News about CUWIN

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

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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.

Sign up for the once-a-month CUWiN e-mail news list at:

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

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.

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.

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 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.