[HacDC:Byzantium] I'd like to help out

Tue Jun 19 17:11:48 PDT 2012

> "Rooting the phone will allow for adhoc mesh network capability and is 
> required for full functionality of the software. By choosing not to 
> root the phone, the software will still be able to provide free calls 
> to phones  that are connected to the same Access Point."

AFAIK, although Serval currently requires a rooted phone for the phone
itself to be part of the mesh, the standard Serval download for Android
allows phone-to-phone communications through an AP with a non-rooted phone.
This is more of a fallback plan, since a key aspect of the Serval project is
to have the phones be mesh nodes.  However, as one may surmise, even such
AP-based communications would not be possible if the AP is configured to
disallow client-to-client communications (i.e., client isolation mode).

On the other hand, if the AP is really just an SSID offered by the nodes on
a bridged mesh network, then AP-based Serval communications may reach
anywhere that the underlying mesh network reaches.  Because such a network
is in bridged mode, it operates at layer 2 (based on MAC addresses), and
thus is effectively a big software switch, so collectively, all the nodes
act as one big AP (in some configurations, clients can roam between mesh
nodes without losing sessions, IP addresses, etc.).  

For those who may not be aware, two examples of such bridged mesh networks
are the open-source SECN offering from Village-Telco.org (which is also
collaborating with the Serval project to make their meshes interoperate),
and also Open-Mesh.com (providing the bridge-mode option is selected).  Both
meshes are based on batman-adv, so you could expect similar behavior from
any mesh based on batman-adv (in bridge mode), and possibly other bridged
meshes.

Bridged meshes are relatively straightforward, but are not without issues,
especially with respect to scalability.  One avenue to address scalability
issues is to adopt hybrid models where layer 2 is used for localized mesh
clusters (up to 20-200 nodes, let's say), and layer 3 is used to route
between localized mesh clusters.  Note that with a hybrid approach, layer 3
may also serve as an interoperability layer to connect meshes with differing
protocols, so that Byzantium-style OLSR meshes may be routed to
VillageTelco-style batman-adv meshes.  Layer 3 routing consumes more
resources than layer 2, so such an approach may not be feasible on every
mesh node.  Of course, multiple protocols may coexist on run-of-the-mill
mesh nodes, too, if there's enough local capacity (memory, CPU, radio
bandwidth, etc.).

In general, it would be good to make all the meshes work together, at least
at arm's length (i.e., this can be done a non-trusted basis, assuming
end-to-end encryption).  To maximize communications survivability, our own
approach incorporates a smattering of optional multi-radio nodes (multiple
bands, channels, protocols) in every mesh.  These nodes have extra capacity
for routing, proxying, protocol translation, serving, store-and-forward,
caching, etc.

Preachin' to the Choir,

Dave Duchesneau
ddd at crisis-force.org

CRISIS-FORCE Emergency Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Mendis [mailto:dragonwisard at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:20 AM
To: byzantium at hacdc.org
Subject: Re: [HacDC:Byzantium] I'd like to help out

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It may be accurate. I may have misunderstood something. I haven't gotten
an opportunity to test out Serval myself yet.

On Tue, 19 Jun 2012, John wrote:

> On 6/12/2012 11:40 AM, Ben Mendis wrote:
>> It seems that Serval (http://www.servalproject.org/) has
>> managed to get BATMAN-Adv to run as an Android app without requiring
>> root, so maybe it's possible for Babel and OLSR too.
>
> Does that mean this document is out-of-date?
>
> http://developer.servalproject.org/files/Serval_Manual_Prototype_v0.05.pdf
>
> Scroll down to 2.3,
> "Rooting the phone will allow for adhoc mesh network capability and is 
> required for
> full functionality of the software. By choosing not to root the phone, the

> software
> will still be able to provide free calls to phones  that are connected to
the 
> same
> Access Point."
>
> John
>
> -- 
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>
>
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