freifunk

License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Web Page: http://wiki.freifunk.net/Ideas

Mailing List: http://freifunk.net/mailman/listinfo/wlanware

Freifunk is an initiative to develop tools for free mesh networks and support communities deploying networks. Freifunk offers a specialized firmware. With this firmware, it is relatively easy to bring up new wireless mesh networks using ad-hoc WLAN communication layer 2 and layer 3 routing Open Source routing protocols. Other tools developed in and with the freifunk community include low cost wifi telephone devices and wlan meter tools. Originated in Germany, Freifunk has been deployed successfully in many countries. The OLPC project in Afghanistan uses freifunk for its mesh deployments to distribute digital books, news and educational media. In Ghana freifunk is used to bridge the digital divide in villages. In Vietnam freifunk is used to offer Internet connections at Free and Open Source events like FOSSASIA. In Europe and the Americas city and village networks lower costs for communities and small and medium sized companies, that share common Internet connections, ADSL, Telephone or Satellite uplinks in remote regions. -- FREIFUNK/OPENWRT -- The Freifunk OpenWrt Firmware is a specially adapted Linux Version that is developed for routers and mobile devices. The main aim of the firmware is to make it easier and faster to set up wireless mesh networks. Designed as an embedded Linux for low powered devices the system can be adapted for a wide variety of mobile devices. Freifunk/OpenWrt supports ad-hoc WLAN communication and layer 2 and 3 routing with different routing protocols. By building the Freifunk embedded firmware together with the OpenWrt team we are developing an easy to use self-configuring, self-fixing and self-tuning mesh network (http://wiki.openwrt.org/Freifunk). -- PLUGINS -- Current test version on SVN (https://dev.openwrt.org/wiki/GetSource) are enabling developers to create plugins for the firmware. These plugins will enable users to offer locations based services, local search, router CMS, local fm radio distribution via routers, and many more. -- OPEN WIRELESS COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD -- If you interested to read more about free wireless networks around the world, please visit the global Freifunk newswire at http://global.freifunk.net.

Projects

• [OLSR] Improve win32 and bsd specific parts Improve win32 and bsd specific parts of olsrd, especially kernel routing interface.
• Cross platform flasher with GUI The main objective of the project is to build a cross platform flashing tool with a simple but completely functional GUI. Further, it is proposed that the networking stack, required by flasher, be built as a completely independent module so that the scope of the work doesn't get limited to the flasher alone.
• DAT: Distributed ARP Table for B.A.T.M.A.N. In wireless mesh networks handling broadcast packets in an efficient way is still an open problem. The ARP-REQ is a packet sent in broadcast and it is stricly needed to establish a IP stream between two hosts. In case of packet loss it will obviously increase the initial connection delay. In a layer 2 mesh DAT wants to optimise the ARP-REQ/REP procedure to avoid the use of broadcast communications as much as possible and rely on the much efficient unicast ones mixing mesh and DHT
• Define a common node database schema for Freifunk node databases The goal is, to define and implement a common node database shema for freifunk node databases, based on the existing node databases. This shema can then be implemented into the databases directly or as an API.
• Implement a power saving protocol for Ad-hoc network by adaptive ATIM window for MAC 802.11 Saving energy on ad-hoc network gets special interest from current research. Network interfaces need an appropriate wake/sleep time to both fully operate and remain sleeping long enough to keep energy. A modified protocol is suggested in which the ATIM is first supported by MAC 802.11 drivers, and then could be changed adaptively based on the network condition such as traffic or noise.
• L-VN Lite Virtual Network Most of the existing VPN solutions are based on user space tunneling and consume a large amount of CPU. Kernel based solutions are more efficient in terms of CPU load but still consume CPU resources on cryptographic operations which sometimes are not even required. The idea of L-VN is to exploit the IP/UDP encapsulation kernel module to develop a VPN/Overlay tool based on IP/UDP encapsulation performed in kernel space with no "security services" for the encapsulated packets.
• MapServer improvement Wirelss communities around the world are growing rapidly and year after year more and more people are interested in joining the new open wireless infrastructure. As more people join the various communities, new necessities aries. One of the key necessity in Ninux.org is to have a map server which is not only powerful and efficient but also easy to use for new comers.
• RadioMate Frontend | Radiomate (Radio Automation Made Easy) is a modular web-radio engine developed for the Google SoC 2010. The work was motivated by the many web radios related to community networking projects. In Rome, for example, the Web radio FusoRadio is present but is currently using proprietary systems. The development of the RadioMate engine is finished, but a complete Web frontend is missing to start using it in a production environment.
• Videoconferencing suitable for Mesh Networks Many people would like to use VoIP in our mesh network, but they encounter some problems: most of existent VoIP solutions depend from Internet; they don't have a good mobile phone integration and they don't support IPv6; and also, the Internet bandwidth in our network is going towards exhaustion. So, the project's aim is to create a distributed VoIP network compatible with VoIP clients, integrated in a social network and easily accessible.