Meeting Minutes: 02/21/04

Present:  (15 people) christian, sascha, chase, mike b., bryan c., mike
m., nitin, ruth, dave, pat, stephane, ben, brian f., iman, ralph

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NEXT MEETING:  March 20, 2004 at the CWN Offices (115 W. Main St. Urbana)
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sascha touches upon early history of the CWN.  dave talks briefly about
the software/infrastructure -- OSPF utilized and only recently have found
major limitations that will be addressed by OSI grant.

scalability issue with current setup -- we think OSPF won't work well
beyond a few score nodes.  hazy-sighted link state (HSLS) technology has
probably been developed for military use, but we will need to develop it
ourselves unless it opened to the public domain.  route prioritization is
also important.  ETX -- weighs the routes and prioritizes short path
stable links.  name server -- will allow for stand alone networks.  MDNS
has been investigated but is focused on first-hop -- CWN will probably
utilize MDNS for first-hop (zero-comf?) services; this is an area where we
need further input/research.  web interface on the box -- something
allowing end users to see whether the community wireless network is down,
firewall configuration, status of the network, and route visualization.

HSLS was tested at UIUC!  we might be able to get input re: some of the
work done on this.

we're very interested in lowering the cost of nodes by utilizing cheap
access points -- porting NetBSD to these access points.  voice over IP
(VoIP) is also of interest to the group; etc.  dave sent an e-mail to the
CWN list with a bunch of ideas.

Stephane has enormous experience with VoIP and will head a working group.

perhaps working with hardware companies -- e.g., Motorola might be willing
to help fund the project to develop a public good through the software.

working with ISPs -- we're hoping Sol Tec will get back with us, we're
also interested in working with Speakeasy and other (W)ISPs who are
interested in supporting bandwidth sharing.  it would be great to have a
provider working with us (we could do BGP peering).

chase p. -- programming & low-level protocols, device drivers, debugging
-- would buy a second system for the project.

mike b. -- working in East St. Louis, there's no wired infrastructure;
likes the organic growth that CWN makes possible.  interested in
collaboration between prairienet and CWN.

christian -- less programming & more higher level stuff.  "where the need
is greatest" -- perhaps VoIP.

bryan c. -- actively programming on the project; lower-level programming.

michael m. -- learning more about programming, networks; has done mac and
windows technical support; designing user interface (woo-hoo!); user
documentation -- volunteers to help write it!!!  beta testing.

nitin -- is in the CSL and Electrical Engineering department; thinks we
could deploy within CSL; and could pay for 8-10 nodes; would love to have
students working with the project (e.g., masters students working on ETX
improvements).  also influencing development of other developers' work --
opening lines of communications.

rivka -- works with prof. christian sandvig; is curious about the project.

dave -- developer on the project; is interested in everything.  focused on
routing & path metric.  and then name service.  interested in "squeezing"
NetBSD into smaller storage space.  likes to write device drivers.  is
willing to give a talk on drivers & NetBSD 802.11 layer.

pat -- interested in lower levels & hardware; debugs device drivers.  good
working with users -- knows some of the motorola folks.  interested in
working with students.

stephane -- VoIP; is leaving for Africa in June.  might be a good
on-the-ground contact for the CWN.

ralph -- looking for ways to get students involved.

ben -- community involvement; perhaps grant writing; talking with service
providers, community groups, businesses, etc.; helping with user
interface and mesh diagnostic work.

brian f. -- knowledgable guinnea pig; works in unix, windows.  good
trouble-shooter.  works with ralph's group.

Possible Working Groups:
1. Users
2. VoIP
3. Programmers

Ralph thinks there may be certain programming areas where students could
be useful (e.g., community e-mail and webserver; route visualization).

Decided that we would meet regularly to coordinate on the 3rd Saturday of
each month at Noon at the CWN offices (115 West Main Street in Urbana).
The next meeting will be March 20, 2004.

We then broke up the meeting for individuals to meet & talk about creating
working groups.

Pictures from meeting are available at:
http://shimaore.dyndns.org/CUWireless/20040221_2dmeeting

I also photoshopped the News Gazette article (thanks to Bryan for doing
the indial scanning).  The front-page scan and full article are available
at:

http://www.saschameinrath.com/press/

--Sascha

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
Project Manager & President      *      Project Manager
Acorn Active Media Foundation   ***     Eggplant Active Media
www.acornactivemedia.com         *      www.eggplantmedia.com



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