CUWiN blogs

Using CUWiN for Disaster Relief

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:43:08 -0500

A homeland security expert named W. David Stephenson has started posting a series of short videos on using simple, everyday technology to facilitate communication and coordination during disasters. This one mentions using CUWiN livecds to create an instant wireless network, similar to what was actually done in New Orleans as part of a grassroots disaster response for Hurricane Katrina.

International Summit to Address Future of Broadband

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:51:47 -0500

-- Community Technology Leaders from Six Continents to Participate --

Champaign-Urbana, I.L., April 18 -- The CUWiN Foundation and the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) will host the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (http://WirelessSummit.org) from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

The summit is the largest gathering of wireless network developers, technology and policy experts, and community organizers working to build universal, low-cost broadband networks around the world. "We are proud to host an event that brings together technologists and activists committed to universal access to informatics," said Marco Figueiredo, CCI Director.

"The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks explores the opportunities and challenges facing the growing movement to build community and municipal broadband networks," said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder and Executive Director of CUWiN. "This event showcases cutting-edge technologies and develops political strategies to increase digital inclusion."

Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. The Summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and
software innovations.

Presenters at previous summits have included FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group, Annie Collins of Fiber for Our Future, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, Harold Feld of Media Access Project, Robert W. McChesney of Free Press, Matt Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village, Greg Richardson of Civitium LLC, Paul Smith of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, Jim Snider of the New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel of NYCwireless, Esme Vos of Muniwireless.com and many other luminaries.

"High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, the DC-based policy think-tank. "The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone."

About CUWiN (http://www.cuwin.net)
The CUWiN Foundation is a world-renowned coalition of wireless developers and community volunteers committed to providing low-cost, do-it-yourself, community-controlled alternatives to contemporary broadband models. CUWiN is fiscally sponsored by Grassroots.org, a non-profit 501c3. CUWiN's mission is todevelop decentralized, community-owned networks that foster democratic cultures and local content. Through advocacy and through our commitment to open source technology, CUWiN supports organic networks that grow to meet the needs of their communities.

About CCI (http://cci.cs.loyola.edu)
The Center for Community Informatics engages Loyola College’s students, faculty and staff in supporting the creation and deployment of informatics tools for community empowerment. CCI develops the Community Telecenter Free Software Toolset; promotes awareness events for the Loyola College community; offer courses in Community Informatics; promotes Digital Inclusion Conferences; researches and develops human-friendly technologies to facilitate inclusion in the New Society of Knowledge; and, evaluates, documents and develops sustainable models for Universal Access to Informatics.

CUWiN Announces Projects for Google Summer of Code 2007

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:40:36 -0500

We are happy to announce that for a second straight year the CUWiN Foundation plans to take part in Google's Summer of Code. Last year we were able to support two successful projects. This year, we hope to mentor several more projects.

For a list of the projects that CUWiN is supporting for Summer of Code 2007, click here.

For more information about the projects or to suggest a project that would further develop our CUWiNware software, please send an email to David Young, our Chief Engineer.

New CUWiN Brochures

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:38:09 -0500

CUWiN has recently finished its new brochure. Click here to download a copy today.

CUWiN Vision Quest 2007

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:00:00 -0600

On Tuesday, January 30, 2007, CUWiN staff gathered to take part in Vision Quest 2007. An off-site location was donated by the the Episcopal Foundation of the University of Illinois. We met in the late afternoon and began with Dutch coffee and double-chocolate brownies.

Spirits were high as the staff took stock of the organization's progress and where we want to be at the end of 2007. Important plans were made to get CUWiNware, our flagship software, to version 1.0. We also agreed on the future of Hack Night, which will take a decidedly technical turn beginning very, very soon (details to be released later today). We also established important goals for our new consulting services and development efforts.

Our day concluded with a fantastic meal at a local establishment. The energy created at Vision Quest bodes well for the future of the CUWiN Foundation, as we build on past successes to promote open, democratic networks and provide better mesh networking products.

VoIP on CUWiN Network in Rural Ghana:

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:02:00 -0600

From CUWiN's partners at Wireless Ghana just sent in this update on their use of VoIP services over a CUWiN network:

The VoIP is available at three locations, and allows communications between two community centers in Akropong and one in Apirede, spanning a 6km distance. An application called SJPhone is running the frontend and doing IP to IP dials across our CuWIN-based WiFi mesh network. VoIP marks the first service Wireless Ghana has implemented to work solely on its LAN. The service is available at all times that electricity is available, even when our satellite Internet uplink is not.

As VoIP technology becomes more mainstream the teams at Wireless Ghana aim to deploy such services with greater scope.

CUWiN Staff in Dharamsala, India -- Blogging from the Ground at Air Jaldi.

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:29:00 -0500

CUWiN Team members Ross Musselman (Outreach Coordinator) and David Young (Chief Engineer) are on the ground in Dharamsala, India at the AirJaldi summit. Ross has been blogging at:

http://nsneedle.blogspot.com

CUWiN Completes Port to Meraki Mini

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:07:00 -0500

CUWiN is pleased to announce that we have successfully ported our flagship software to the Meraki Mini. Documentation on the port can be found at http://cuwin.net/manual/howto/meraki.

Porting CUWiN software to the Meraki Mini makes using CUWiNware even cheaper by dropping the price point of nodes that can run CUWiNware from a few hundred dollars to around $50. The Meraki Mini is perfect for making apartment buildings and office spaces wireless, as the infrastructure costs are significantly cheaper than wired installations.

For more information about CUWiN, contact
Ross Musselman
ross@cuwin.net
Tel: +1 217 278-3933 x. 30, Fax: +1 217 278-7171

Blogging from the Alternative Telecom Policy Forum in Ottawa, Canada.

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:31:00 -0500

CUWiN Executive Director, Sascha Meinrath, is blogging from the Alternative Telecom Policy Forum in Ottawa Canada today and tomorrow. He gave a plenary session last night on Community and Municipal Wireless Networking and the COMMONS Project (to create a collaborative fiber peering network among participating networks) -- and hopes to have the slides from that presentation up on his blog momentarily.

Meanwhile, Sheila Copps, former minister of Canadian Heritage, just presented. Ile Sans Fil Co-Founder, Michael Lenczner blogs about it here.

Meanwhile if you'd like to "join" the forum -- live video, audio and (occassionally snarky) commentary is publicly available here.

More blogging updates will be available here.

Free Public Access Terminals Available at UCIMC

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:10:32 -0500

August 1, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Daniel Meredith, CUWiN Senior Network Engineer
217-278-3933 x30 daniel@cuwireless.net

Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator
217-278-3933 x30 ross@cuwireless.net

***

CUWiN PROVIDES FREE PUBLIC ACCESS TERMINALS AT THE URBANA-CHAMPAIGN INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER AS A PART OF NEW DIGITAL INCLUSION INITIATIVE.

CUWiN has partnered with the Acorn Active Media Foundation (Acorn) and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) to provide Internet computers for the public -- the next step in spreading free broadband services throughout the local community.

CUWiN, Acorn, and the UCIMC invite the local residents to try out the new public access computers. The terminals, which use CUWiN's mesh network to provide broadband Internet access, are free and open to anyone who wishes to use them. They will be available during the UCIMC's open hours.

These Internet access terminals are part of an initiative funded by the Threshold Foundation to demonstrate the potential for Internet and multi-media Intranet services utilizing a community-owned wireless mesh network. CUWiN will also be providing free wireless hotspots in Lincoln Square Mall, the Urbana Free Library, and other public areas.

Community and municipal wireless networks have gained tremendous attention in recent years. CUWiN's software incorporates research from partnering laboratories, companies, and open source projects from around the globe with the goal of creating low-cost turn-key wireless networking solutions.

CUWiN's mission is to help bridge the digital divide by developing low-cost, open source, wireless technologies and making them available to community and municipal networks. CUWiN networks have been established in urban settings like Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., as well as rural places like the Mesa Grande Indian Reservation near San Diego, California, and Apirede, Ghana.

"The wireless technologies being developed and deployed by CUWiN as a part of this initiative hearken back to the innovation and vibrancy of early Internet development." stated Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator. "With a focus on maintaining Internet freedom, these new technologies support digital inclusion around the globe."

For more information on this initiative, contact the CUWiN team at:

E-mail: cu-wireless-support@cuwireless.net
Phone: +1 217 278-3933 x31.

http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/cu-wireless-announce

About the UCIMC: The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice in the urbana Area. We are dedicated to addressing issues that the mainstream media neglects and we do not conceal our politics behind a false objectivity. We will empower people to "become the media" by providing democratic access to available technologies and information.

About the Acorn Active Media Foundation: Acorn engages in software, website, and technical development in support of the global justice movement. The Acorn Active Media Foundation is an employee-run tech collective whose members are themselves activists; the projects Acorn staff work on are chosen based on members' interest in working on them.

CUWiN/UIUC Partnership Awarded $500,000 NSF Grant To Develop High-Performance Open Source Mesh Wireless Technologies.

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 09:11:57 -0500

July 20, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN Executive Director
217-278-3933 x30 sascha@cuwireless.net

Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator
217-278-3933 x31 rgmussel@cuwireless.net

***

CUWiN/UIUC PARTNERSHIP AWARDED $500,000 NSF GRANT TO DEVELOP NEXT GENERATION OPEN SOURCE MESH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign partners with CUWiN to build high-performance, robust open source wireless mesh networking technologies.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $500,000 in grant funding to support a research and development partnership between the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This initiative, "Toward building a Performance-Predictable Wireless Mesh Network", focuses on the development of wireless routing protocols, network testing systems, and gateway discovery in open-source technology. The grant, part of the Network Technology and Systems Program of the NSF, provides support over a three-year period.

"CUWiN is building the next generation of mesh wireless technologies. Most importantly, CUWiN is releasing our software under an open source license -- allowing communities, municipalities, organizations, and individuals around the world to deploy low-cost alternatives to current proprietary systems." stated Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN Executive Director.

Community and municipal wireless networks have gained tremendous attention in recent years. The ultimate objective of this CUWiN/UIUC partnership is to incorporate research results and system prototypes into production code to be widely distributed by CUWiN. With the help of CUWiN, the research to be carried out by UIUC researchers will make a real impact and effect high-throughput, cost-effective broadband access both for the U.S. and worldwide.

"I am extremely pleased with the fact that NSF recognizes the importance of carrying out research on a real multi-hop wireless network. CUWiN provides us with a city-wide research testbed to understand how, and to what extent, wireless links are affected by PHY/MAC attributes and other environmental factors. All the measurements we make on CUWiN will help characterize the behavior of wireless links and identify control 'knobs' in the MAC/PHY layers with which the network capacity can be optimized." Principal Investigator, Jennifer Hou, stated.

CUWiN's mission is to help bridge the digital divide by developing low-cost, open source, wireless technologies and making them available to community and municipal networks around the world. CUWiN networks have been established in urban settings like Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., as well as rural places like the Mesa Grande Indian Reservation near San Diego, California, and Apirede, Ghana. CUWiN continues to expand its development testbed in Urbana, Illinois in partnership with the City of Urbana and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

"The wireless technologies being developed by CUWiN as a part of this initiative hearken back to the innovation and vibrancy of early Internet development."stated Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator. "With a focus on maintaining Internet freedom, these new technologies support digital inclusion around the globe."

For more information on this initiative, contact the CUWiN team at:

E-mail: cu-wireless-support@cuwireless.net
Phone: +1 217 278-3933 x31.

http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/cu-wireless-announce

CUWiN Status Report for Nodeconfig and Multi-Radio

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:30:10 -0500

CUWiN ROADMAP

0.7.0 bug fixes in hsls; multi-architecture build - August 2006
0.8.0 improved web interface/nodeconfig for multi-radio - September 2006
0.9.0 meraki mini support (pending availability)
1.0.0 bandwidth shaping; discover and select gateways (pending SoC project)

CUWiN 1.0 REQUIRED FEATURES

- ROBUST AND DE-BUGGED
fix bugs such as internet gateway default route problem

- NODECONFIG / TURNKEY
multi-radio setup so nodes can provide access points

CUWiN 1.1+ FEATURES

- Discover and select gateways [Michael Earnhart SoC project 2006; target for 1.0.0]
When there are 2 gateways and one is crowded or slow, pick the other. End users will understand and judge CUWiN based on getting easy fast Internet access. Is this called "gateway-selection protocol"?

- Name Service
Communication and content-sharing among community participants. The "ad-hoc name service" is 80% complete. Specs are at http:// svn.curireless.net/svn/cuw/trunk/doc/local/ name-service*. Dave has code for the reflection aspect. We need to do the nodeconfig part. Need to debug name service bridge. We can also add ability to have a DNS name on the internet and advertise servers. Name service is overdue.

- WifiDog
Captive portal and authentication. When nodes provide access points, we want to allow the node administrator to require login from a captive web page before they get network access. Registration might just require a MAC address or email.
We would operate a back-end wifidog server; Dan Merideth is setting this up. Each node would be a client. Bryan, Chase or Bill Comisky could help import and Dave has instructions: http:// svn.cuwireless.net:8080/svn/cuw/trunk/doc/local/3rd-party-src.d/ general-import-insns.

COMING FEATURES NOT SCHEDULED FOR A SPECIFIC RELEASE

- ETT: Another mesh routing metric for experimentation; extract from kernel and inject into hslsd.

- HSLSD "feature-complete": adapts more quickly to changing networks, improve bootstrap, handle merges, handle bidirectional links according to BBN TR 1301. Add linkstate locking and decision/hello/ lsu threads, so real-time performance for flooding/hello protocal improves.

- Virtual AP: NetBSD team will be porting this from FreeBSD, we hope. This will allow a node with one radio to be both a backhaul and access point.

COMING PLATFORM/DRIVER SUPPORT NOT SCHEDULED FOR A SPECIFIC RELEASE

- Linux Port: CUWiN is tightly integrated to BSD so a Linux port will not be trivial, and will require a significant contribution to maintain over time. For these reasons Dave feels a Linux port is a low priority. Jennifer Hou and other supporters desire a Linux port, however, and it may grow the coder and user base. If someone is willing to perform the port and maintain it, Dave is ready to accept this contribution. ETX and HSLS are already ported to Linux. Note: Linux cross-build already exists and is used by CNT and others.

- There is a large list of cards that need drivers and consumer-grade devices we want to support. Meraki Mini is the important one that we hope to provide by 1.0.0.

RESEARCH IDEAS - NOT DESIGNED OR SCHEDULED FOR ANY RELEASE

- support nodes sleeping for power savings, expand HSLS by adding sleeping logic based on WSN/sensor techniques [offer by Ashish in July 2006]

- IPv4/IPv6 NAT Traversal: Teredo would allow IPv6 services in the mesh to be available at IPv4 addresses from the Internet. Tunnels, such as OpenSSH, may be needed for end-users to make services available. Alternately, assign each computer a global IP address?

- Channel Agility: Research ability to coordinate channel changes or operate on multiple channels. Dave feels this is a significant amount of work. This will improve speed and efficiency.

- Remove Quagga to compress CUWiN size. Currently we are only using Quagga for it's ability to enter routes into the kernel routing table.

- VoIP: R&D is needed to reduce latency. Also test video.

- Bandwidth shaping

- QoS

- Collect and Publicize Node Data: needed by administrators.

- Scalability to clouds of more than 50 nodes.

- Configuration information store.

- VizRoute: improve, switch from GD to another library, release for net admins

- Low Priority Research: OPN / MS Research's MultiNet. Setting appropriate carrier-sense thresholds. Transmit power control; self- interference mitigation such as Least Interference Routing. Multicast. Act on interface events (up/down/add/delete) and media events (active/no-carrier). Redistribute routes from other protocols to hsls.

- Compress CUWiN to 8MB: to move to smaller, cheaper devices.

- Testing Harness Platform: A way to test cuwin routing, hsls, to identify bugs and performance bottlenecks in a controlled environment.

- 802.11 link adaptation: allow nodes to find best link to gateway based on packet loss and return statistics. Also need 802.11 link layer instrumentation.

Hack Night Scheduled for July 23, 2006

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:55:00 -0500

CUWiN will hold a Hack Night on July 23, 2006, at 5 pm at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. Hack Night is free and open to anyone interested in learning more about wireless technology, wireless software development, or wireless hardware. Free pizza will be available.

Hack Night is part public information forum and part exploration in the hardware and software that CUWiN develops and uses. People of all ages and abilities will find something to pique their interest. Hack Night will feature three tracks: a general information track, a software development track, and a hardware building track. A member of the CUWiN staff will be available to assist people interested in each track.

The Urbana-Champaign Independt Media Center is located in the old Urbana Post Office at 202 South Broadway in Urbana.

For more information about Hack Night, send an email to rgmussel@cuwireless.net or call our office at (217) 278-3933.

CUWiN Announces Mesa Grande Reservation Installation

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:49:24 -0500

19 June 2006

Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network is pleased to announce an agreement with Tribal Digital Village to install a CUWiN wireless network on the Mesa Grande Reservation.

Implementation of the network will begin on Friday, 23 June 2006, and will include the installation and configuration of 25 nodes connected to homes and public facilities on the reservation. Also on hand will be a representative of the Prometheus Radio Project, who will be in charge of documenting the installation.

For more information about this implementation, email Ross Musselman, CUWiN's Outreach Coordinator, at cu-wireless-support@cuwireless.net.

CUWiN Announces Paid Internship Opportunity

Tue, 16 May 2006 11:03:29 -0500

CUWiN announces a paid internship opportunity beginning in August 2006 to be a part of our Urbana, Illinois, team. This internship is made possible through the Americorps VISTA program (which requires that the intern be a US citizen). The intern will be involved with technical support and development, documentation, and deployment of CUWiN networks. Along with the stipend and healthcare benefits provided by Americorps VISTA, CUWiN will assist in arranging accommodations and getting the team member settled within our local community. If you or someone you know would be interested in working on one of the premier open-source wireless projects in the world, please contact CUWiN at cu-wireless-support@cuwireless.net before July 15, 2006.

Ross Musselman
CUWiN Outreach Coordinator

More info on CUWiN: http://www.cuwireless.net
More info on VISTA: http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp

Job Description

Work closely with the CUWiN core staff to facilitate the the growth of the CUWiN project. Develop long-term and short-term goals that further CUWiN's objectives and support CUWiN's vision and mission.

Identify ideal node locations. Install and troubleshoot network nodes in Champaign and Urbana. Provide technical support to local residents and partners to maintain the local wireless network. Participate in solving problems within CUWiN networks worldwide.

Work closely with CUWiN developers and local activists to implement CUWiN software in our domestic and international network sites.

Help update and maintain cuwireless.net. Answer questions on the support list.

Management

The CUWiN Project Coordinator and Technical Lead will be available daily to guide VISTA members. VISTA members will send to the CUWiN staff regular progress updates on fundraising, outreach, and website administration.

Pay

VISTAs receive a $10,748 Stipend (the living wage for a single person in Champaign-Urbana), a $4,725 Educational Award, and healthcare.