[Battlemesh] Kyiv mesh and Starlink

[Daniel Golle]

Hi,

On Thu, Mar 03, 2022 at 07:05:09PM +0100, Benjamin Henrion wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Elon Musk shipped some Starlink dishes, would it be useful to ship some
> mesh devices to spread the signal further?

Depends on the goal you got in mind. Both (Starlink and wifi mesh) won't
help to connect to the rest of the world in case the uplink gets cut.
And yes, this applies to (current) Starlink as well, it will also need a
ground-station **nearby** (as Starlink is low orbit it can't be that far)
to be connected to the rest of the world as inter-sat links are not yet
implemented in the current satellites up there. Sure, this can be multi-
hop (ie. ground-sat-ground-sat-ground link) and probably a even a
mobile-setup on a truck or something for the intermediate ground
station -- but still a single point of failure and an easy target.

Medium orbit stuff may actually be much more suitable for this situation,
as the ground station for that can be more far away (ie. within the EU
and close to an Internet exchange there, eg. in Budapest or Bucharest)

WiFi mesh may help to connect locals using specialized applications or
extend the range of still working or sat-connected WAN uplinks, but
all radio comms (esp. sat!) are doomed once someone puts a big enough
jammer close enough to you.

Low-speed but high-reliability networks like Iridium or even InmarSat
are most likely also much more resiliant to jamming compared to
high-bandwith stuff (and won't need a nearby base station).

Just my 2 cents...