Network management Toolkit

LocustWorld: Swarming over the traditional telcos

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 30 Dec 2004 14:25 GMT

Universities are taking an interest in mesh networking, as their IT managers look for the best way of making their campuses awash with high-speed Internet access. Some local authorities are rumoured to also have plans for mesh.

But for the most impressive use of the MeshAP, you need to go to Washington, Indiana. There, the police drive around with Meshboxes stashed in their boots, happily transmitting away thanks to a 12v power connection from the dashboard. When there's an incident, several mesh-enabled cop cars will converge on in it and, before you can say "you're under arrest", you've got yourself a wireless network which the police and other emergency services can also take advantage of.

So if LocustWorld really is a success, how long will it be until it's snapped up by a big company, much as Motorola gobbled up Mesh Networks the other month?

Lander and Anderson have already sold a small stake in their company to an unnamed individual, who was described rather excitedly in some circles as a "secret investor". But for the moment there don't seem to be many plans to sell out, with Lander insisting they "feel good" about maintaining their independence.

They're not admitting to being worried about the competition from IT giants, with Lander dismissing Intel's involvement in mesh as "more talk and less action".

"Anyone who wants to compete with us with an alternative product would have to offer a better price/performance than our stuff. Our lowest price point is zero, and we have 1,000s of users," said Lander bullishly at a recent meeting.

And then he was off and away, to meet yet another group of people who are considering buying some Meshboxes.

Locustworld has an exciting couple of years behind it, and gives every impression of interesting times ahead. As Lander puts it: "We follow the sportswear philosophy of 'Just do it'."

What are mesh networks?

A mesh network is made up of a number of access points scattered around the place to bring high-speed wireless connectivity to an area. It's the very devil to get right. A mesh has to be self-organising, so that each access point can work out the best way to route a particular packet, and resilient enough to cope with sudden external changes that shake up the routing. It needs to be scalable, so that whoever's running the network can just drop extra nodes onto the network.

Technology guru Nicholas Negroponte forecast a few years ago that wireless networks would eventually be so common that a user could move from one to another as they travelled in the manner of a frog jumping between lily pads. Lander, though, says mesh networks are more like pinball machines.

"Because wireless packets travel at the speed of light, if you have a mesh a mile away that's in a prime position you can go via that to another place that's close to you but obstructed," says Lander. "You tend to get ricochets where you wouldn't expect them."

IT giants like Intel have thrown large amounts of cash and some very talented people at the problem of making mesh a success, but commercial products are scarce. Meanwhile, the LocustWorld AP is being used today to drive mesh networks all over the world.