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Published byDonald West Modified over 9 years ago
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Project Byzantium Networking for the Zombie Apocalypse
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The Internet is BROKEN. It fails on many levels, but let's just focus on the lowest ones for now.
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Assumptions You know what the Internet is You're familiar with the OSI model You know what routing does (layer 3) You know how to use 802.11 (layers 1 & 2) You like being connected
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Use Case: Egypt Problem Deliberate compromise of infrastructure ISPs offline Trunk lines go dark Services are filtered Need to collaborate
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Use Case: Katrina Problem Massive infrastructure failure Natural disaster Connectivity is all or nothing Need to communicate
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Our Approach Mobile, ad-hoc mesh network Not all nodes need to run mesh routing software Provides services to associated clients
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Ad-Hoc Networking Takes place at OSI layers 1 and 2 Built into 802.11 Requires minimal configuration to bootstrap a network Nodes can move around while maintaining connectivity Nodes can relay traffic to extend range Any wi-fi enabled device can do it
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Mesh Routing Takes place at OSI layer 3 Nodes perform IP routing A number of protocols exist Not all protocols have the same features, solve the same problems, or are efficient
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How Routing Works
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But wait! Isn't the Internet a mesh network? Not really.
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The Internet is a partial mesh. It's mostly hierarchical. Lots of networks have routers which are also single points of failure.
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What we need is a fully connected mesh (or something close to it).
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Ad-hoc wireless + mesh routing == Mobile ad-hoc mesh network We can already do this, but we need to make it easier.
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Design Goals Cheap, readily available equipment Improvisable Rapidly deployable Robust and reliable Secure Low maintenance
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Design Constraints Solving Katrina first, Egypt second A small group of geeks can deploy the solution to enable the larger community to connect. Not all nodes have (or need) the mesh software Minimal collusion required
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Wireless network Ad-hoc wireless clients Mesh nodes o Hacked routers o Laptops or netbooks o Desktop PCs o Plug computers Inter-mesh links o Cantenna o Dial-up o Something more exotic?
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Mesh routing Route traffic through the network Route traffic between networks Support both mesh and non-mesh nodes Protocols o OLSR o Babel o BATMAN-adv
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OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing) Not optimized for wireless o No link-quality awareness Routing loops are possible Tries to propagate the full routing table to every node
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Babel Enhancement of OLSR Link-quality aware Loop avoidance No kernel code required Works by managing the OS routing table Only supports IPv4 & IPv6 at layer 3 Easy to start Minimal configuration Easy to troubleshoot
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BATMAN-adv Better Approach To Mobile Ad-hoc Networking Also has link-quality awareness Also has loop avoidance Requires a kernel module o Included in kernel tree since v2.6.38 Provides a virtual layer 2 interface o Works with any layer 3 protocol Very active community Challenging to troubleshoot
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Resources provided Wiki Microblogs Etherpad Instant messenger Forums Telephony Chat File dump Audio streaming All of these use existing software. XMPP supports many of these features.
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The Byzantium Live Distribution LiveCD/LiveUSB Linux distribution Mesh routing software o Including source code Software development/debugging tools Network troubleshooting/monitoring tools Resource hosting software
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The Byzantium Live Distribution Utilities for easy setup and configuration o Shell scripts? o Local web app? Multi-lingual documentation Library (CD3WD) Utilities for replicating copies of the distro in the field
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Technical difficulties Client configuration o DHCP o AHCP Resource discovery o DNS o Bonjour/ZeroConf/mDNS o Handwriting on the wall o QR Codes o A P2P searchable resource directory service
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Technical difficulties Inter-mesh links o Exotic != {easy,reliable} o May be specific to use case o Execution over style Easy, intuitive user interface o Configuring mesh routing daemon o Configuring networking Distributing the solution before the crisis
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