Sometimes telling progress from regress is hard to do. After the Google Wi-Fi snooping settlement calling Google to actively campaign for the lock-up of open wireless access points (one may interpret this as Google explaining the public on how to protect against itself) [1], now we hear about the upcoming Google white-space spectrum test in South Africa [2], co-announced with the launch of a joint Google-FCC Spectrum Database [3].
What does this mean? well, it means that although your future white-space spectrum supporting device is fully capable of determining which frequencies to use, how to share those with other nearby devices, and how to do so in a highly efficient manner, some are busy convincing us that central management of these TV spectrum segments is required in order for it to work. An answer to invalidating such claims may consist of one word: Wi-Fi. What's so special about Wi-Fi? what was once called "garbage-spectrum" [4] has turned into the principle example of the potential benefit present in the combination of deregulation & shared spectrum technology [5]. Armed with this knowledge, appreciating the distorted view present in new test-network becomes easy [6] - the all-seeing Google Spectrum DB is not required to capitalize on the opening of TV white spaces. Why "all-seeing"? well, put yourself in the driver's seat of such a database. Since any device on the network wishing to transmit will have to request permission from *you* to use a spectrum slice for any time duration, providing it's geo-location data while doing so, you not only hold the power to selectively mute devices by banning them from any spectrum allocation, but you are also able to determine who is talking to who at *any* given moment. Allocation units may consider freq, time, geo-location, power, modulation and possibly other factors such as TX beam-shape, node-trajectory, etc... Cross-reference this with other bits you might hold on the node making the request get the full picture. Pause for a second to contemplate this, as this is as far from the de-centralized idea behind Arig, mesh-networks and the open-source movement in general. What can we *do* about this? well first understand this DB is a counter-measure for the loss of control resulting in the deregulation of more spectrum space, and answers no real technical need (more no this from Steve Song, a South-African mesh network activist [7] ). Draw a new network diagram where the central DB is omitted - hint: the result may look like what you're seeing today in your node's luci-network-map http tab ;]. Finally, step back to view the full picture: on the migration path from elusive, traditional hierarchical topologies such as the ones used to multicast this email, towards coexistence with fully distributed ones such as Arig, attempts will be made to preserve old schools of thought. It is up to us to demonstrate and educate our fellow net-itizens on the right way to use what technology offers us. Happy hacking! Amir [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/google-wi-fi-settlement-really-really-awful [2] http://blog.google.org/2013/03/tv-white-spaces-trial-launches-in-south.html [3] http://blog.google.org/2013/03/identifying-available-spectrum.html [4] http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022112072 [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_radio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Radio_resource_management [6] http://google-africa.blogspot.com/2013/03/announcing-new-tv-white-spaces-trial-in.html [7] http://manypossibilities.net/2013/02/how-to-make-the-digital-dividend-pay-out-in-africa/ _______________________________________________ arig-discuss mailing list arig-discuss@lists.subsignal.org https://lists.subsignal.org/mailman/listinfo/arig-discuss
