Texas Packet Radio Society1 TexNet: internet and weather Digital Communications and Packet Radio Bob Morgan, WB5AOH

Texas Packet Radio Society2 Topic List  Weather Service topics  Demand for Packet by Austin ARES  TexNet network code development  Internet trunking for TexNet network  Questions and Answers

Texas Packet Radio Society3 TexNet weather servers status  TULWX - operational  NWS - being relocated again  BROWX - operational  STXWX - under construction  EMWIN CARDINAL server - development

Texas Packet Radio Society4 EMWIN status  EMWIN now fed at 9600b from satellite  EMWIN local feeds locally filtered  Satellite failure in May 1998  GOES satellite alternative

Texas Packet Radio Society5 EMWIN WWW URL  document/emwin.htm 

Texas Packet Radio Society6 APRS and TexNet and Weather  development effort to use APRS to aid weather spotting and reporting  development effort to use TexNet to aid in networking of APRS, particularly weather spotting and reporting  growing array of APRS weather stations, including those at TexNet nodes

Texas Packet Radio Society7 WinAPRS and weather mapping  WinAPRS is being oriented towards NWS alerting, mapping, and spotting  WinAPRS street level maps available for almost all counties in the US. These are large files and require much memory

Texas Packet Radio Society8 Packet use in ARES in Austin  One packet message never sent  ARESDATA used in casualty exercises  Demand for Packet operators and portables  packet node under construction for ARES

Texas Packet Radio Society9 TexNet net code development  Vers 1.74 is current, 1.72 useable  Vers 1.75 under development, still buggy  NCP or NCPPC platform  TNC2 platform  TNC2 dualport platform

Texas Packet Radio Society10 TexNet vers 1.75 goals  TNC3 platform, 4 ports  APRS tracker, digi, etc. WIDE-N repeat  DXC reconnect fix  Telemetry  Internet trunking or KISS interface  Won’t drive PMS disk (memory bankswitching being investigated here)

Texas Packet Radio Society11 TexNet over the Horizon  Port Cardinal, Weather servers, etc to LINUX systems  Port TexNet layer 3 Net Code to Linux  Add many applications to TexNet under LINUX when layer 3 is moved there  Allow for using newer PC hardware  Eventual interface with Amateur S.S. nets

Texas Packet Radio Society12 Internet Trunking for TexNet Using the internet to supply new trunk paths to connect various sections of TexNet together

Texas Packet Radio Society13 Why the internet, why not radio?  Wireline availability reduced as times change  Internet is available, technology is off the shelf, we just apply it to our situation  Economic realities  Reliability issues of the three methods

Texas Packet Radio Society14 TexNet network layout - radio

Texas Packet Radio Society15 TexNet with Wirelines

Texas Packet Radio Society16 TexNet with internet additions

Texas Packet Radio Society17 Network Economic Realities  New radio node cost $500-$2000 or more  We might need 20 or more nodes, more than that for any redundancy  Maintenance problems increase dramatically  Reliability and throughput reduced  Crosses point of diminishing returns

Texas Packet Radio Society18 Reliability Issues  Radio or path can be unreliable also  Many nodes in series are unreliable  Switched networks unreliable  Increase reliability by redundancy  Increase reliability by use of different types of trunking in parallel  Re-routing issues

Texas Packet Radio Society19 Relative reliability  Fiber optic leased circuits probably best  Good radio paths decent, but not best  Internet is pretty decent, lots of possible failure sites and modes under stress  Public switched circuits and cellular basically unreliable, and this is what makes demand for Amateurs in an emergency due to switching overload by demand.

Texas Packet Radio Society20 Wireline trunk paradigm channel banks fiber xcvr V.29 modem NCP Radios Antennas

Texas Packet Radio Society21 Wireline trunk requirements  Find a provider to donate service and sites  Find two or more sites with roof access  These sites have to be places we need  Sites have to be good RF locations  No fees or insurance demands  Useable service access for maintenance

Texas Packet Radio Society22 Internet Node layout NCP LINUX ISP SERVER INTERNET (AX25IPD) kiss ethernet T-1 UPS

Texas Packet Radio Society23 Internet Service Providers  Probably will be different in every locality  We want donated full time service  Service can be limited to one type protocol  We want to tie to ISP at ethernet speeds  We want the ISP to have T1 speed to net  We need some kind of RF access at site  UPS almost a necessity for our PC, etc.

Texas Packet Radio Society24 AX25IPD routing topology

Texas Packet Radio Society25 AX25IP Encapsulation- raw IP LAN Hdr. IP Hdr. DATA LAN Trlr. AX.25 ADDRESS ControlDATAFCS

Texas Packet Radio Society26 AX25IP Encapsulation - UDP/IP LAN Hdr. IP Hdr. DATA LAN Trlr. AX.25 ADDRESS ControlDATAFCS UDP Hdr.

Texas Packet Radio Society27 Present Firecode Hardware Data Clock Modem RXLong shift register Programmed recognition data AND Reset NCP

Texas Packet Radio Society28 Internet Firecode Hardware Conceptual design NCP Reset PC Reset PC Kbd Socket clk data Shift register cntl-alt-del Linux reboot Modem RX clk data long shift register stored patterns

Texas Packet Radio Society29 Internet Security Issues  Keep all internet hackers out of systems  Keep ham hackers out of TexNet internals  Keep non-ham people off the air  Allow for limited remote control by sysop  Measure and report stats and breakins  Allow for re-routing if network stressed

Texas Packet Radio Society30 Internet Security Methods  Remove compilers, editors, ftp, etc  If we are behind a firewall, use it also  Use and change passwords on remote route  Automated file change surveillance  Automated suspicious port activity surv.  Deception responses from unused ports

Texas Packet Radio Society31 LINUX.....FOR IQ’S HIGHER THAN