Here’s the interesting bit, it may be a lot less cost prohibitive and accessible than everyone thinks…
Everything you need to mod/demodulate spread spectrum signals (or many other modulation schemes for that matter) is readily available and open source (e.g. GNU software defined radio project). Being VLF/ELF you also don’t need expensive RF hardware to source/sink the waveforms, a standard computer sound card is more than capable from DC up to 8 kHz (which at least in my part of the world appears to be unregulated or at least not allocated in any spectrum planning by the communications authority, probably because the capability/feasibility to utilise this band has long been written off by those with other agendas). I’ll admit more research needs to be done to reduce the transmitter input power / physical size requirements of ELF/VLF, but it certainly could offer a free to the people alternative.
RE: ELF/VLF… since the waveform is so large, the bandwidth I believe is constrained. Have they solved this with a carrier wave on top of the ELF? Could we get at least dialup speeds out of it?
Yes, the constraint would be available bandwidth in the ELF band before hitting 0 Hz, not necessarily the length (size) of the wavelength. Actually the length of the wave is advantageous to propagation, meaning better suited to long distance transmission.
Using 8.3 kHz as an upper limit and 300 Hz as a lower limit (no allocations by ITU below 8.3 kHz presently) one could use the Nyquist formula (in the absence of noise considerations) to estimate a maximum theoretical bit rate. bps = 2 x B [bandwidth] x log2 M [number of symbols in modulation scheme].
2 x (8300-300) x log2 2 using basic On-Off Keying = 16 kbps
or
2 x (8300-300) x log2 256 using QAM256 = 128 kbps
where we lose the bit rate is when spread spectrum techniques are introduced for the benefits of jamming immunity, complexity of detection/decoding in the absence of knowing the spreading codes and multiple simultaneous access to the carrier (‘the earth’).
Typical CDMA/DSSS/UMTS spreading factors can range between 4 and 512, so say picking 64, we have to reduce our bit rate by this SF.
In the above modulation examples that would be 0.25 kbps or 2 kbps.
As Tracy points out this may be suitable for email communications ‘text’. Doing some fancy things in your protocol layer like multicasting etc, you might be able to support forum style ‘bulletin boards’ and static html/image sites - aka welcome back to the early internet
Anyone with a ham radio license can build and experiment with new kinds of radio emissions in the allocated spectrum space. That could be everyone if everyone gets a ham radio license (easy enough). The allocated spectrum space is spread out generously accross all of the different types of radio bands. So ham radio would work for a mesh network as long as there is no encryption used (no “codes and ciphers” allowed by law). But a new mesh system could be developed and tested legally, as long as there is no encryption used and as long as everyone who transmits or relays signals has a ham radio license.
There are constraints. For several reasons, the microwave bands are required. Below 3 GHz (or likely higher), there just isn’t enough bandwidth available for everyone to share, even at low power and with a lot of switching. If you go below 30 MHz, the atmospheric propagation actually causes problems with local communications. You may be in New York talking with someone two blocks away until someone in Australia comes booming in and obliterates the conversation. Received signal strength and received locations are mostly random based on sunspot interactions with the ionosphere below 30 MHz and sometimes up to 60 Mhz or at times, even higher. The only choice is to use microwaves, lots of switching, and maybe even satellites. But not to despair, that can be done.
If enough people participate, there might be enough constantly moving public nodes out there to make low-power, de-centralized communications practical. A worthy goal at first might be text messaging. Occasional delays in minutes might be more tolerable in text messages than would be practical in two-way voice communications. Although ham radio codes and ciphers are prohibited, you only have to publish your protocols and keys to stay legal. You’re not responsible to assure that everyone is capable of listening-in as you use low power and move around. If a mesh network utilized a protocol that only forwards traffic through a logical shortest path of nodes at low power, it would be extremely difficult to spy on anyone unless you literally followed them around to see where they go from minute to minute, and have a way to know exactly where the mesh will route their next traffic through the system (impossible). So being a part of the mesh would provide all of the anonymity you need. Imagine that you are attempting to listen-in to someone else’s in-person conversation between two people. You’re in a crowded restaurant. The band is playing and there are various different conversations going on all around you. You’re trying to listen in to a conversation between two people two tables away. Every now and then, your targets move to another table. Eventually they disappear in to the crowd. How can you listen in to those people? You can’t. No one can unless they are invited and told where to go next. That’s not a code or cipher. And it can’t be hacked if done correctly. From what I know, a ham radio mesh network of this type should work.
Thanks for sharing leetaur and irvinewade, I wasn’t aware of Project Gemini, definitely could offer a viable solution at kbps speeds. I guess I’d rather have kbps then zero bps when the corporation-government partnership finally own it all
Well, we don’t have to look too far back in history to know that if this system becomes a threat to the agenda what was once legal, will quickly be illegal.
Moving nodes would might work at the local level… we still need intercontinental bridging.
Being strategic about the problem:
I don’t think we have a year to get it ready before this next scam is deployed.
Not enough time to build out a system.
Stop-gap measures:
Jacking into current infrastructure thru less than sanctioned means: Sleeve antenna can intercept internet traffic thru induction. Can it also inject internet traffic? If so, physical access to a line… anywhere along the line… could provide an intercontinental bridge into the mesh-net.
The ultimate solution nobody is talking about:
Longitudinal wave comms: That would be unstoppable. Tesla left enough clues to resurrect it. Resources need to get channeled in that direction while we still have a somewhat free internet.
When expanding on the idea of what is legal may become Illegal, when it comes to using Amateur radio, international communications already have special rules with respect to third-party communications or relaying messsges. An amateur radio mesh network would likely only be legal for this reason within the US and certain other cooperating countries under US law. There are “third party” rules when passing along international messages to non-amateur users which is inevitable to happen in an un-controlled network. But only some countries are affected.
The US only has Amateur radio communication treaties with certain countries and not others. So Amateur radio operators everywhere are allowed to talk to eachother, regardless of what country their license is based in. But message traffic can not be passed along between the US to others in other countries with no treaties who are not themselves licensed. As soon as any international communication is relayed from an amateur radio operator to another person who does not have a license in their own country in a country with no treaty, then US laws have been broken.
So let’s say that an African country (for example), has no third-party communications treaty with the US. As two licensed Amateur radio operators in these two countries communicate with eachother, no laws are broken. But let’s say that the US operator asks the operator in Africa to make a local call to someone else, to give them some information from the US operator. Let’s say that the local person receiving that phone call does not have an Amateur radio license themselves. In such a case, the American licensed operator would have broken the law. To keep this from happening in a mesh network, controls would need to be added, which defeats the whole purpose of the mesh network anyway. So no international link would be practical.
