As both events of the Arab Spring and recent natural disasters have shown, people around the globe need secure and reliable platforms to communicate. Authoritarian governments have the ability to completely shut down online communications, while natural disasters can knock out vital infrastructure for days, leaving first-responders without a means to communicate.

To combat holes in existing communications infrastructures, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative (OTI), Chambana.net, and Acorn Active Media are building a new communications toolkit, called Commotion Wireless, that leverages a distributed, mesh wireless infrastructure. This week’s pre-release of Commotion provides a common mesh network platform upon which the secure communications toolbox will be built over the next 12 months. Those interested in testing services or hardware for Commotion compatibility are encouraged to download the source code.

Dubbed by the New York Times as the “Internet in a Suitcase,” Commotion is a “device-as-infrastructure” system that integrate users’ existing cell phones, WiFi-enabled computers, and other WiFi-capable personal devices to create a metro-scale peer-to-peer (mesh) communications network.

For over a decade, developers have pioneered the development of “device-as-infrastructure” broadband networks. By utilizing cell phones and best-of-breed open source projects from around the globe, OTI’s implementation strategy integrates already-existing hardware (and extensions to currently available open source initiatives) to dramatically increase the security and robustness of communications networks.

Specifically, the Commotion project is working toward the following five-point solution:

• Create a robust and reliable participatory communications medium that is not reliant upon centralized infrastructure for local-to-local (peer-to-peer) and local-to-Internet communications;
• Design ad hoc device-as-infrastructure technologies that can survive major outages (e.g. electricity, Internet connectivity) and are resilient during emergencies, natural disasters, or other hostile environments where conventional telecommunications networks are easily crippled;
• Secure participants’ communication to protect data integrity and anonymity through strong end-to-end encryption and data aggregation;
• Implement communications technologies that integrate low-cost, pre-existing, off-the-shelf devices (e.g. cell phones, laptops, consumer WiFi routers) and maximize use of open source software; and,
• Develop an open, modular, and highly extensible communications platform that is easily upgraded and adapted to the particular needs and goals of different local users.
• As developers continue to work on Commotion, additional prototypes and software will be released.

For a demonstration of Commotion or interviews, contact Sabrina Siddiqui, Media Relations Manager, at siddiqui@newamerica.net.

Background on Commotion:
https://tech.chambana.net/documents/4   

More on Commotion:
http://oti.newamerica.net/commotion_wireless_0

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