CUWiN/UIUC Partnership Awarded $500,000 NSF Grant To Develop High-Performance Open Source Mesh Wireless Technologies.
July 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN Executive Director
217-278-3933 x30 sascha@cuwireless.net
Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator
217-278-3933 x31 rgmussel@cuwireless.net
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CUWiN/UIUC PARTNERSHIP AWARDED $500,000 NSF GRANT TO DEVELOP NEXT GENERATION OPEN SOURCE MESH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign partners with CUWiN to build high-performance, robust open source wireless mesh networking technologies.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $500,000 in grant funding to support a research and development partnership between the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This initiative, "Toward building a Performance-Predictable Wireless Mesh Network", focuses on the development of wireless routing protocols, network testing systems, and gateway discovery in open-source technology. The grant, part of the Network Technology and Systems Program of the NSF, provides support over a three-year period.
"CUWiN is building the next generation of mesh wireless technologies. Most importantly, CUWiN is releasing our software under an open source license -- allowing communities, municipalities, organizations, and individuals around the world to deploy low-cost alternatives to current proprietary systems." stated Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN Executive Director.
Community and municipal wireless networks have gained tremendous attention in recent years. The ultimate objective of this CUWiN/UIUC partnership is to incorporate research results and system prototypes into production code to be widely distributed by CUWiN. With the help of CUWiN, the research to be carried out by UIUC researchers will make a real impact and effect high-throughput, cost-effective broadband access both for the U.S. and worldwide.
"I am extremely pleased with the fact that NSF recognizes the importance of carrying out research on a real multi-hop wireless network. CUWiN provides us with a city-wide research testbed to understand how, and to what extent, wireless links are affected by PHY/MAC attributes and other environmental factors. All the measurements we make on CUWiN will help characterize the behavior of wireless links and identify control 'knobs' in the MAC/PHY layers with which the network capacity can be optimized." Principal Investigator, Jennifer Hou, stated.
CUWiN's mission is to help bridge the digital divide by developing low-cost, open source, wireless technologies and making them available to community and municipal networks around the world. CUWiN networks have been established in urban settings like Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., as well as rural places like the Mesa Grande Indian Reservation near San Diego, California, and Apirede, Ghana. CUWiN continues to expand its development testbed in Urbana, Illinois in partnership with the City of Urbana and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
"The wireless technologies being developed by CUWiN as a part of this initiative hearken back to the innovation and vibrancy of early Internet development."stated Ross Musselman, CUWiN Outreach Coordinator. "With a focus on maintaining Internet freedom, these new technologies support digital inclusion around the globe."
For more information on this initiative, contact the CUWiN team at:
E-mail: cu-wireless-support@cuwireless.net
Phone: +1 217 278-3933 x31.
Sign up for the once-a-month CUWiN e-mail news list at:
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/cu-wireless-announce
