Re: [gaia] Video about community network using HF band

[David Johnson <[e-mail]>]

I agree with a special session on COVID-19. In our low-income community network (iNethi) in South Africa, we have added many free local resources for schools that are shut down and zero-rated services linked to education content as well as critical COVID-19 info to the splash page (splash attached).

This pandemic is finally the teachable moment for regulators around the world about the societal costs of failing to deliver universal affordable access. It also feels like the moment that our work on community networks has been preparing us for. I am galvanising all my efforts now in 4 areas

 (1) Measuring the impact of skewed access to broadband during the quarantine phase - working with Nic Feamster  and other network measurements experts in the global South to use a combination of surveys and active/passive measurements from devices to understand usage and user experience as people work and study at home in South Africa and the USA.

(2) Applying for emergency spectrum to deploy community cellular for wide area coverage in low-income communities. Our South African regulator has softened its position on cellular spectrum sharing to deal with lack of broadband in addition to putting pressure on operators to zero rate education sites .. perhaps other regulators will do the same
.
(3) Placing more high value content in our locally hosted edge cloud service called iNethi (http://inethi.org.za) as mentioned above. We are building a federated set of services as dockers on an intel NUC.

(4) Testing  cashless blockchain-based payment systems for end user payment and rewarding cooperative members for installing mesh routers and expanding the community network to reach more community members ...  the challenge here is more about on-ramping users who mostly work with cash from fiat to crypto and build a level of trust in the system.

Regards
David





> On 22 Mar 2020, at 07:55, Luis Martinez <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Indeed a great theme. We have designed these week a network for some poor communities that need to be connected for having online courses, all the schools are closed here. 
> 
> 
> On March 21, 2020 at 12:37:22 PM, Leandro Navarro ([e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>) wrote:
> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> Sounds like a good topic for GAIA in collecting cases and references for a document about essential infrastructures, emergency communications, reliable and affordable communications (there are, but perhaps we can collect, update, extend, etc). 
>> More important these days when we find out COVID has made the internet a critical infrastructure. Shall we use the next GAIA meeting to discuss about recent “game changer” experiences and reflect about lessons for the future, and what useful outcomes GAIA could develop?
>> 
>> SAX, Leandro.
>> P.S: SAX is a typical sign-off acronmy in guifi.net <http://guifi.net/> and Catalan to desire the best: Salut=Health, Amor=Love, Xarxa=Network.
>> 
>>> On 19 Mar 2020, at 17:18, Rafael Diniz <[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Adam,
>>> 
>>> We kind of standardized with the use of at least 100W radios, which is
>>> what works well in our context.
>>> 
>>> Rafael
>>> 
>>> On 3/19/20 8:42 AM, Adam Burns wrote:
>>>> Hi Rafael,
>>>> 
>>>> It's not restricted to one brand and there are a range of cheap models,
>>>> with some around 8W, but the upper limit is your wallet (apart from
>>>> licensing, etc).
>>>> 
>>>> Adam.
>>>> 
>>>> On 18/03/2020 15:29, Rafael Diniz wrote:
>>>>> Hi Adam. Which power can these Baofeng HF trx output?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Rafael
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 3/18/20 7:12 AM, Adam Burns wrote:
>>>>>> In Berlin late last year, I demonstrated extremely low cost old-school
>>>>>> AX.25 Packet Radio connectivity using the open source Direwolf (which
>>>>>> effectively acts as a software modem and AX.25 terminal) and Baofeng HF
>>>>>> transceivers.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> A pair of nodes can cost as little as US$100.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Details on line soon, but contact me off-list if you need help or
>>>>>> further information.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Adam.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 18/03/2020 10:41, Javier Simó wrote:
>>>>>>> 18 years ago we worked on a HF packet-radio based solution and
>>>>>>> developed improvements  using OFDM newQPSK; getting up to 9600 bits/s..
>>>>>>> I don't know whether I can find the expert who might resemble all the
>>>>>>> details, code, etc, but if you feel it could be interesting I can
>>>>>>> explore that.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Best
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Javier
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> El 18/3/20 a las 4:31, Rafael Diniz escribió:
>>>>>>>> Gracias Luiz!
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> We carried initial tests of this system in Mexico. The raw throughput,
>>>>>>>> in reasonable propagation conditions, is from 500 up to 4k bit/s. In
>>>>>>>> "real world" tropical region NVIS trx with hundreds of kilometers of
>>>>>>>> distance, with packet protocol and ARQ layers in place, the net
>>>>>>>> throughput ranges from 50 to 500 bit/s, depending on many factors.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Abrazo,
>>>>>>>> Rafael
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On 3/17/20 6:23 PM, Luis Martinez wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Parabens Rafael ! 
>>>>>>>>> It is wonderful, we are discussing a project like that in Mexico. Can
>>>>>>>>> you share what is the speed you are able to achieve ?
>>>>>>>>> Obrigado.
>>>>>>>>> Luiz
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On March 17, 2020 at 1:37:42 PM, Rafael Diniz ([e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>
>>>>>>>>> <mailto:[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>>) wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Here is the link of our latest developments about HERMES[1]:
>>>>>>>>>> https://vimeo.com/398331581 <https://vimeo.com/398331581>
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>>>> Rafael Diniz
>>>>>>>>>> Rhizomatica
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> [1] https://www.rhizomatica.org/hermes/ <https://www..rhizomatica.org/hermes/>
>>>>>>>>>> 
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>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> *Francisco Javier Simó Reigadas*
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> *Profesor, Director de la ETSIT*
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> *Dep**t. Teoría de la Señal y Comunic. y Sist. Telemáticos y Computación*
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Campus de Fuenlabrada(Madrid), España
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Teléfono: 91 4888167
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> [e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]> <mailto:[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>>| www.urjc.es <http://www.urjc.es/>
>>>>>>> <http://www.urjc.es <http://www.urjc.es/>>| @URJC |
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
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>> --
>> Leandro Navarro
>> http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro <http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro>	 http://dsg.ac.upc.edu <http://dsg.ac.upc.edu/>
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