On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, Morlock Elloi wrote: > Self-routing mesh networks have potential to sidestep this. Transistors are > small and cheap enough even today - the centralised communication > infrastructure is there so that you can be charged, not because technology > dictates that any more. With wireless there is a potential that everyone paves > (and marks street number) in front of their house. The only way to subvert this > would be to erase "santa monica" from minds of everyone. I don't see that > happening.
The cool part about wireless meshes running geographic routing is that they're self-labelling, and create a grassroot positioning service. It can be coarse, like a node id'iing a cell, or really fine-resolution using relativistic ping to the end-user device (ideally, all nodes, even your handheld, are part of the ad hoc mesh). If your space is labelled, you can just publish a database which allows you to annotate arbitrary 3d coordinate regions with info. Could be proprietary, could be something like a Wiki. Of course, virtual graffiti will result in lot of database defacement, so you have to use prestige accounting to be able to filter out the twits. > The day that I can send a packet from LAX to SFO via non-ISP-ed network will be > the beginning of the end of telco/telecom monopolies. Or, should I say, > directory monopolies. The only way to make this low-latency is relativistic cut-through in the wireless domain with some serious local bandwidth, and some long-range links. Somebody needs to be motivated to haul boxes up the mountain ranges. This needs permits, and dedication, and some $$$s. High-latency low-QoS services should be dead easy, though. There goes SMS...
