy. We get terrible, near-useless throughput.
There is another fiber-backed site at 19th and Mission we could
connect via, but would need to construct a taller tower to see over
one tall building in the way. Or, if we can get some other building on
the West side of Mission between 18th and 19th, we could do a
multi-point leg.


SFLAN is all but stagnant at this point. The Internet Archive still
keeps some nodes online and keeps the transit flowing. However,
there's not much in the way of centralized management or growth.


I've been experimenting with 802.11s (open80211s in Linux) and OpenWRT
to build small mesh cells for local transport. However, it's been
tough going, and scaling it up is proving challenging.

The hardest part about making mesh work on a large scale is figuring
out how to coordinate spectrum management and tuning, without a
central authority or management group controlling everything.
This is the problem I'm most interested in solving well.


I'd be interested in meeting up some Thursdays, but can't commit my
time at this point. However, I'll keep it in mind. Ping me when you're
headed over sometime, and I'll come visit.

Cheers,
jof

On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 4:02 PM, Alcides Gutierrez <alcides888 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Havent checked SFLAN. I heard some mention of towers on sutro last night.
> Think it was a reference to Monkeybrains though. Also heard something about
> a city tech guy (SF). Interested to learn more about infernet archive mesh
> and nbers that are trying to reach it. Thanks for reaching out.
>
> Alcides Gutierrez
> http://e64.us
>
> On Feb 8, 2013 2:07 PM, "Danny O'Brien" <danny at spesh.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 08, 2013 at 01:13:53PM -0800, Alcides Gutierrez wrote:
>> > Hi all. I went to a mesh meeting at sudo room last night and there is a
>> > good
>> > discussion about actually exploring and testing mesh in oakland. They
>> > meet
>> > weekly @ 830 and I would very much like to continue making it to those
>> > meetings.
>> >
>> > Im hoping we here in san francisco can also cook up a mesh effort. I
>> > couldnt
>> > find anyfhing on the wiki calendar. So Im proposing a meetup on
>> > thursdays maybe
>> > around 600pm-730ish? I would then be heading to sudo room to participate
>> > their.
>> > Would be nice to have company on bart.
>> >
>> > Any interest in this?
>> >
>> > Alcides Gutierrez
>> > http://e64.us
>> >
>>
>> That sounds really interesting! Have you spoken with the SFLAN folks?
>> The Internet Archive was looking at providing a wifi mesh, and I know
>> Noisebridgers have been trying to reach their link (on Sutro I think) to
>> expand it.
>>
>> Ccing Jof who may know a good contact.
>>
>> d.
>>
>>
>>
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>



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