This is part 3 of our series on Networks of Resilience. See the rest at this link.
You may have built the community and forged the connections. You may have knowledge relevant or critical for the members to be able to access. But a network is often a communications problem, and one that breaks down over distance. The internet may be a fantastic tool for connecting humanity, but it runs on hardware, and is susceptible to damage.
Now, as the old adage goes “the internet tends to route around” damage, but it still needs a connection in order to do that. What happens when the WiFi goes out?
You might have to replace the net with a mesh.
Mesh networks are not new technology of course, but it’s probably not the first thing on everyone’s mind when they think of the internet. The mesh is built using cheap OTS (off-the-shelf, this isn’t a fancy acronym) hardware that provides coverage to the areas rather than cranking up the power to a single router like most home WiFi routers do. This provides better coverage over the affected area once the mesh is set-up and running. HowToGeek.com has a decent summary at their website.
Of course, there are commercial options that are available, from the big companies and at the major retailers. And while those are tailored to a user looking for an out-of-the-box experience that’s as relatively painless as possible, often in order to provide coverage to bigger and bigger homes where a single wifi router cranked to the max just won’t do, there are other options.
As with a lot of things that showed up in the technosphere, mesh networks were adopted early by the DIY hacker and maker crowds. DIY mesh networks, built using OTS hardware hearken back to the earlier wired web, but with the modern conceit of retreating into the woodwork and just being “there” that the 21st century wireless networks have brought us.
Mesh networks can also be disruptive, allowing internet to be delivered outside of the expected areas, or in rough conditions. They can also challenge utilities or incumbent ISPs that may expect to have a local monopoly (either real or effectively so) within a given area. Groups like NYC Mesh look to provide a solution that routes around those issues.
One of the challenges with mesh networks is the slight differences in protocols and implementation. This isn’t just the various commercial versions refusing to talk amongst themselves in order to lock-in customers to a particular ecosystem. There can also be some interoperability issues within DIY version.
A question that often floats around new tech is “does it scale?” Sometimes this is used offensively, to shut down decent local solutions that aren’t trying to solve the worlds problems but rather just meet the needs of a particular user. (FOSS, we’re looking at you.) But that’s not the case here. When it comes to mesh networks, the answer to “does it scale?” is “Yes!” and how!
Enter Digital Radio Networks. Good old fashioned internet, transmitted over the good old fashioned radio. Groups like ARDCS, and the AREDN network have been deploying nodes worldwide for almost a decade, building off technology that’s existed for some time (remind me to go back into the history of that sometime), with the aim of providing weather alerts, simple email, and basic secure comms throughout the network. It isn’t the high-speed internet of everything that we’re used to most of the time; it’s kinda like the internet reduced to just the essentials. But that’s part of what makes it work.
This is obviously just a quick overview of the topic, but getting the connectivity down is an essential part of building out Resiliency in the network. Keeping it going requires community involvement.
