On Sun, May 09, 2010 at 09:38:18AM -0700, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
geographic location doesn't map to topology
In LEO satellite constellations and mesh wireless it typically does. When bootstrapping a global mesh, one could use VPN tunnels over Internet to emulate long-distance links initially. Eben Moglen recently proposed a FreedomBox intitiative, using ARM wall warts to build an open source cloud with an anonymizing layer. Many of these come with 802.11x radio built-in. If this project ever happens, it could become a basis for end-user owned infrastructure. Long-range WiFi can compete with LR fiber in principle, though at a tiny fraction of throughput.
Presumably, one could prototype something simple and cheap at L2 level with WGS 84->MAC (about ~m^2 resolution), custom switch firmware and GBIC for longish (1-70 km) distances, but without a mesh it won't work.
The local 64 bit part of IPv6 has enough space for global ~2 m resolution, including altitide (24, 24, 16 bit). With DAD and fuzzing lowest significant bits address collisions could be prevented reliably. Central authority and decentralism can co-exist.
I'm sorry, but I am very afraid of "Central Authority".
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