Serval Project——Android

https://github.com/servalproject

http://developer.servalproject.org/dokuwiki/doku.php

http://www.coolapk.com/faxian/153632

澳大利亚Flinder大学研究人员Paul Gardner-Stephen发布了一个Android应用，允许手机通过WIFI与附近的手机连在一起，原理便是无线网状网。不同设备之间可以语音呼叫，发送短信，传输文件等等。手机并不是受限于本身的通信范围，只要有其它安装了Serval的设备提供中继，它可以呼叫网络中的任何手机。



http://www.servalproject.com/

http://www.servalproject.org/

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http://www.livescience.com/9975-cell-network-depend-towers.html

New Cell Network Doesn't Depend on Towers

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | July 20, 2010 11:33am ET

The infrastructure that keeps cell phones and landlines buzzing is
often the first casualty of a disaster, cutting off survivors at a time
when communication is most crucial. Now, Australian researchers say
they can solve that problem with mobile telephone networks that don’t
require cell phone towers or other vulnerable equipment.

The system, dubbed “Serval” after a species of resourceful African
wildcat, relies on Wi-Fi-enabled mobiles to turn each phone into an
independent router. Any two phones with the Serval software can
automatically create a temporary network, allowing voice transmissions
without having any data travel through a cell phone tower. [Read "Low-Radiation
Cell Phones: All the Rage? ."]

“It’s about bringing convenient and flexible telecommunications into
situations where ordinarily it would be very difficult to do that,” said
Paul Gardner-Stephen, a computer scientist at Flinders University in
South Australia who heads the Serval Project.

Gardner-Stephen and his colleagues tested the phones July 9 in the
wilderness north of Adelaide. Despite a complete lack of cell
phone coverage, they were able to make calls to phones within a few
hundred meters, simulating the type of network needed in a wilderness
rescue scenario or in the aftermath of a disaster in a small village,
Gardner-Stephen said.

Presently the phones can make calls only to nearby phones that run
Serval software.

Deployable towers

The system works using typical Wi-Fi-enabled phones. In this case, the team used Google’s Android phones, modifying
them with mesh network software that enables the phones to
self-organize into temporary networks. Additionally, the team developed
software they call Distributed Numbering Architecture (DNA for short)
that allows users to pre-assign their usual mobile phone number to
their phone in the temporary network. That way, Gardner-Stephen said,
people always have access to their usual contacts in case of a
disaster.

The team is also working to develop a system of miniature phone
towers, weighing no more than 22 pounds (10 kilograms) each, that could
be parachuted from airplanes after a disaster such as the Haiti
earthquake. The towers, which would cost about $1,000 apiece, would have
a battery life of a few days, enough to keep communications running
while permanent networks were repaired, Gardner-Stephen said.

The team is discussing a partnership with Red Cross New Zealand and
is looking to work with other non-governmental organizations and
telecommunications firms to improve the technology. With adequate
funding, Gardner-Stephen said, the mesh network system could be
operational in 18 months.

Potential boon

The temporary networks aren’t as high-quality or long-range as
permanent, tower-based networks, so they’re unlikely to replace the
current system in the developed world. But, Gardner-Stephen said,
developing countries often lack coverage, especially in rural areas.
Using recycled handsets fitted with Serval technology could be a cheap
way to bring telecommunications to those areas.

“We can help cover black spots in the First World and provide people
with free short-range telephone technology,” Gardner-Stephen said. “But
also, the technology helps rather than leaves behind the poorest
people in the developing world.”

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http://www.theage.com.au//breaking-news-national/new-tech-for-mobiles-may-aid-rescuers-20100712-107qj.html

New tech for mobiles may aid rescuers

Date July 12, 2010 Thomas Conlin

AAP

In the aftermath of a natural disaster or terrorist attack,
crippled telecommunications infrastructure can hamper rescue efforts.

But new technology being developed at South Australia's
Flinders University could overcome this by allowing mobile phones to
communicate directly with one another, bypassing the need for towers or
satellites.

Dr Paul Gardiner-Stephen is leading the project and recently
travelled to Arkaroola in the remote Flinders Rangers to test the
technology.

"There was absolutely no infrastructure or support for the
telephones so they were acting entirely on their own to carry the
calls," he said.

The phones are equipped with software allowing their wi-fi capability
to act as a mini tower and connect with other phones, forming their own
network, Dr Gardiner-Stephen explained.

Regional users without access to conventional signals may
benefit from the technology but disaster relief may be the most
beneficial application.

The software lets users keep their existing number allowing people to contact one another readily in emergencies.

"One of our dreams is that every phone will come out with
this one day so that if there is a disaster anywhere in the world
everyone's phones will then switch over to this mode as a fallback," he
said.

While the possibilities for cheap telecommunications are
exciting, the system is unlikely to supercede current mobile phone
systems.

"It's complementary," said Dr Gardiner-Stephen.

"When the infrastructure is available it provides excellent service.

"We can only provide a good service but the key is, when the
infrastructure is knocked out we still provide good service while the
traditional mobile phone network provides no service."

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http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/102893/

July 14, 2010

THIS WOULD SEEM TO HAVE OBVIOUS DISASTER-RESPONSE IMPLICATIONS: New project enables mobile phone use in areas with no reception.

The project includes two systems that can operate separately or be
combined. One is specifically for disaster areas, and consists of a
temporary, self-organizing and self-powered mobile phone network that
operates via small phone towers dropped into the area by aircraft.

The second system consists of a permanent mesh-based phone network
between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, with no tower infrastructure
required. Eventually, the system will also include the “Batphone,” which
will be a specially designed phone able to operate on other unlicensed
frequencies.

The systems use open-source software developed by the team and dubbed
Distributed Numbering Architecture (DNA). The software allows mobile
phones to make calls out and receive calls on their existing numbers.
The mesh network technology was developed by Village Telco and is
integrated with the software to create a mesh network in which each
phone acts as an independent router. . . . Dr Gardner-Stephen said the
system could be operational within 18 months provided the project
receives adequate funding. He said his dream was for every mobile phone
to be equipped with the system so that if there is a disaster all the
phones in the region will automatically switch to the mesh network mode
of operation as a fallback.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-07-12/mobile-invention-could-be-desert-lifeline/900762

First posted 12 Jul 2010, 10:56am

Software enables cell phones to communicate where there is no reception

Mobile invention could be desert lifeline

Jason Om in Arkaroola

Updated 13 Jul 2010, 6:50am

Australian researchers have developed software that
allows mobile phones to communicate with each other where there is no
reception.

It is a new mobile phone system that promises to work anywhere and potentially help save lives in a disaster.

Researchers have gone to extraordinary lengths to test it out in a remote desert wilderness in South Australia.

In a landscape of deep valleys and rugged red ochre mountains, the tests have been a success.

They were carried out at Sillers Lookout, a lonely cliff that juts out like a long finger at Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges.

The area is dead quiet apart from a few flies and some unexpected chatter.

Researchers from Flinders University have gone to the remote spot to prove their technology works.

They have been carrying out tests in a range of situations where there is no mobile phone reception.

Dr
Paul Gardner-Stephen, who is leading the project, has made software
that allows ordinary mobiles to communicate without phone towers or
satellites.

"Here at Arkaroola the nearest mobile phone coverage is probably 100 to 130 kilometres away," he said.

"We
are in chasms and gorges where even satellite phone would actually have
a lot of trouble because you can't see enough of the sky to acquire the
satellite."

Dr Gardner-Stephen says his device actually incorporates a compact version of a mobile phone tower into the phone itself.

"So
using the WiFi interface that is in many phones today that you would
normally use for internet or that kind of thing, we are actually
carrying voice over that, but in a way that doesn't need to go back to a
central repository anywhere," he said.

The signal between phones
is limited to a few hundred metres but by adding more devices and small
transmitters the range can be expanded to cover a much bigger area.

Dr Gardner-Stephen says the system could provide an instant mobile phone network in a disaster.

"With
Haiti what was actually observed was that their mobile phone network
and their landline phone network was essentially knocked out for the
first 48 hours after the earthquake," he said.

"It was really about a week before it was back to the point where people could fairly readily make calls.

"What
research has actually shown is that the vast majority of the response
to a disaster is actually from the local people there, so if we can
provide them with ease of communications as soon as possible after the
earthquake, not 48 hours, not 72 hours but potentially minutes after a
disaster, then we can help them to start rescuing people from rubble and
generally rebuilding, maintaining law and order."

The
researchers' next step is to increase range, improve sound quality and
develop a way of air dropping the system into a disaster zone.

Topics: wireless-communication, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-planning, information-and-communication, mobile-phones, science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, inventions, sa, australia, adelaide-5000, port-augusta-5700

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