rootninja

The Serval Project

Don’t call it a point-to-point phone network, that might scare small children. How about network-free communication or a self-organizing self-powered temporary network?

Mobile phones and tablets communicating with each other without the need of infrastructure, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

The system reminds me of the OLPC-mesh networking found in the XO laptop, only more useful.

The signal is limited in range, but with enough devices chaining the network together, the communication mesh could easily become quite expansive. Utilizing the existing WiFi of today’s phones also allows this technology to be a viable solution to oppressive government stifling of Internet communication.

The best use for this technology is in disaster scenarios and in remote locations with limited access to telcom infrastructure. Although power might still be a problem after a natural disaster, mobile power generators are very common and become available long before cell towers are placed back online.

I’ve only ever seen one other host online using the mesh networking on my XO, but that little laptop is hard to find living in a high tech city. Cell phones, on the other hand, are literally everywhere. This software should come preloaded in every phone in the world based on its implications of freedom alone.

From The Serval Project:

The Serval Project consists of two systems.

The first is a temporary, self-organising, self-powered mobile network for disaster areas, formed with small phone towers dropped in by air.

The second is a permanent system for remote areas that requires no infrastructure and creates a mesh-based phone network between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, and eventually specially designed mobile phones that can operate on other unlicensed frequencies, called Batphone. The two systems can also be combined.

We have developed software which we’ve called Distributed Numbering Architecture (‘DNA’) that allows people in isolated or temporary networks to immediately use their existing phone numbers.

We believe that for a phone network to be useful, you must be able to call people, and have people call you on numbers that they know. This is especially true in disasters. This is the magic of DNA: it allows people to use their existing phone numbers, so that others can call them easily.

The Serval Project is a new group just getting started. They use open source software and are looking for funding and volunteers to fulfill the dream of making Serval freely available to everybody who needs it.