1. 1 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. September 2011 Proposed Use Case & Improve ad-hoc mode for 802.11ah/a/b/g/n Date: 2011-08-20 NameAffiliationsAddressPhoneemail Paul Gardner- Stephen Flinders University & The Serval Project Inc 10 Minchinbury Terrace, Marion SA 5043, Australia +61427679796paul@servalproject.org Romana Challans The Serval Project Inc 11 Holder Road, Hove SA 5048, Australia +61403865721romana@servalproject.org

2. 2 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. The Future Holds Surprises The unpredictable nature of the future, especially when it relates to technology, is possibly the ONE thing we can predict with absolute certainty. However, there are many things that we can use to determine probable outcomes. No-one could have foreseen the huge explosion in not only mobile phones, but other mobile devices. The use of these devices has also been surprising, with not only cellular network usage, but wireless use of smartphones growing exponentially. 2

3. 3 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. The Medium needs to cope with the Message(s) The rise of the use of mobile communications technology (including tablet devices using programs such as Skype & Facetime for business and personal communication) has shown that people embrace the notion of communication anywhere, anytime. Cellular networks are becoming rapidly overwhelmed. There also needs to be a solution that provides alternatives to them in rural and regional locations, countries with high poverty rates, developing and third world communities, and areas hit by emergency or disaster scenarios.

4. 4 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Humanitarian Engineering Engineers Australia has declared 2011 is the Year of Humanitarian Engineering – recognising the role of engineering in improving quality of life and disaster recovery. Wikipedia defines Humanitarian Engineering as: 'research and design under constraints to directly improve the wellbeing of marginalised communities'. In that spirit, creating an Innovation Space that implements changes that allow mesh networking projects to develop using IEEE standards, and provides answers to exactly those areas.

5. 5 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. (Not) Lost in Innovation Space Developers working in mesh networking need a small part of the protocol that allows us to develop & innovate within standards. Providing an Innovation Space also means developers can pass information back into the standards development process, allowing for future wireless usage growth and network evolution.

6. 6 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. September 2011 ServalProject.org as Example Use-Case Fully-distributed telephony, messaging and file- transfer for disaster, rural/remote and developing country use. Large-scale ad-hoc mesh networks (but possibly only local direct reachability) High-mobility of nodes Protocols under continuous development Using 802.11a/b/g/n as current transport, but not ideal, because... 6

7. 7 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. September 2011 Limitations of Ad-Hoc 802.11a/b/g/n Cell-splitting / BSSID synchronization / interface hangs problems / outright device incompatibility: partly due to poor implementation of ad-hoc in WiFi drivers, partly due to complexity of ad-hoc specification. Purpose of SSID and BSSID is to separate traffic. For ad-hoc mesh networks we want to prevent separation. Beacons deplete available bandwidth, and not required for ad-hoc networks. Indoor range of 802.11b/g/n on cell phone is ~ house: need several house range to form suburban meshes. Outdoor range of 802.11b/g/n on cell phone is ~village: need several km to form rural/remote meshes.

8. 8 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Proposal: S1G Packet Radio WiFi Operate simultaneous with existing managed and AP modes so that mesh can co-exist with infrastructure. Ignore BSSID, only channel and SSID should separate packet-radio traffic. Take advantage of natural advantages of radio: all frames are broadcast. Beacons not required, because there is no cell coordination as everything is broadcast. Low bit-rate under sender control are useful (think Twitter, HAM) Cellular baseband radio is a compelling resource. September 2011

9. 9 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Leave Mesh Routing in Software (or Why 802.11s Isnt The Only Solution) Standards process timelines match hardware development, but lag software development. Mesh routing protocols under continuous development. Goal should be to remove barriers to innovation where possible. An Innovation Space allows development within the IEEE 802.11 standard, feeding requirements into the software layer.

10. 10 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Variable & Low Bit-Rates Are Useful Mesh networks often have variable node density. High Bit-Rates for High-Density / Short-Range...... But Low-Density (e.g., Rural) meshes require longer range, and so Low Bit-Rates are an attractive option. 10kbits half-duplex is enough to carry a full-duplex phone call +20db versus 1mbit = ~10x range versus 1mbit Need to get rid of beacons to make low bit rates feasible 10

11. 11 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Wifi over Baseband Processor Every cell phone has a baseband processor which is prime near the ISM915/ISM868 bands, even the cheapest ones. No increase in bill of materials, but adds compelling advantage.

12. 12 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. Other projects There are many other mesh networking projects out there needing robust adhoc mesh networking. Village Telco build low-cost community telephone network hardware and software that can be set up in minutes anywhere in the world. Digitata is a body intent on sharing education resources and access to the Internet via mesh networking to African children OpenMeshProject.org has tasked itself with developing the best open source technologies, while simultaneously partnering with existing technologies, to create a private, citizen-owned communications infrastructure, such as would be used in situations such as citizen based political reform

13. 13 doc.: IEEE 802.11-11/1138r1 Submission SlideDr Paul Gardner-Stephen & Romana Challans, The Serval Project Inc. September 2011 References Digitata https://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/digitata/ Village Telco http://villagetelco.orghttp://villagetelco.org/ Projects using Mesh Networking http://emergentbydesign.com/2011/02/11/16-projects-initiatives-building- ad-hoc-wireless-mesh-networks/ Performance of Urban Mesh Networks http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.90.3623&rep =rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.90.3623&rep =rep1&type=pdf IEEE 802.11n-2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009 Year of Humanitarian Engineering http://makeitso.org.au/year-of-humanitarian-engineering