The Jericho of the Future
By Nick Saorsa
What will happen if the government shuts down the internet? A common concern amongst freedom loving individuals is how we will communicate in the future, especially if the dystopian internet kill switch is activated. But it doesn't have to be such a nefarious scenario to raise alarm. A natural disaster could leave entire communities offline and disconnected from real news. People will be able to stay online through wireless meshes that are outside of government and corporate control.
Starting back in the 70s, people used to use their personal computer, along with a modem and phone line, to connect to a remote system. When one computer communicates with a single other computer, or node, it is referred to as "Point-To-Point" (P2P). These remote systems were often just another low end computer running in someone's basement, but the age of digital communication had begun. These single computers were just little islands, not connected and usually unable to communicate to other networks. As computers became more ubiquitous, the first social networks began to pop up. They were referred to as Bulletin Board Systems, or BBS.
When the world wide web came on the scene in the early 90s, computers went mainstream. Now a part of everyday life that many of us could not see living without. Computers are no longer using dialup modems, they are not tethered by Ethernet cables, and soon, we could potentially be able to cut the cord from the "internet."
Back in 1986, the FCC released the ISM band for unlicensed use. The ISM band was originally reserved for industrial, scientific and medical equipment... but now there was room for radio waves to be used as replacement for networking cables.
The first wireless networks were very underpowered and incredibly slow. Just in the last decade, we've gone from 802.11b with a maximum speed of 11 mbps all of the way up to 802.11n with speeds over 300 mbps. Even with our current equipment, specialized antennas and amplified signals can reach several miles in a point-to-point system. This is great for parlor tricks and hacking sessions with your friend down the street, but how could we all stay connected?
Right now, you are probably still on a point-to-point system. Cable modems, DSL, and even dialup for our friends WAY out in the boonies are all forms of point-to-point. You are only communicating with one other system, or gateway, at a time. An alternative to this technology is point-to-multipoint (P2MP), or more commonly referred to as a "mesh."
Point-To-Point (P2P):
Point-To-Multipoint (P2MP):
Meshes have a lot of potential. With proper antenna placement and common off the shelf routers, a mesh could be formed for your neighborhood and effectively create a private network that could be shared within your community. These private networks are sometimes referred to as "intranets." Encrypted tunnels can be ran over the existing internet to bring these intranets into a single, safe, encrypted WAN, or Wide Area Network. However, this is worthless if the internet backbone disappears. Specialized antennas can be used to connect your neighborhood mesh to the one down the street and form a daisy chain across an entire city keeping the community connected. But what about the next city down the road?
Until recently, there was no easy answer to long range communication, at least at the consumer level. Of course, satellite communication and microwave towers can be used to transmit data over long ranges, but they are typically owned by wealthy companies or hoarded by wealthy governments. Rogue lengths of cable or fiber optics could be installed, but they require maintenance and leave security issues... like having your cable cut. What is needed is a new, more powerful consumer level product, and it is just over the horizon.
Similarly to how the ISM band was opened up for non-licensed use in 1986, the signal space between TV channels has recently been made available. This TV White Space, or TVWS, can reach much farther because the frequency of the wave is much lower. The higher the frequency, the more it is likely to be disturbed on its transit path, so low frequency waves can penetrate more objects and reach more people.
The new TVWS standard is going to operate under the IEEE 802.22 standard. The 802.22 standard is built around P2MP technology and has a projected range of 62 miles from one single base station. That is 12,000 square miles of coverage! If you are within 60 miles of another town, you would be able to connect your MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) to the next town.
Currently, the speeds are not that high at only 22 mbps per channel... but the potential of multiplexing channels could leave room for exponential growth in the throughput of an 802.22 TVWS network. Having this kind of equipment available to a consumer could ruffle some feathers. With the frequency speficications of 802.22 and the 62 mile range, it could be possible to broadcast your own TV station... or in true V for Vendetta style, interrupt the regularly scheduled news.
The government has already started to "make suggestions" to the IEEE panel responsible for the 802.22 specifications such as including GPS transmitters in all base stations that would require communication with the "central authority." Don't be concerned about these attempts to control the future. Central planners always think they can force people into one thing or another, like the failed DRM on DVDs, it will not last.
Whatever it takes to get the equipment on the shelves of Best Buy, because once it's out there, there is no stopping it. Any crippling functions will be defeated. Any mandatory "central authority" will be hacked out of the firmware. Encryption keys will be broken or leaked and the people will have the ability to freely communicate... until some jerk puts up a signal jammer.