Re: Harvard, BBN Use Streetlamps to Light Up Wireless Network

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <bob37-2 () bobf frankston com>
Date: May 13, 2007 1:42:50 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () dandin com>
Subject: RE: [IP] Harvard, BBN Use Streetlamps to Light Up Wireless  
Network

This is the kind of story that sounds wonderful until you think about  
it.
Other than waiting for the funding how can it take 3 years to deploy 100
Linux PCs? Or may 3 years is the time it takes to get the city  
government to
say OK. This is the kind of dependency that assures Moore's law is  
thwarted.

Why not just look for 100 Harvard students (or students at any of the  
many
other schools in the area) to place sensors outside their windows and  
plug
them into the outlets already available in apartments and, even  
better, use
their existing access points and even computers. But that would be no  
fun --
you'd deploy in 2007 and then have to report results rather than  
write about
how hard it was to create the sensornet.

First a technical detail. This assumes that the street lamps have  
power even
when the lights are off. Many lights are run in series. Are the lamps  
now
controlled by sending a signal to the lamp itself to turn and/off or  
are the
lights controlled at the power source.

The idea of putting up sensors and networking them should be pretty
straightforward -- they are just getting power from a convenient  
source and
otherwise there is nothing special about the source.

What is wrong is that they are so excited at building their own special
network - they are borrowing 802.11 protocols from the Internet and then
building their own spanking new network and must deploy with sufficient
density to form their own private special mesh. And thus they create  
a hard
problem that can be used to generate research papers and tenure.

Once again there is a failure to get the concept of the Internet -- why
can't they use any path available? This isn't really end-to-end  
because they
are highly dependent upon building their own path rather than using the
ambient connectivity that should be available.

I understand why this kind of project is attractive -- I've seen  
business
plans along the same lines and have had to try to explain that  
there's this
thing called the Internet ...


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 08:22
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] Harvard, BBN Use Streetlamps to Light Up Wireless Network

The old Metricom approach (many years ago)



Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: May 13, 2007 5:12:28 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Harvard, BBN Use Streetlamps to Light Up
Wireless Network

[Note:  This item comes from reader Ken DiPietro.  DLH]

From: Ken DiPietro <ken.dipietro () advantaq com>
Date: May 12, 2007 4:51:05 PM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Cc: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Harvard, BBN Use Streetlamps to Light Up
Wireless Network

May 09, 2007 - CIO <http://www.cio.com> - Researchers at Harvard
University and BBN Technologies have designed an intriguing wireless
network capable of reporting real-time sensor data across an entire
city, Cambridge, Mass. Scientists will initially use the CitySense
network to monitor urban weather and pollution. The network could
eventually provide better public wireless Internet access.

The system solves a constraint on previous wireless networks-battery
life-by mounting each node on a municipal streetlamp, where it draws
power from city electricity. Researchers plan to install 100 sensors on
streetlamps throughout Cambridge by 2011, using a grant from the
National Science Foundation. Each node will include an embedded PC
running the Linux OS, an 802.11 Wi-Fi interface and weather sensors,
says Matt Welsh, assistant professor of computer science at Harvard.

For the sensors, the streetlamp approach opens up a new range of
uses-for example, performing long-term experiments like real-time
environmental monitoring, correlating microclimates with population
health or tracking the spread of biochemical agents, according to BBN.

A large challenge was how to design a network that allows remote nodes
to communicate with the central servers at Harvard and BBN. CitySense
will do that by letting each node form a mesh with its neighbors,
exchanging data through multiple-hop links. This strategy allows a node
to download software or upload sensor data to a distant server hub using
a small radio with only a 1-kilometer range, Welsh says.

People have built such networks on smaller scales before, but for
private purposes, or to provide wireless Internet links in towns such as
Madison, Wis., and Champaign, Ill., Welsh says. In contrast, CitySense
will let academic researchers worldwide log on to the project website
and submit their own research programs to run on the network.

<http://www.cio.com/article/108413/
Harvard_BBN_Use_Streetlamps_to_Light_Up_Wireless_Network>

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