Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Trend: Mesh technologies allow for cheap, wireless broadband

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 21:15:00 -0500

Trend: Mesh technologies allow for cheap, wireless broadband

Wireless mesh networks allow users to share broadband Internet access at a fraction of the
normal cost. Mesh
networks use Wi-Fi networks and mesh linking software to create ad-hoc wireless networks
that operate on both
a peer-to-peer and local-area scenario. Some are proposing mesh solutions for wide-area
cellular coverage as a
means to make up for oversaturated cell towers. Such a system could reduce the amount of
dropped calls and
spotty coverage that can arise when the cell tower is overwhelmed with calls.

---------------------------------------------------
Mesh Less Cost of Wireless

By Elisa Batista

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57617,00.html

02:00 AM Feb. 13, 2003 PT

A networking tool designed to let soldiers maintain constant communication on the
battlefield is being redeployed for a
non-military purpose: providing free broadband connections.

The devices, known as MeshBoxes, allow for hundreds of Internet users to share a single
broadband connection.

With just five MeshBoxes, the tiny municipality of Kingsbridge, Devon, in western England,
was able to provide broadband
access to the citizens who live in the center of town. A group of enthusiasts eventually
want to provide all 5,000 of the town's
residents with wireless broadband.

Frustrated with British Telecommunications slow progress in wiring the town with DSL, two
members of the Kingsbridge Link
project took charge. They purchased the MeshBoxes for around $2,400, and strategically
placed them in the center of town.

The boxes piggyback off a single broadband pipeline owned by one of the local businesses
and distribute bandwidth to the
residents who tap into the network.

Users can download and swap information, share printers and even bandwidth -- for free. To
partake in the network, they
need only a PC card for their laptops ($80) or a Wi-Fi radio adapter for desktop computers
that could be purchased off the
shelf for about $160.

The eventual goal for the MeshBoxes is to get enough of them out on the street so that
almost anyone could get Internet access
from anywhere, said Jon Anderson, co-founder of LocustWorld, the company that sells the
MeshBoxes.

According to Anderson, LocustWorld has sold about 270 MeshBoxes to date. He hopes the
technology will eventually be
used throughout Europe, such that anyone traveling outside their homes can pop open their
laptops and surf the Web wherever
they go.

"The long term plan for this is to build absolutely gigantic networks," he said. "It's
evolving into such a total reality."

Industry analysts have doubts as to whether this plan could be implemented on a larger
scale.

Seamus McAteer, an analyst with Zelos Group, said such a scenario requires the cooperation
of individual users, who would
have to agree to share the same phone line. Similarly, DSL providers, who own the
pipelines, would have to back the idea.

However, the concept relies on two technologies that are already readily available: Wi-Fi
and mesh networks.

Wi-Fi, the most popular form of wireless Internet access, is practically ubiquitous in
coffee shops, airports, offices and homes in
the United States. The technology was slow to catch on in Europe, but that appears to be
changing.

The number of so-called hot spots in Europe -- places where people can receive Wi-Fi
access -- has jumped from 269 at the
end of 2001 to 1,150 at the end of last year, a gain of 327 percent, according to market
research firm IDC.

A drastic decline in price for Wi-Fi gear and easing of federal restrictions surrounding
the build-out of hot spots, both
contributed to a surge in Wi-Fi use, IDC said in a recent report.

Even though the concept of tapping into Wi-Fi networks for Internet access is fairly new
in the region, some European
communities are already looking at ways to connect these hot spots for wide-area seamless
coverage. That's where mesh
networks come into play.

Soldiers in remote areas and emergency rescue workers already use mesh networks to
communicate directly with one another
rather than rely on an on-site base station, or in the case of Kingsbridge, an Ethernet
connection in every single home.

Generally, when someone makes a cell-phone call, the phone's signal travels to a cell
tower and then to another person's
handset. A mesh network decreases dependence on cell towers by allowing the signals of one
phone to jump directly to
another handset.

Peter Stanforth, chief technology officer for peer-to-peer wireless provider Mesh
Networks, said the advantage of a mesh
network is that individuals can communicate with one another without having to build
expensive infrastructure like cell-phone
towers or additional broadband pipelines. The signal from one device like a cell phone or
a desktop computer could jump from one
handset to another until it reaches its final destination.

Such a system could reduce the amount of dropped calls and spotty coverage, which can
arise when the cell tower is
overwhelmed with calls. It would be easier and cheaper to install a mesh network and more
affordable for customers to use,
Stanforth said.

The one disadvantage of this relay system is a slight latency -- usually lasting
milliseconds.

"We felt that this was the way wireless should be done in the future," Stanforth said.
"The ability to use a lower-powered radio to
help with the whole cost of scalability -- that's really what it's all about it."

A couple of groups that won't view this technology as a convenience are the phone
companies and cable service providers.

Considering that they installed the broadband pipelines to begin with, they don't like the
idea of residents selling the bandwidth or
giving it away for free, McAteer said.

Even if the more open-minded telcos were to allow it -- Anderson said he's been approached
by an Internet service provider open
to bandwidth sharing -- this doesn't mean that the residents will go for it.

"First of all you would have to have an agreed upon protocol to authenticate users and
give access across a host of networks,
cooperating access point providers and getting everyone to agree to share," McAteer said.
"I think it's a stretch."

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