<div class="gmail_quote">Hi everybody, this is an information and collaboration request mail<div><br></div><div>Some wireless community networks, at the moment <a href="http://guifi.net" target="_blank">guifi.net</a>, athens wireless and arig (Israel), are working on a proposal to be submitted to this EU cross border cooperation programme [1], limited to some mediterranean (EU and non EU) countries.</div>
<div>We named it med-mesh [2], in very short is "the big helps the little" stuff. The long term scope is to build a free interconnected network around the mediterranean by vegetative growth of existing networks, interconnection beetwen them and supporting new communities around the area.</div>
<div><span>This program offers a unique chance to get achieve goals related to </span><span>the interconnection of our networks, something which is rarely </span><span>prioritized above local, internal community tasks.</span></div>
<div>To achieve that I think we need to cover 5 topics, all of them well known by all of us :)</div><div><br></div><div>(by no order)</div><div>1-. Tools for easy, non technical, deployments</div><div>2-. Hardware and manwork to configure/deploy it</div>
<div>3-. Locations for the network nodes</div><div>4-. Interoperability standards/info/protocols</div><div>5-. Services working inside the network</div><div><br></div><div>The proposal aims to provide all of this to new/existing communitties in the area (and of course to all potential communities elsewhere)</div>
<div>It's not our intention to build new tools/code when something exists already, so if you know something about tools/info we might have overpassed, please ket us know. Getting more in-deep on each item:</div><div>
<br></div>
<div>1-. Tools for easy, non technical, deployments</div><div>This has been achieved on each communitty under 3 diferent focus depending in how the network was created/configured (or maybe the network has been deployed following one of these focus)</div>
<div><ul><li>Firmware based, preconfigured image or manually configured: Freifunk wiki [3], freifunkfirmware generator [4] or wlan-slovenia can be examples of that [5]</li>
<li>Firmware based, autoconfigurable. Quick mesh project [6] and its precedessor graciasensefils [7]</li>
<li>Config file based. This is the <a href="http://guifi.net" target="_blank">guifi.net</a> unsolclic stuff inside its drupal module[8]</li>
</ul><div>Since there are out there several web applications (nodewatcher from wlan-slovenia [9], wind from awmn [10], the drupal module from guifi [8], something else?) I don't see the need of building a new one, although a some-kind of fusion would be great (maybe a developers meeting can be funded through this grant). Each of the tools mentioned has its features, and depending on the network's focus one or another fits better. Maybe a comparison/documentation can be done trough the project to let the new community choose the best for them</div>
</div><div><br></div><div>2-. Hardware and manwork to configure/deploy it</div><div>This completely a local network issue. Lot of info is out there and everybody here has huge experience, writing a kind of compendium or best practices manual can be useful for new communities. Maybe this can be funded by the grant and the result be also included in the Wireless Networking in the Development World book/community [11] or other initiatives</div>
<div>Also several in-site training and assistance shall be provided by volunteers from the EU "big" networks</div><div>Amir, from Arig's [12] in Israel plans to interconnect his network to somewhere in Cyprus or Greece. </div>
<div><span>Currently two main technologies are considered to make this possible, </span>troposcattering[13] stuff<span> or </span><span>SDR & distributed reception antennas similar to the one mentioned in </span><span>this recent CCC talk on distributed satellite ground stations. </span><span>[14]. Anyone with experience/ideas/references to places where this has </span><span>been attempted welcome to add feedback.</span></div>
<div>Of course if this option isn't feasible we plan a VPN interconnection</div><div><font color="#222222" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><div>3-. Locations for the network nodes</div><div>Exactly the same as point 2. Also links from Tunisia to Italy seems possible</div>
<div><br></div><div>4-. Interoperability standards/info/protocols</div><div>Confine project [15] (an EU funded research project in which AWMN, funkfeuer and <a href="http://guifi.net" target="_blank">guifi.net</a> are involved) is working on this and this project would be a real application of the tools they develop. For the experience trying to interconnect existing networks this can be a real issue</div>
<div><br></div><div>5-. Services working inside the network</div></div><div>All the web applications mentioned provide some kind of network service listing or viewing, but also some other services focused to the users are worth deploying (like internet access, file sharing, IRC or whatever). Make this easier for "normal" users adds value to the network</div>
<div><br></div><div>Summarizing: we plan to deploy this free network. If funding is finally achieved it would be easier but in any case, community help is needed.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Disclaimer 1: this is a WiP, still not submitted anything and chances of getting the grant are really really low (first present a concept proposal that fits the requirements, then pass the first cut and be invited to present the full proposal and the end the final election), but all the work done will be helpful somehow</div>
<div>Disclaimer 2: my technical scope is very poor, bear in mind when reading</div><div><br></div><div>[1]<a href="http://www.empicbcmed.eu" target="_blank">www.empicbcmed.eu</a></div><div>[2] <a href="http://www.enpicbcmed.eu/calls-for-proposals/content/med-mesh-free-neutral-and-open-data-network-around-mediterranean" target="_blank">http://www.enpicbcmed.eu/calls-for-proposals/content/med-mesh-free-neutral-and-open-data-network-around-mediterranean</a></div>
<div>[3] <a href="http://wiki.freifunk.net/Hauptseite" target="_blank">http://wiki.freifunk.net/Hauptseite</a></div><div>[4] <a href="http://www.wgaugsburg.de/cgi-bin/newkit/" target="_blank">http://www.wgaugsburg.de/cgi-bin/newkit/</a></div>
<div>[5] <a href="http://wlan-si.net/en/" target="_blank">http://wlan-si.net/en/</a></div>
<div>[6] <a href="http://qmp.cat/projects/qmp" target="_blank">http://qmp.cat/projects/qmp</a></div><div>[7] <a href="http://gsf.guifi.net/repository/source" target="_blank">http://gsf.guifi.net/repository/source</a></div>
<div>[8] <a href="https://gitorious.org/guifi/drupal-guifi/trees/master" target="_blank">https://gitorious.org/guifi/drupal-guifi/trees/master</a></div><div>[9] <a href="http://dev.wlan-si.net/wiki/Nodewatcher" target="_blank">http://dev.wlan-si.net/wiki/Nodewatcher</a></div>
<div>[10]<a href="http://wind.cube.gr/" target="_blank">http://wind.cube.gr/</a></div><div>[11]<a href="http://wiki.wndw.net/index.html" target="_blank">http://wiki.wndw.net/index.html</a></div><div>[12]<a href="http://arig.org.il/" target="_blank">http://arig.org.il</a></div>
<div>[13]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposcatter" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposcatter</a></div><div>[14] <a href="http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/28C3/mp4-h264-LQ/28c3-4699-en-building_a_distributed_satellite_ground_station_network_h264-iprod.mp4" target="_blank">http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/28C3/mp4-h264-LQ/28c3-4699-en-building_a_distributed_satellite_ground_station_network_h264-iprod.mp4</a></div>
</div>[15]<a href="http://confine-project.eu/" target="_blank">http://confine-project.eu/</a>