neal - it sounds like you're pushing for a coordinated hotspot deployment. i think that the goal behind moos is to create a mesh of backbone elements that can be used in the fashion that you discussed at the meeting where matt and ben proposed the moos tower deployment. i don't know that we need to place any emphasis on network security beyond securing the network elements themselves and any authentication infrastructure. folks need to secure their own traffic (ss{l,h}, ipsec, etc). when last we saw our hero (Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002), Neal was madly tapping out: > > Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 21:26:45 -0500 > From: Neal <nkras at nkras.dsl.visi.com> > X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC) > To: tcwug-list at tcwug.org > Subject: Physical Cloud Proposal > > I thought this whole exercise was to create a cloud in the Twin > Cities, where wireless users would have the ability to communicate > between hotspots in disparate geographic areas. The Moos Tower > Project appears to be following a centralized base station concept: > low power mobiles uplinking to a centralized, higher elevation > receiver, which answers by downlinking to the same mobile by a > centralized, higher elevation transmitter. > > There obviously are more legal and engineering issues than first > thought. > > I propose an alternative: using whatever bandwidth is available to > individual members, whether it be xDSL, ISDN, or dial-up modems, we > can link hotspots together. Depending on the topology of the > network, sites may be major nodes with routing capabilities, minor > nodes with hubs or switches, or leaf nodes at end points of the > physical cloud. > > Secure, encrypted transmission protocols would be an eventual > necessity. All traffic <must> adhere to contractual agreements with > upstream providers. Between private parties, i.e. node to node > wireline links, there would be no such limitations. > > I can elaborate on this idea at the next formal meeting if you want > me to. > -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC