[serval-project-dev] we are in the news again

Frieder Ferlemann frieder.ferlemann at web.de
Wed Jan 30 14:50:02 PST 2013


Hi,

on the article:
"Wireless mesh researchers target defence applications"
(itnews for australian business, 2013-01-30)

It's so absurd that there should be no need to
publically debunk. Don't feed the trolls.

It should be pretty obvious that many design decisions
would not be the first choice for defence applications.
Rather among the last choices for defence applications.



The 2.4 GHz band was more or less unwanted worldwide
because of high absorption due to water. It's nicer
to communicate when the weather is fine, but I doubt
this a primary concern for military applications.


Many households possess devices (microwave ovens,
yes, it somehow has something to do with water) that
could be turned into effective (powerful, dangerous)
jamming devices for 2.4 GHz.


The signal to noise ratio on frequencies which
are used by commodity devices tends to be
suboptimal.
Well, it occasionally tends to be noisy in
defence applications anyway, maybe let's
consider signal:


The RF power for wifi signals is _way_ lower than
what Walkie Talkies have used more than a quarter of
a century ago.
Downsizing has my empathy and I like the retro
aspect of it as well:


In nowadays hectic it's nice to have something
that needs one or the other minute to boot.
(With solar cells the runtime of mobile phones
can be prolonged so shutdown/reboot because of
lack of wall plugs gets less of an issue.)
Now we pondered about time, how about location:


Wifi dongle/card/chipset/routers (preferrably one of
those cheap devices which have multiple (phase shiftable)
antenna) could be programmed to see the traffic
by batphones. Well rather "can" be programmed
than "could" be programmed to see the traffic
by batphones as that is what batphone is about.
No way to decode the content but ain't it nice
to see that and roughly where there is traffic?
Maybe some military camouflage spoilsport gets picky
about being located but why not opt for a little
transparency?
Ever heard of location based services?
Come on, don't be shy it's a new millenium!


And what seems to be a good grassroot approach
because of being (low budget) available everywhere
is a double edged sword because drones could
also lock onto wifi.
Hey that was the hidden plan, how did you know?


The objective of serval project to enable connecting
with anyone anywhere has not yet been the primary
focus of military communication.
That's about to change: now there is batphone!

One might consider renaming batphone though.
"bad phone" casts doubt whether the phone really
is for the good guys.


The funding seems to be unconventional too.
Maybe a little on the low side for military
projects. Has downsizing been mentioned lately?
And if military pays please pay attention to the
bad phone - good guy conflict.

Historically military has wanted to have an edge
over competing military. This traditionally
favoured secrecy over openness.
Open source development is on the opposite end
of that scale.
Military might have changed though.


On second thought maybe it's a nicely
investigated article and worth to talk
about but just got leaked 2 months
and 2 days early?


Greetings,
Frieder

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