Wifi planet - Meshing with Homeland Security

As municipalities around the world start to look at wireless technology
to support first responders in the field, a self-healing/configuring
mesh topology is always a contender due to its simplicity and low cost.
One mesh provider, PacketHop of Belmont, Calif., thinks it will see a
lot of initial success with a specific target: homeland security.

  "Since 9/11, the shortcomings in communications have become obvious in
many articles," says company CEO Michael Howse. "More recently, some
areas have had the benefit of funding from federal grants and local
agencies to fix some of these challenges."

  That's where his company wants to come in. They plan to deploy
wireless networks to work with multiple agencies (federal and local,
fire fighters and cops) using serverless applications so that taking
out a node of the network won't impact the use.

  The company earlier this month held the first trial of its mobile mesh
technology with multiple agencies in the San Francisco Bay area; the
network was monitored in the state capital, Sacramento. Howse calls
that trial a "showcase for homeland security."

  The trial was led by the Golden Gate Safety Network (GGSN), a
coalition of local and federal agencies that protect the Golden Gate
Bridge, which has been subject to many threats. The trial was overseen
by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, which
monitored everything via a high-speed virtual private network (VPN)
connection to the PacketHop network around the Golden Gate. The network
extended (using high-gain antennas) from the Presidio north to Marin
County, and even included nodes on Coast Guard and San Francisco Police
Department ships in the bay.

  PacketHop's network uses off-the-shelf hardware; this trial included
products from 3eTI and Proxim for the wireless infrastructure and
several ruggedized handheld units from companies including Panasonic
and Xybernaut.

  "The real thing that's an eye-turner is the ability to multitask video
over the wireless mesh," says Howse. "IP cameras can go everywhere, and
the bridge has around 31 full-time cameras. Broadcasting that in
real-time is extraordinarily useful." Nodes on the mesh network were
able to tune in the video as needed.

  The company provides modular applications -- everything from video
viewers to instant messaging clients -- that don't require a central
server. The IM clients, for example, are truly peer-to-peer.

  "In our world, working in a new class of applications like
peer-to-peer without servers, you can have all the mechanisms you want
like synchronization, logging, time-stamping for account liability, but
they're tuned for mobile mesh," says Howse.

  The trial is now over and there's no guarantee that PacketHop's
technology will become the permanent backbone behind the network
helping the GGSN. But Howse says that this trial and the commitment to
helping homeland security is a "driving initiative in how we build the
company. We hope they'll continue to use us."


BINNEH S MINTEH
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

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