Cooperative Measurement and Modeling of Open Networked Systems

(COMMONS)Sascha D. MeinrathNew America Foundation

Correspondence: Sascha Meinrath sascha@saschameinrath.com

1630 Connecticut Ave., NW Phone: +1 (202) 986-2700

7th Floor SKYPE: saschameinrath

Washington, DC 20009 AIM/Gizmo: saschameinrath

USA

Presented at the Rural Telecom Congress in Springfield, Illinois, October 15, 2007.

All content, unless otherwise noted, is covered by an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons license.

Community Media, Historically

• 1700s – Newspapers & the Postal Service.

• 1840s – Telegraph.

• 1900s – Telephone.

• 1920s – Radio.

• Post WWII – Television/Public Access TV.

• Today – Broadband (Internet) Connectivity.

• Tomorrow – Interconnected Multi-Media Community Intranets.

Home Network

Graphic Credit: Pat Bergschneider

Local Network

Graphic Credit: Pat Bergschneider

Muni & Community Wireless Networks

• Locally-grounded.

• Unincorporated, non-profit, hybrid partnerships, municipally supported.

• Off-the-shelf hardware.

• Support both social & economic goals.

• Usually proprietary.

• And still beholden.

Hub & Spoke Networks

• Centralized

• Relatively expensive

• Bandwidth-intensive

• High-power

• Single point-of-failure

• Slower than P2P/Mesh

• BUT, allow one to charge for all traffic

Graphic Credit: Darrin Drda

Mesh Networks

• Decentralized

• By-passes obstacles

• Relatively cheap

• Low-power

• Very fast

• Supports P2P Services & Applications

Graphic Credit: Darrin Drda

Scores of websites & portals Hundreds of e-mail lists Tens of thousands of users IRC Server VoIP Services Streaming Audio & Video

Graphic Credit: Jason Pitzl-Waters

The CUWIN/UCIMC Network

Graphic Credit:Dan Meredith

How Many Wireless Networks Exist?

Nobody knows.

In the US: over 300 active and planned

(municipal) networks.

In Europe, South America, etc.: ?

Around the globe: ???

Projected Growth of US Municipal Wireless Market (in millions)*

2004 -- $47.5

2005 -- $116.9 (147% YTY Growth Rate)

2006 -- $235.5 (102% YTY Growth Rate)

2007 -- $459.6 (95% YTY Growth Rate)

2008 -- $941.0 (105% YTY Growth Rate)

2009 -- $1,757.5 (87% YTY Growth Rate)* Source MuniWireless.com 2006 Municipal Wireless State of the Market Report

Example: US CWNs (2006)*

Regional & Citywide Networks: 58 Tempe, AZ; St. Cloud, FL; Chaska, MN

City Hotzones: 32 Los Angeles, CA; Washington, DC; Urbana, IL

Public Safety & Municipal Use Only: 35 San Diego, CA; Las Vegas, NV; New Orleans, LA

City- & County-wide Projects (RFP and/or deployment phase): 69

Phoenix, AZ; Mountain View, CA; Philadelphia, PA Cities & Counties Considering Wireless:

11 Chicago, IL; St. Paul, MN; New Haven, CT

* Muniwireless.com April 2006 Summary of City and County Municipal Projects

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Wireless Ghana

Provides Public Services to Hospitals, Municipal Buildings, Rural Bank, NGOs, etc.

Private Backhaul

Image Courtesy of Wireless Ghana

Mamelodi, South Africa

Graphic Credit: CSIR

Djursland, Denmark

Graphic Credit: Djursland Network

Athens, Greece

Graphic Credit: Athens Wireless Network

Katrina Disaster Response

Graphic Credit: Radio Response

Community Networks Inside the US

Graphic Credit: Free Press

ProposalCooperative Measurement and Modeling of

Open-Networked Systems (COMMONS): Experimentation with different architectures & business models. Use strengths of cooperation to overcome current Internet service provision shortcomings. Collaboration offers backbone transit in exchange for privacy-respecting, participant-defined data-collection for use by network researchers and scientists.

Economic Imperatives

1Mbps symmetric costs:$10/month in San Francisco$80-90/month in Chicago$320/month in Urbana$1300/month in Greenup

Peering ratio costs.

The “Edge of the Broadband World”Cumberland

County, Illinois1532 Residents692 Houses, 393

FamiliesNorth of HidalgoEast of Neoga

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The US Broadband “Backbone”

Military Private

Corporations Educational

Institutions Not-for-profits States Cooperatives

Graphic Credit: CAIDA

NLR-Based Peered Network

Graphic Credit: Free Press/NLR

The Illinois Century Network

4,911 K-12 Schools 322 Colleges &

Universities 492 Libraries &

Museums 67 Healthcare Facilities 2,092 Municipal

Governments 131 “Others”

8,015 Clients (Jan '07)Graphic Credit: Illinois Century Network

Potential Partners Internet2 QUILT NLR RONs Educause, NATOA, & Other Coalitions State Networks Municipalities and Community Wireless Implementors (cities, WISPs, NGOs, etc.) CRACIN & Other Innovative Organizations

Some Lessons Learned That SupportSocial and Economic Justice

• Share bandwidth – buy bulk wholesale.

• Distribute information storage.

• Integrate community intranet services.

• Foster mobile uploading & universal access.

• Support anonymous usage and downloading.

• Create immediate community-wide broadcasting & media production opportunities.

• Open Source, Open Architecture, Open Spectrum Solutions.

Immediate Problems Solved:

Alleviates commercial sector of so-called “impossibly low margin customers”. Secures First Amendment rights of free speech and expression. Provides emerging community networks with a level playing field. Gives science a chance – creates a resource for network research for the public good.

Long-Term Solutions Creates opportunities for sound measurement and analysis – the key to telecommunications policy that serves the public good. Helps achieve the goal of universal, affordable service – which the “free market” has failed to deliver. Accountability and local control -- facilitates a solution that pushes control over the network as far to the edge as possible. Fosters new generation of innovation in services, applications, hardware, & software.

More InformationSascha D. Meinrath sascha@saschameinrath.comPhone: +1 (202) 986-2700AIM, Skype, Gizmo: saschameinrath

CAIDA: caida.orgCOMMONS: caida.org/projects/commonsNew America: newamerica.netCUWiN: cuwin.netWireless Summit: wirelesssummit.orgFor Consulting: ethoswireless.com

Presentation online @ www.saschameinrath.com