[MLB-WIRELESS] Thinking outside the box

[Dan Flett]

Hi all,

Just wrote the following into the Wiki, I suppose I should post it here
too...

NodeDB is famous for it's elevation diagrams that come with it's
nodemaps. I believe we can go one (or two) better.  How about being able
to produce "Line-Of-Sight Overlays" on our maps? I've seen a rough
version done on the San Francisco WLAN website. It will produce an
overlay on a map that shows in a different colour the areas that have
"Good" Line-Of-Sight to a given point on the map - eg the area around a
node.

If you were going to implement Elevation Diagrams you could also get
Locfinder to produce a list of nodes that have "Good" Line-Of-Sight to
any given node. This feature would be useful as for many nodes it may
show Lines-Of-Sight that the node owner may not have realised. The
Line-Of-Sight between NodeGUR in Moorabbin and NodeGDW in Taylors Lakes
is an example of this - it was found by a fluke of antenna orientation.
An algorithm that produces a list of all possible Lines-Of-Sight from a
node would find more of these "flukes".

As for what constitutes "Good" LoS - we could create and refine formulas
that attempt to take into account buildings and trees - it's reasonable
to assume a "blanket" of houses across the landscape that is about 7
metres tall blocks LoS more or less completely. Another "Layer" above
the houses from 7 metres up to about 15 metres above the ground level is
trees, which strongly attenuate 2.4GHz signals but do not completely
block them. A LoS between two nodes could be classified as
"Non-existant","Bad","Good" or "Excellent" depending on the distance it
travels through buildings, trees and open air.

These calculations are probably pretty hard on the Locfinder server. It
would be ideal to be able to calculate the LoS from every node to every
other node in the database. I don't think we'd need to do the
calculations anytime anyone requests them. They should be done everytime
a new node is created or moved - or maybe 30 minutes afterwards in case
someone starts having fun moving their node to different coordinates all
over the place. You could then build up a "matrix" of Node-to-Node LoS
calculations that is stored on the server and referenced when requested
by a node. When requested by a node, the resulting list could have
various sorting options.

Another more simple feature would be "Shaded contours" - that show a
colour gradation for lower or higher elevations.

I guess these ideas would take a lot of hard work in coding to
implement. But I guess you have to start with an idea first...

Dan


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au [mailto:owner-
> melbwireless at wireless.org.au] On Behalf Of Tyson Clugg
> Sent: Friday, 26 March 2004 16:20
> To: melbwireless at melbournewireless.org.au
> Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] Thinking outside the box
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> In case you've just become involved with Melbourne Wireless or you've
been
> living under a rock, I'll introduce myself.  My name is Tyson Clugg
and
> I'm
> the current webmaster for Melbourne Wireless, I used to be president,
> before
> then I was treasurer... I'm sure you get the picture. ;)
> 
> I've had a number of suggestions made to me for improvements to the
> Melbourne Wireless website over the past few months, and I've come to
the
> conclusion that there are too many things distracting me from being
truly
> productive in the short to mid term.  So, I've decided to prioritise,
> recruit and discuss options to ensure my own workload and that of
other
> Melbourne Wireless coders is not too burdensome, and to ensure that
> Melbourne Wireless moves forward in a cohesive and productive manner.
> 
> In simple terms:
> What is the number one feature you wish to see implemented on the
> Melbourne
> Wireless website right now?
> 
> Do you know any accomplished application programmers with PHP & SQL
> experience, who are willing to donate at least 2 hours per week of
their
> time to Melbourne Wireless?
> 
> Which services should Melbourne Wireless be offering via the website
to
> help
> grow the network in the long term?
> 
> Here are some of the website features that have been requested so far
to
> get
> your creative juices flowing:
> * Elevation diagrams between specific nodes
> * RDF/RSS feeds to/from other sites
> * Clickable nodes on the maps
> * Email notification when a node is created/updated within 5km of your
> node
> * Signal propagation maps
> * Street names on maps
> * Private messaging via the website (eg: Whim on whirlpool.net.au)
> 
> I've dumped a copy of this email on the wiki to serve as the basis for
> in-depth discussion, please feel free to chop and change at will:
> http://melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?ThinkingOutsideTheBox
> 
> Cheers,
> Tyson Clugg.
> tyson at wireless.org.au
> 
> 
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