Hidden Interfaces to "Ownerless" Networks

Sandvig, Christian, David Young, and Sascha Meinrath (2004). Hidden Interfaces to "Ownerless" Networks. Presented to the 32nd Conference on Communication, Information, and Internet Policy Washington, DC, USA – September 2004. www.spcomm.uiuc.edu/csandvig/research/Hidden_Interfaces.pdf This article is written by a group of academics and engineers on some of the technical and regulatory issues surrounding user-experimentation with wireless mesh networking and the resulting ownerless networks. The paper is written in technical and theoretical language, but it is a valuable document for readers interested in this area. In summary: Experimenters are now striving to develop, apply, and refine mesh networking for wireless data. Cheap, common unlicensed 802.11 “Wi-Fi” equipment forms important testbeds used by small innovators to create these networks. When the sum of all deployed Wi-Fi devices has no single owner and is not centrally deployed, it can still be considered a network – an ownerless network. Yet, such user-driven development of dynamic meshing (and ownerless networks) is hindered by secrecy among manufacturers in the concentrated network card chipset industry. To address this issue, the authors contacted all major manufacturers of Wi-Fi chipsets in the US and requested interface documentation. They had little success and found unsupportable rationales and few benefits for secrecy. The authors argue that constellations of private, part-15 equipment should be considered as “ownerless” whole networks, and that interfaces should be compelled to use a procedure similar to Sec. 68.110 (e.g. a open interface standard, like that on the compatibility of the public switched telephone network and terminal equipment.). This issue, they say, should be addressed by regulators. Also see: FFC Sec. 68.110 http://sujan.hallikainen.org/FCC/FccRules/2004/68/110/ Why-o-Why About Wi-Fi. The Economist. January 6, 2005. http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3535732