Video Project Byzantium: Zero To Ad-Hoc Mesh Network In 60 Seconds (Video) 124
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Project Byzantium calls itself Ad-hoc wireless mesh networking for the zombie apocalypse. It's also potentially useful for less-thrilling emergencies, such as floods, earthquakes, and political uprisings (or getting everyone at the office their /. fix when the network goes down). The latest version debuted at the HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference in July, 2012. You can download your very own copy of Byzantium any time you like. Hopefully you will then burn a dozen or so CDs (it's compact enough that it doesn't need a DVD) for friends and neighbors, so that if you suddenly see zombies approaching and your regular ISP has already been overrun and isn't working, you can set up a wireless mesh network and coordinate your anti-zombie efforts. And you won't even need to use the command line. (slides and audio of their presentation)
Re:Wireless Mesh Network? (Score:3, Informative)
9dbi antenna and external wifi adapter FTW (the last I tested worked well upto a mile in the boonies)
Re:Wireless Mesh Network? (Score:5, Informative)
Put the antenna higher up or use a directional one. Absorption by the environment is usually even worse than inverse square losses.
With clear line of sight and no Fresnel zone obstruction, a quarter mile should be completely possible. Look up the distance record, it's remarkable.
Re:Wireless Mesh Network? (Score:2, Informative)
Directional antennas are perfectly in line with the idea of a mesh network. The problems that mesh networks try to solve are topological. The single most important aspect of a mesh network is that it's self-organizing, which means you can add and remove links ad hoc and the network reconfigures itself to use the available links. Type and distance of individual links are secondary concerns. You can build a mesh network out of wired Ethernet links if you want to. The focus on wireless links is just a result of them being easier to create ad hoc than wired connections.
Re:Why not... (Score:5, Informative)
In regular ad-hoc, you can see the people around you, but not reach their neighbours (there is no routing by default). Byzantium uses babeld, which is a routing layer over an "ad hoc" mode. The mesh network automatically recalculates routes, depending on their signal and link saturation. If you're into networking, it's really trivial to setup and lots of fun (especially with ipv6, although ipv4 works too of course).