Mesh Net for Emergency Communications (EmComm)

WB2IFS' Meshnode setup

So I've been looking into meshnet pretty heavily since I discovered it and got my Amateur Radio Operator license. My goal is to be able to set up a mesh network in my county and surrounding area so I've been looking at different software that would work well for file sharing, chat, and various other forms of communication.

There are various types of mesh networks out there but I'm specifically interested in Broadband-Hamnet to be able to set it up locally. With the right equipment I don't think that we would have any major issues in the area I live and getting 54gbps up to 10 miles away in the right conditions. The benefit of the mesh network is that each node can talk to each other node and it can self repair so to speak. The drawback is that it can be rather bandwidth intensive as each node on the network has to know about each other.

My goals are to be able to transfer, voice, video, files, over a mesh network using a raspberry pi(s) as the server on a self sustaining node. Ideally all of this would be decentralized and self replicating but I will have to worry about that at a later date.

Here's a brief run down of the hardware that I'm investigating.

• Linksys WRT54G routers
• Raspberry Pi
• Older Scrapheap cheap PC
• Cantenna
• Omni Directional/Colliner Antennas

Software that I'm investigating.

• GetSimpleCMS - For website to contain basic information on the other services, ability to give out generalized information on events or issues
• Openfire - Openfire is a XMPP/Jabber server software that can allow for voice, video, file transfer and text chat
• OwnCloud - For setting up drag and drop file sharing functionality.

My core goal with these is to make the setup a simplified as possible and hand out the information for my club members to be able to set up their own nodes or software. Making it as simple as possible and step by step which I will be posting here also.