Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Article: Mesh Networks - Harnessing the power of wireless devices

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2003 18:11:14 -0400

MESH NETWORKS

Harnessing the power of wireless devices

By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff
6/9/2003

As if our cellphones or laptops didn't have enough to do handling our own wireless
communications needs, a Florida company wants to put them to work carrying other
people's data as well. The US Army has already used the concept on the battlefield
in Iraq, and now MeshNetworks Inc. of Maitland, Fla., is bringing the idea to the
civilian market -- first for use by police officers and firefighters and someday
by all of us. 

The technology bears the same name as the company. Mesh networking is based on the
idea that wireless devices can be made far more powerful and versatile if they're
programmed to link up with every other compatible device within range. Then the
linked devices act like routers on the Internet. When someone on the mesh makes a
phone call or sends an e-mail, the message bounces from point to point on the
mesh, from a pocket phone, to a laptop, to another phone in a car, until it
reaches a land-based receiver connected to the standard phone network.

''The Internet is a big mesh network,'' said Peter Stanforth, MeshNetworks' chief
technology officer. ''We take that whole concept and make it mobile.'' Stanforth's
company is also taking the concept to market, betting that governments,
businesses, and, eventually, individuals will embrace it.

Like many innovations in technology, this one began with the military. In the
1990s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was looking for ways to help
soldiers quickly set up robust communications networks in hostile environments.

It decided to make every radio a combination cell site and data router. Each could
not only transmit and receive its own messages, but also relay data from other
devices in the mesh. In this way, hundreds of soldiers spread over dozens of
square miles could easily stay in touch, even if a particular radio didn't have
the range to span the entire distance. Because the distance between relay hops is
fairly short, routing all this radio traffic puts only a small burden on each
radio's battery.

When a soldier switches on a radio, he's immediately linked to every other radio
in the mesh. When the soldier switches off, the network instantly reconfigures
itself, rerouting message traffic to the remaining radios. The system also
provides highly accurate location data on each radio. If one unit in the mesh has
a global positioning system and can fix its exact location, that data can be used
to calculate the location of all other units on the mesh to within about 30 feet.

The US Army calls this system a ''tactical Internet,'' and some units, like the
4th Infantry Division, used it in the Iraq war. MeshNetworks is now seeking to
bring the same concept to bear on a variety of civilian networking tasks.

But the success of mesh networking is by no means assured, warned Phil Redman,
wireless industry analyst for the research firm Gartner Inc.

''It's real interesting stuff. It's very scalable, it's very flexible, very
adaptable,'' said Redman. But mesh networking is also quite different from
traditional communications systems, a fact that may make potential customers
nervous.

''Because it's still unproven and very cutting edge,'' said Redman, ''it's going
to be very difficult for them in this space.''

For now, Stanforth says his company is mainly focused on radio gear for use by
police and fire departments. Devices would be given to individual police officers,
sewn into firefighters' protective gear, and mounted in patrol cars and fire
trucks. Ground-based access points scattered throughout the city would capture
messages relayed across the mesh and route them to headquarters using the standard
telephone network.

Dan Himes, national director of business development for Viasys Corp., a reseller
of MeshNetworks products, says part of the system's appeal is the ability to
transmit data at broadband speed -- up to 6 million bits per second.

''You can actually send video across this,'' Himes said. ''A police car could pull
up to a scene and transmit video of the scene back to headquarters.''

And a mesh network's ability to provide instant location data could save the lives
of firefighters, according to Dean Valentine, network coordinator for Orange
County Fire Rescue in Winter Park, Fla.

Valentine's department was impressed by a demonstration of a mesh network that
used a local supermarket to simulate a smoke-filled building. A mesh transmitter
was hidden in the store to simulate a trapped firefighter. Valentine said such a
search would usually take 20 minutes -- far too long to save someone's life. But
using a laptop connected to the mesh, he said, ''we played hide-and-go-seek and we
were able to find the individual in about 3 minutes.'' That's why Valentine is
seeking funding from the county government for a large-scale test of MeshNetworks
technology.

But Stanforth doesn't expect to see mesh networking confined to public safety or
government work. Mesh networking is compatible with WiFi wireless data networks
and with the broadband version of the popular CDMA cellphone technology.

''Ultimately, the broadband networks we all carry around will all use some ad hoc
mesh,'' he said.

Today's WiFi wireless Internet hotspots have a range of only about 300 feet. Mesh
networking could ''turn a hotspot into a hot zone,'' said Stanforth, allowing
users to bounce messages from one WiFi device to another, over several blocks or
several miles. Indeed, Stanforth said that MeshNetworks has held preliminary
discussions with Cometa Networks, the AT&T-IBM-Intel partnership that's planning
to deploy WiFi networks in major US cities.

Stanforth is also interested in putting mesh networking devices in cars. Imagine a
vehicle signaling that it's just had a flat tire. Not only would the state police
be notified; so would the other cars on the road. The other drivers could start
slowing down or selecting alternate routes.

Adding telephones to the mesh will probably be the final step, Stanforth said.

''The telephone network is damn good at doing what it does,'' he said, so
cellphone companies may see little reason to plug into the mesh.

But cellphone makers like Nokia and LG are beginning to add WiFi to their handsets
to allow users to make cheap phone calls over wireless Internet services. Adding
mesh networking capability is the next logical move. So in a few years, your
cellphone could be busily chattering away over a mesh network even when you're
not.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [email-masked].

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 6/9/2003.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/160/business/Harnessing_the_power_of_wireless_devices+.shtml

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