Archive for Mesh Networks

iMesh – Countdown To The Singularity

October 23, 2007 at 5:04 pm · Filed under Grids, Mesh Networks, Metaverse, Simulation

When Intel first released it’s Core 2 family of processors, it was clearly a step in the right direction but not something that fundamentally altered the computing landscape. While the meshverse will ultimately require what used to be called supercomputer capabilities, having 2 or 4 computers on a chip is only a baby step. Earlier this year when Intel demonstrated an 80-core prototype as part of it’s TeraScale project, the future was becoming more clear, but Intel was talking several years out. Then in August, an MIT spin-off named Tilera started shipping a 64-core processor with an on-chip network called iMesh which they call a “sea change in the computing industry”.

In effect, the Tile64 has a mesh structure that’s similar to that of the Internet, a network in which there are many decentralized nodes. One reason the Internet is able to pass around data so quickly is that packets of information are sent through a vast network and can avoid traffic jams. If everyone’s e-mail had to go through a central server, there would undoubtedly be delays. Tilera’s microprocessor, says Agarwal, “is very much like the Internet on a chip.” And like the Internet, Tilera’s chip can be scaled up gracefully; it doesn’t need to be redesigned each time new cores are added.

… Intel will keep an eye on Tilera, as it does on many startups that are first to market with new technologies, to see how customers respond and which aspects of the technology could be improved. “We use companies like this to help us test the waters,” he says.

Technology Review: A New Design for Computer Chips

Not surprisingly other hardware vendors are reacting but more significantly, software developers are ramping up efforts to take advantage of the quantum leap in computing power emerging from the new massively multi-core computer chips. It’s really hard to overestimate the impact that software designed to take advantage of massively multi-core computer chips will have over the next 3-5 years. This dematerialization of computers marks the beginning the final march towards a future “strictly biological” humans won’t be able to comprehend.

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Satellite Mesh

September 5, 2007 at 7:26 am · Filed under Augmented Reality, Cisco, Mesh Networks, Metaverse, Space, Technology

Taking a step beyond previously mentioned live coverage of events in space, in a little over a year from now, the Department of Defense plans to actually extend the internet into space by deploying an internet router on-board a satellite:

Cisco will provide the software for an on-board router in a space project it is conducting for the U.S. Department of Defense. The Internet routing in space (IRIS) project “allows direct IP routing over satellite,” said Intelsat General Vice President Don Brown in a statement, “eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport, thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the satellite communications link.”Like ARPANET”IRIS is to the future of satellite-based communications what ARPANET was to the creation of the Internet in the 1960s,” he added. ARPANET was the military’s predecessor to the current Internet.

The project may lead to a completely space-based Internet. Internet traffic between satellites or space vehicles is currently routed through a remote terminal on Earth. IRIS will allow space-to-space Internet traffic to avoid traveling back to Earth, unless it needs to be finally delivered here. It’s possible the project could lead to a faster global IP network, since traffic could travel in space and only come back for delivery.

Intelsat said that, while IRIS is initially being developed for the military, it is expected that the technology will eventually be available for commercial use.

Wireless Security – Cisco Busy with Router for Space and Wireless Fixes

IRIS is a potentially very disruptive development for the broad spectrum of industries which depend on satellite interconnections. It has the makings of a transforming Erie Canal type of impact(for a fascinating, detailed account of this network effect see Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation).

What follows are a few links that provide slightly different takes on this. A good bit of info is repeated but if you are really interested in the topic it’s worthwhile. On a different day I’d take the time to synthesize them into a single post but as they say “so many links, so little time” :-)

Update:

Several very excellent resources exist from Cisco’s successful effort to put an off-the-shelf router on the UK-DMC (Disaster Monitoring Consortium) Low Earth Orbit satellite. IRIS is a follow-on to this effort.

Read the rest of this entry »

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OLPC Mesh Networking

September 1, 2007 at 2:23 pm · Filed under Mesh Networks, Metaverse

The One Child Per Laptop(OLPC) project

has mesh networking capabilities that allow it to broadcast and connect to any laptop around it, allowing activities to easily be made collaborative.

One Laptop Per Child News – Games

Here’s an excellent video that demonstrates how this works:



This will also help the mesh meme spread globally.

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