-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The paper they refer to acknowledges the recent research into using ad-hoc mesh networks as a backup communication system for emergency responders. They assert that mesh node density may be insufficient in certain geographic areas to maintain the necessary coverage of the mesh. Based on this assertion, they are proposing that "at some point in the future" an emergency switch would be implemented into all (or most?) home routers such that the could be flipped from normal mode into an emergency mesh network mode granting access to emergency responders. They then proceed to use an Android wardriving app to collect data on existing residential WiFi-enabled routers one neighborhood and make the case that these routers would be capable of running the necessary software to form a mesh network with consistent coverage of that neighborhood. Although the paper appears to be well-researched and well-written, I think they focus too much on the wardriving aspect and trying to establish the proliferation of privately owned WiFi equipment in a particular urban neighborhood in a well-developed country. There is a lot of important discussion which they seem to leave out of this paper. They may have already addressed it in their previous paper, which they reference several times, however I have not read that one. Some of the issues I see, which I would have liked to see addressed further: 1. Who has the authority to activate the emergency switch, and what mechanisms prevent its abuse? 2. What mechanism is used to activate this emergency switch? 3. Who has access to make use of the mesh network after it has been activated? The paper seems to imply that it would only be used by emergency responders, but their methodology is to open it up such that anyone would be able to connect and access the network. 4. What liability would individuals face if their network was misused by guests while this emergency switch was activated? Eg, what happens if someone uses your now-unlocked network to commit a crime such as illegally transferring copyrighted materials or child pornography? 5. How would the network be utilized in the absence of Internet access? In the use case the authors describe, the mesh network is being activiated because of a failure of traditional infrastructure, so it's reasonable to assume that Internet access would be scare to impossible in the region. 6. If traditional infrastructure is disrupted, that could include power lines, how many of the residential routers they identified would still be online if power was lost? Could FreedomBox implement something similar to what they describe? Easily. However I think it would be more interesting and arguably more valuable for FreedomBox to implement an always-on mesh network rather than one that is only switched on when emergency responders deem it is appropriate. That's my two cents. On Wed, 22 Aug 2012, Sandy Harris wrote:

http://www.securityweek.com/home-wifi-could-be-used-emergency-responders

Is this something the Box should/could support? Is the method discussed in the article the right one for us?

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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJQNF51AAoJEMco5sYyM+0wyRgH/0vatkh6n+WtOrJAvQ29lzq4 vKs9wjODzw1O7n7X2Wo56/U0KlMNnb/e/v8YujMPUXIjOwfBEjFuIyVvI1hhw1tp MEnSkZ+btZMOdMcdsYACmg3GmvRd5mPZB6fgrvPWX/n0KKBn3AXjvDbb/ztR8qTK fqcQqyy+nkQsiMwB7u8oyI/ztK9TOEmJ1DPNqPAC8tIP9VEoOaAM/CjT4iH7jcEX f/IxN6S9/TwCN2DfByW6qdbwNr2oKsR4T7Cn5kIdkrtsFg8H48rlUds2SQBmUDlB FhKrLFz7kDtg8QqP0F43UJfUo3qubV/HsjmTAjZKfbjyUn8udfIl/HjG0JtNc0g= =iZ45 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list Freedombox-discuss@lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE