[OLPC Networking] Wireless Recommendations (Ricardo Carrano)

[Tom Mitchell]

Ricardo Carrano wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 3:21 PM, Tom Mitchell <mitch at niftyegg.com> wrote:
>> Greg Smith wrote:
>>> Hi Ricardo,
>>>
>>> Interesting page with some great ideas. A few comments and questions
>>> after a quick read through.
>> Not for the high priority project list:
>> One connectivity model that could be considered is a
>> disconnected model.  I think of it as a dial up
>> on demand uucico model,  uucico for short

.....

> 
> Tom,
> 
> The subject of DTN (Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networks) are now
> perceived as increasingly important and I am sure that, in many
> deployments, technologies emerging from this research and efforts will
> be very useful.
> 
> It seems that we have another category of recommendations, or another
> page, which deals with the school connectivity. So, that would split
> the deployment recommendations into two categories:
> 
> - The backhaul (or external) connectivity - the school connecting to
> the Internet
> - The wireless (or internal) connectivity - the school wireless infrastructure
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Cheers!
> Ricardo

I suspect that DTN issues will work themselves out. They are core 
to mobile networking futures.

What I was reflecting on is a supplemental backhaul connectivity 
strategy built on existing code and designs.  In the "old days" 
before wide area TCP/IP we moved email, net news, files, sources 
and more via uucico (unix to unix copy in copy out) over 
telephone line modems when daytime long distance calls were 
expensive and the internet non existent.

Delivery addresses were bang "!" separated routing lists. The 
telephone calls were made on demand, or on a schedule, in the 
middle of the night, on weekends within a time slot window so as 
to not overload modem banks.   A subtle twist to this would be a 
cross between sneaker net and meshed networking where a portable 
machine could visit collect and deliver files, mail, etc. up and 
down a delivery route on an irregular snail mail like schedule.

Like I said not the first thing to work on but something to keep 
in mind as a possible solution for areas with expensive or non 
existent connectivity. It turns out that late versions of uucico 
work over TCP/IP making connectivity transitions almost transparent.