Hi Robert!<div><br></div><div>First, I think your idea of flagging portable devices on an OLSR network is interesting and would be worth considering further. I spent most of this summer (through GSoC) working on a mesh networking application for Android which is built on OLSR. The project is open source, you can browse the repository online here:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://wlan-lj.net/browser/trunk/meshapp">http://wlan-lj.net/browser/trunk/meshapp</a></div><div><br></div><div>And the wiki page for the project (which needs an update) is here: </div><div><br>
</div><div><a href="http://wlan-lj.net/wiki/Podrobnosti/MeshApp">http://wlan-lj.net/wiki/Podrobnosti/MeshApp</a></div><div><br></div><div>I am still maintaining this project, but I have been busy with moving and school for the last few weeks so there have not been any changes to the code base recently. I will have time this weekend to work on a few critical issues that will make the application (hopefully) workable in some basic sense. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would be very glad to hear them.</div>
<div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex; ">
I have much of the equipment needed to set up a testbed here in Boston,<br>but so few people interested in mesh wifi enough to give their time. What<br>a shame.<br><div><div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br></div><div>
This is fantastic! I am about an hour and a half away from Boston (depending on how fast one drives...) out in Amherst, MA -- I study mathematics and computer science here at UMass. I too have some mesh network equipment, and have been seriously entertaining the idea of building a small test bed around here. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Something interesting I have recently learned about is that there is already some existing infrastructure for such a network to be built here, and there are hoards of students that would be interested in such a project. See the following links:</div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/amherst-community-wireless">http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/amherst-community-wireless</a></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/umassdieselnet">http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/umassdieselnet</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/dieselnet-buses">http://prisms.cs.umass.edu/dome/dieselnet-buses</a></div><div><br></div><div>So there is already some basis for work to be done here. Unfortunately, these websites do not have particularly recent information -- so I will have to find somebody who works on the project to get more information about what the situation is currently like.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Anyway, I would be willing to drive down to Boston and meet up with you at some point soon if you would like to discuss building a mesh testbed, mesh networking on Android, tweaking OLSR for mobile usage...etc.</div>
<div><br></div><div>It would be quite interesting to have mesh networks in Boston and Amherst, especially considering the relatively large student population.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>-Charles</div><div><br>
</div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Robert Keyes <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bob@sinister.com">bob@sinister.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010, Henning Rogge wrote:<br>
<br>
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 20:01, Robert Keyes <<a href="mailto:bob@sinister.com">bob@sinister.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> I am going to put OLSR on my G1 at some point.<br>
>><br>
>> But I wonder if OLSR is really the most appropriate mesh protocol to be<br>
>> used on a portable device. Portability would seem to indicate frequent<br>
>> change of routing, and the updates required might swamp a network. I<br>
>> haven't tried this yet, and I imagine there is some network tuning which<br>
>> could help minimize this, but a portable node joining a large network of<br>
>> stationary nodes may not be so welcome.<br>
> There should be some optimizations for a combined "fixed/mobile" mesh.<br>
> For example the mesh should prefer nodes with "infinite" powersupply<br>
> for routes and flooding routing data.<br>
><br>
> The best case would be if the wireless node is not needed for<br>
> routing/flooding at all. In this case it does not need to send TCs, so<br>
> it doesn't really congest the network that much.<br>
<br>
</div>Perhaps nodes running on Android should have some sort of 'portable' flag<br>
they send to identify themselves, until the rest of the work is done in<br>
optimizing for portable nodes.<br>
<br>
Since the node's own idea of its 'predicted availability' might have a<br>
wide variety of estimations, represented by numbers that may be real<br>
rather than discrete, perhaps these is a simple method to handle based<br>
upon algorithm. I'll have to give this some more thought.<br>
<br>
The idea of power supply for transmission is an important one. Even nodes<br>
which are fixed may be battery powered, and when their batteries are low<br>
other routes should have preference. But such nodes would have a fixed<br>
location; so there should be a different attribute to indicate<br>
power-limited versus fixed/mobile location. A mobile node located in a car<br>
is one which has an unlimited power supply but is not in a fixed location,<br>
where as when it is parked, its power supply becomes limited and its<br>
location becomes fixed. A cellphone becomes stationary and of uniited<br>
power when it is plugged into its charger.<br>
<br>
What I have said above is not an argument or thesis but just my thinking<br>
aloud, so to speak, thinking while typing.<br>
<br>
I have much of the equipment needed to set up a testbed here in Boston,<br>
but so few people interested in mesh wifi enough to give their time. What<br>
a shame.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>