[Battlemesh] med-mesh, a proposal to obtain funding from the EU

[Albert Homs i Gall]

Hi everybody, this is an information and collaboration request mail

Some wireless community networks, at the moment guifi.net, 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.
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.
This program offers a unique chance to get achieve goals related to the
interconnection of our networks, something which is rarely prioritized
above local, internal community tasks.
To achieve that I think we need to cover 5 topics, all of them well known
by all of us :)

(by no order)
1-. Tools for easy, non technical, deployments
2-. Hardware and manwork to configure/deploy it
3-. Locations for the network nodes
4-. Interoperability standards/info/protocols
5-. Services working inside the network

The proposal aims to provide all of this to new/existing communitties in
the area (and of course to all potential communities elsewhere)
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:

1-. Tools for easy, non technical, deployments
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)

   - Firmware based, preconfigured image or manually configured: Freifunk
   wiki [3], freifunkfirmware generator [4] or wlan-slovenia can be examples
   of that [5]
   - Firmware based, autoconfigurable. Quick mesh project [6] and its
   precedessor graciasensefils [7]
   - Config file based. This is the guifi.net unsolclic stuff inside its
   drupal module[8]

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

2-. Hardware and manwork to configure/deploy it
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
Also several in-site training and assistance shall be provided by
volunteers from the EU "big" networks
Amir, from Arig's [12] in Israel plans to interconnect his network to
somewhere in Cyprus or Greece.
Currently two main technologies are considered to make this possible,
troposcattering[13]
stuff or SDR & distributed reception antennas similar to the one mentioned
in this recent CCC talk on distributed satellite ground stations. [14].
Anyone with  experience/ideas/references to places where this has been
attempted welcome to add feedback.
Of course if this option isn't feasible we plan a VPN interconnection

3-. Locations for the network nodes
Exactly the same as point 2. Also links from Tunisia to Italy seems possible

4-. Interoperability standards/info/protocols
Confine project [15] (an EU funded research project in which AWMN,
funkfeuer and guifi.net 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

5-. Services working inside the network
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

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.

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
Disclaimer 2: my technical scope is very poor, bear in mind when reading

[1]www.empicbcmed.eu
[2]
http://www.enpicbcmed.eu/calls-for-proposals/content/med-mesh-free-neutral-and-open-data-network-around-mediterranean
[3] http://wiki.freifunk.net/Hauptseite
[4] http://www.wgaugsburg.de/cgi-bin/newkit/
[5] http://wlan-si.net/en/
[6] http://qmp.cat/projects/qmp
[7] http://gsf.guifi.net/repository/source
[8] https://gitorious.org/guifi/drupal-guifi/trees/master
[9] http://dev.wlan-si.net/wiki/Nodewatcher
[10]http://wind.cube.gr/
[11]http://wiki.wndw.net/index.html
[12]http://arig.org.il
[13]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposcatter
[14]
http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/28C3/mp4-h264-LQ/28c3-4699-en-building_a_distributed_satellite_ground_station_network_h264-iprod.mp4
[15]http://confine-project.eu/
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