[OLPC Networking] An AP-like XO ?

[Bob Keyes]

I am frustrated by the non-availability of 802.11s equipment, software, or 
even information.

I hope to obtains the specs, preliminary as they may be, and start writing 
an open-source 802.11s stack. I'd write it with the hope that it could be 
eventually integrated into the Linux kernel. But that's a far-off goal. A 
more immediate on is the use the Click router (a router modeling language) 
to write an 802.11s implementation using current hardware, if this is 
possible. This requires low-level access to the wifi chipset. As it stands 
now, the only chipset that fills this is Atheros, and even knowledge of 
this chipset is weak in the open source community because of the closed 
HAL used. If I had cooperation of a chipset vendor towards making this 
open-source 802.11s implementation a reality, it could really help.

I am currently working with the CitySense project at Harvard. See 
http://www.citysense.net. I would like to see the knowledge I gain from 
this work applied to sensors on a grander scale, and that is for 
agricultural and environmental data collection throughout the world. If 
these sensors could act to extend the mesh of XOs, all the better. It 
would also be interesting to have the children be able to read the sensors 
froma web page on the unit itself.

These sensor/mesh nodes have to be reliable, weatherproof, self-powered, 
expandable, and inexpensive. I'd like to shoot for the hundred-dollar mark 
for the base unit, solar cells / batteries  and a temperature sensor. 
Other sensors could be added for $10- $200, depending on cost of 
production.

Right now, I'm building a prototype which uses a reprogrammed FON La 
Fonera router, using RoofNet as the mesh networking software, and a simple 
temperature sensor. Next would come wind power and wind speed measurement.

I've wandered a bit off of my initial reason for posting, which was to 
poke prod and plead for any 802.11s info. There's an OLPC lab right next 
to mine at Harvard and I look through the door lustfully at the rack of 
XOs undergoing testing as I pass by the door.

-Bob Keyes