Dave, Thanks for the quick response and I appreciate your passion.
No one here wants Secure Boot or DRM at all. I personally find the idea abhorrent and no one at prpl wants it. The difficulty is figuring out how companies can comply with the regulation in a way that doesn't require hardware be locked down. I wish I could avoid ever thinking of this topic but unfortunately, if companies don't find a solution that fulfills the FCC's requirements, they're going to go with DRM. I want to see if we can give manufacturers a solution that avoids DRM entirely. I'd be happy to learn more about the make-wifi-fast effort and to see how we can facilitate it's success. Thanks a ton, Eric On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Dave Taht <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 9:11 AM, Eric Schultz > <[email protected]> wrote: >> All, >> >> I work for the prpl Foundation, an open source foundation organized by >> a number of companies, most related to MIPS. One project we work with >> externally is the OpenWrt project. Recently one of our members >> mentioned a new FCC requirement (described at >> http://wiki.prplfoundation.org/wiki/Complying_with_FCC_rules_on_5ghz_wifi) >> which requires wifi hardware devices to restrict modifications in ways >> that were not previously required. Some of the suggestions the company >> had internally for complying would be to use features like Secure Boot >> and other types of DRM-like mechanisms to prevent routers from being >> modified. This obviously would be quite bad for the OpenWrt ecosystem > > It would be bad for everyone. Worse, since the research contingent > making progress on keeping wifi working in the first place in the face > of enormous growth, is centered around the ath9k chipset, additional > rules and regulations centered around DRM are likely to choke off > further development of then new ideas and techniques needed to keep it > working. > >> so we agreed as a group >> to try to provide hardware companies with a way of complying without >> harming the community. > > My view is mildly more extreme - the 2.4 and 5.8 ghz spectrum currently > allocated to wifi is the *public's* spectrum. > > I am deeply concerned about further intrusions on it by things like this: > > https://www.qualcomm.com/products/lte/unlicensed > > and we need more spectrum, not less, in order to keep wifi for > everyone, working. > >> I'm looking to find individuals (and other companies!) interested in >> working with myself and the foundation, companies, the OpenWrt >> community > > >> and eventually regulators to provide guidance to hardware >> companies on how to best comply with these rules. > > I intend to continue ignoring them to what extent I can. Regrettably > this situation is contributing to community members being unable to > apply new queue management techniques to new standards like 802.11ac, > and seems to be the source of all the proprietary ac firmware. > > I think a first step would merely to be for a big maker to publicly > release their 802.11ac firmware and let the chips fall where they may. > >> If you're interested >> in getting involved or just would like to know more, please get in >> touch with me. We want to make sure that routers are hackable >> and we could use all the help we can get. > > +10. I would like to see prpl participating in the make-wifi-fast effort, > also. > > http://snapon.lab.bufferbloat.net/~d/ieee802.11-sept-17-2014/11-14-1265-00-0wng-More-on-Bufferbloat.pdf > > > >> Thanks and I look forward to working with you, >> >> Eric >> >> -- >> Eric Schultz, Community Manager, prpl Foundation >> http://www.prplfoundation.org >> [email protected] >> cell: 920-539-0404 >> skype: ericschultzwi >> @EricPrpl >> _______________________________________________ >> Cerowrt-devel mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/cerowrt-devel > > > > -- > Dave Täht > > thttp://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Upcoming_Talks -- Eric Schultz, Community Manager, prpl Foundation http://www.prplfoundation.org [email protected] cell: 920-539-0404 skype: ericschultzwi @EricPrpl _______________________________________________ Cerowrt-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/cerowrt-devel
