Mon, 28 Mar 2005

Bringing WiFi to Rail and Bus Service

Rail, light rail, and monorail systems are growing in popularity in the US. As a Seattle native, I have watched our transit system develop over the years. One of the most exciting and promising services I have seen is the Sound Transit "Sounder" train. This commuter train runs both from the north and south ends of seattle. One route from Tacoma to Seattle, the other runs from Everett to Seattle. Passengers are typically commuters looking for another way to access downtown areas without using the highway system -- or even bus system, which can be just as susceptible to gridlock. Many commuters have laptop computers, and make use of on-board AC power and laptop tables. These demographics are prime for the implementation of a broadband hotspot system on board the train.

While a mobile hotspot using a cellular card is a novel concept for small groups of users, this configuration would not scale to service a train. However, other systems can be implemented to meet the heavy usage requirements and actually provide higher access speeds to the Internet.

Here's a brief idea how .......

Unlike buses, rail corridors are typically straight and well defined. They also are relatively flat and well cleared of obstructions -- something perfect for microwave radio systems. Rail right-of-ways, train platforms, and multi-level parking garages also provide locations to collocate equipment.

It would be trivial for a transit authority to contract out for such an installation. Assuming that the right-of-way or collocation could be secured from the rail operator, or even the sole use of transit-owned facilities, a radio system deployed similar to a cellular telephone network could be put in place. This could either be 802.11, WiMax, or another microwave backhaul solution. This is not important. What is important is this system provides seamless roaming to the train, which in turn, contains a router and a WiFi access point on each train car.

This network would only require a cell every 2-5 miles, depending on the topography and type of tower used (if any). Each cell could be linked using licensed or unlicensed microwave, requiring very little monthly recurring cost (MRC) for each "cell site". The only significant cost would be the procurement and MRC of an uplink to the internet and on going support and maintenance contracts.

While the transit authority could charge for WiFi access, I believe that given the relatively low MRC, it would be wise to absorb the costs of this service.

That's right, for what is probably considerably less than SoundTransit pays yearly in any marketing campaign, they could significantly increase passenger productivity and thus significantly increase Sounder ridership. Maybe Sound Transit needs to take a look who would bid on even as little as a trial system, perhaps similar to the Washington State Ferry WiFi contract.

The future light rail and monorail services are even easier, as right of ways are most definitely secured along these tracks. Using microwave links and cellular-like systems, these vehicles can also be easily reached, and tied into a common internet access point.

Now what about buses? I really think the cellular option is the better choice. CDMA 1xRTT, WCDMA/UMTS, and the soon-to-be-released CDMA EV-DO services are quite sufficient for several users. Google actually uses a similar backhaul for their private commuter buses. Buses typically have lower rider densities than trains, and a dedicated network to support these bus routes just is not feasible at the moment.

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Fri, 25 Mar 2005

Train Users

There is a lot of hype regarding mobile hotspots. It was fun to have a backpack node with CDPD back in the day, but quite honestly, nobody really used it unless i was intentionally offering internet access to a friend.

On the train, its a different story. We have 5 regular users (besides Peter, Michael, and I). They discovered our access point by accident. This is impressive given the fact that we only cover one train car. Two of these regular users are actually on the Everett train that is typically parked across the platform from us for about 15 minutes.

Users check email, surf the web, and talk to their friends on instant messenger. They consider our service invaluable and very generous. While it is difficult to advertise in an SSID that it is perfectly ok to connect, "FreeInternetAccess" is a dead give away instead of something vague like "seattlewireless".

Even with user ratios in mind, 5 users is about tops for sharing a 1xRTT connection. While this connection bursts to 144Kbps, i typically see 100-120Kbps of actual throughput. Pretty good for rush hour on a train thats moving 60MPH. Since CDMA isn't particularly sensitive over signal strength, I can get the same speeds with 1 bar as i can with 5.

Now that I have allocated a soekris, I am going to be working on a dedicated unit for this sharing. I am also going to experiment with a battery powered option, but since there is AC on the train, it won't be that critical. I want HostAP so windows sees it as an access point, a proper captive portal (so people know whats going on), and also host some small train intranet so people can either communicate with one another or figure out what this strange project is about. After all of this is complete, I am sure we will end up with a "mobile hotspot" distribution image that can replace the need for some crazy $800 sharing device.

Above: Peter Yorke enjoys WiFi access on the train at King Street Station, while others sitting in the Everett train (pictured outside train window) check their email.

Above: The "Magic Backpack" which makes our mobile hotspot possible.

Above: The laptop that makes it possible using Windows ICS, WiFi, and a SprintPCS 1xRTT card. Hopefully it will be replaced with a dedicated Soekris soon.

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Thu, 24 Mar 2005

WiFi on the Train...Sort of!
As most people probably don't know, Peter, Michael, and I started taking the train together a week or two ago. Trains with no internet access suck, so I decided to privately share my SprintPCS 1xRTT card between the three of us using WiFi. So this was cool, and TacomaTrainNode was born.

Then, just for fun, we decided to turn off the security features of this access point. Suddenly, 6 different laptops on the vicinity associated within about 5 minutes and started actively using it. What is even more shocking is our WiFi signal was only spanning about one train car.

We decided to determine who these people were, and using a nifty script which identifies local instant messaging client user names, we approched each user via instant messenger while on the ride home. These people, where considerably technical and excited that they could access the internet on the ride home. The unanimous outcome of each conversation was that Sound Transit should seriously consider looking into deploying such a service. Apparently from our little experiment, the demographics are just right. It would certainly be used.

So there we have it. Want to access the train node? Here are some specifics on operation:

Morning (Tacoma to Seattle): Last Train, Front Car
Evening (Seattle to Tacoma): The car parked at station "G", car # 403.

Contact Information: tripplemocha (AIM), maokhian@hotmail.com (MSN)

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Tue, 22 Mar 2005

First Hacknight in A Long Time
I have not been a very good SeattleWireless person this year. I have been going to school in the evenings, which unfortunately rules out the tuesday night HackNight. Ok, sure, we have HackTrain on the Tacoma Sounder, but its just not the same. Maybe we just need some good video link ups or something?

As almost nobody knows, my wife is going into consulting. This is always an interesting subject at HackNights, and Maggie and I have been dragging our feet on this thing for almost as long as we have known each other....which isn't all that long...but still.

Also talked about SnowNet, which has almost the same status as Washington's "Snow Pack" (or lack there of). (Yes, it melted). My SnowNet team has a new leader (Peter Yorke) who will, at the very least, be in charge of salvaging gear. After this, we are going to have to seriously consider our goals for the future. What are we trying to accomplish? Do we really even have the resources (time) to do this?

SnowNet, even at its conception, was a network to nowhere. Yea, sure, long haul wireless links into eastern washington....resistant to the sensitivity of today's infrastructure...bla bla bla...but this was intended to go into communities with no active community network projects. Build it, and they won't come, and the gear rusts on the tower.

On a happier note, I am pleased to report that we have an active user base (as in, repeat users) on the Sounder through TacomaTrainNode. Is that awesome or what?!

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Tue, 15 Mar 2005

X10 is Out of Control
When I first moved into my house a little over a year ago, I retrofitted all the switches in my house (a little over 20 light switches in all) with X10 dimmers. Yes, I can even dim my porch lights! I had a nifty RF remote control, web interface, and even cell phone interface to control these. I even was able to write cron jobs to turn on the porch and landscape lights.

Well, now its not very fun anymore. Either someone hacked the BSD box which controls my lighting systems, or there is noise sitting on the line which is being mistaken for actual commands. All the lights in my house are turning on and off at random about every 5-10 minutes. Its not just one light, but all 20 of them. What is really cool is when you try to put the baby to sleep and her light comes on full blast. Not to mention other very annoying moments. Try to turn a light off, well, it just might come back on again!

I am frantically looking for noise sources and system logs to see just what could be causing this issue. Replacing over twenty switches to correct the lighting issue is not something I really want to do at the moment.

Has my house been 0wned?!

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Mon, 07 Mar 2005

Rules to a Successful Community Wireless Network Project