[p2p-research] Slashdot | A Mobile Phone Mesh That Can Survive Carrier Network Failure

[Paul D. Fernhout]

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/10/01/202210/A-Mobile-Phone-Mesh-That-Can-Survive-Carrier-Network-Failure
"iTnews reports that researchers from Australia and Singapore are developing 
a wireless ad-hoc mesh networking technology that uses mobile handsets to 
share and carry information. The mesh network will make use of Bluetooth or 
Wi-fi to swap information between handsets — even if the mobile phone 
network was offline. One potential scenario could be during an emergency 
where the mobile phone network was unavailable or clogged. In a city centre, 
users could set up the network to share information, video, photographs and, 
depending on the final client applications, even locate friends and loved 
ones. One benefit of developing such a technology would be that users 
sharing content between their devices would use the wireless communications 
technology already built into their phones and not bandwidth from their 
mobile provider. The researchers from the National ICT Australia and 
Singapore's A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research hope to demonstrate the 
technology within two years, according to NICTA project leader Dr Roksana 
Boreli.'This is an early stage in the research project,' she said. 'We are 
addressing how you would quickly establish trust between devices, how you 
would discover them and share the information,' Boreli said."
http://itnews.com.au/News/157220,researchers-developing-free-mobile-mesh-network.aspx

So, natural disaster strikes? P2P phones to the rescue! :-)

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/