Serval is an open source software allowing to directly link mobile phones. It was developed at Flinders University in Australia and is soon to be released as a free application for Android. (http://www.servalproject.org/)
According to its creators, the application will come in handy in disaster situations, when provider links may be down or electricity is an issue. The possibility of directly linking one mobile phone to another may also become an important technological fix in rural areas, where it will enable people to communicate directly from one handset to another, without an expensive subscription.
Serval can be deployed in two ways:
The first is a temporary, self-organising, self-powered mobile network for disaster areas, formed with small phone towers dropped in by air.
The second is a permanent system for remote areas that requires no infrastructure and creates a mesh-based phone network between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, and eventually specially designed mobile phones that can operate on other unlicensed frequencies, called Batphone. The two systems can also be combined.
A Distributed Numbering Architecture (‘DNA’) allows people in isolated or temporary networks to immediately use their existing phone numbers.
Dr. Paul Gardner-Stephen is the man with the original idea for the software at the heart of The Serval Project, and is a co-founder of the project. He has always had an interest in telephony and social equity. His experience as a computer systems administrator and C developer have equipped him to be what he describes as the digital version of a blacksmith, able to create useful items out of bits and bytes. He is also the Flinders University Research Fellow in Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications. Dr. Gardner-Stephen is passionate about the opportunity that the Serval project offers in terms of enfranchising the poorest two billion who lack access to affordable telephony, if it is available to them at all.
A video of a first successful field test is available here:
ABC News Adelaide – Mobile phone
The name: In case you wondered, the serval is a medium-sized variation of an African wild cat, which shares many common traits with the cheetah. It lives mainly in savanna type regions, though it is remakably adaptable to different surroundings. Ithas long legs – longest of all cats for body size – and that allows it to jump – and run extremely fast, with a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). It also has characteristic white tipped large ears with acute hearing – their long, almost bat shaped ears are used to detect the sound of movement, and they can pick up the ultrasonic high frequencies emitted by rodents and other small creatures. Patient, watchful, they have been known to stand up to 15 minutes at a time to listen for signal of their prey. Their ability to land precisely on target allows them to be among the most efficient of hunters, with far higher catch success rates than most cat species. They are highly intelligent, playful, and demonstrate what have been described as ‘remarkable problem solving skills’.
Michel Bauwens interviewed Paul Gardner-Stephen, via email:
– What exactly is Serval?
Serval is a distributed communications system that can use off the shelf cell phones. It was envisaged after the Haiti earthquake where I observed the lack of communications was extremely harmful for that community, and that there were probably lots of cell phones in the area, it is just that they were useless without towers.
So I started to think about communications systems that don’t need towers. After some hunting I realised it was possible to adapt Village Telco’s advances in practical mesh networking to cell phones, which I did. We also created a system that lets you claim your existing telephone number so that even if you get a temporary phone in a disaster, you can keep your number so that your family can still make sure you are okay. After all, what is the point of having phones if you and the people you want to call don’t know the right numbers to call?
We got this to prototype stage for local calling on the mesh in the middle of last year, and made the local news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K819ggBvkU0
We also see this system as allowing very poor communities to get affordable local telephone service and also potentially internet access, thus helping to bridge the digital divide.
This is why we are making the system free ($0 and GPL) so that one day it can be ubiquitous in all phones, and help as many people as possible.
– Is it already being used?
It is still in prototype stage, but we hope that it might start getting used within the next 12 months. The first applications may be providing a local intercom/mobile network for NGOs in field deployments, and also for local search and rescue authorities who want a cheap way to be able to stay in contact with people working underground, e.g., in rubble.
– What is already right, and what needs to be improved?
Well, it already lets you call on the mesh using existing phone numbers in a very natural way, and you can also call out globally without any fiddly configuration if a DNA gateway is in range. These are profound capabilities already. It means that people can use our system to set up communications systems in all manner of strange places including mines, deep inside buildings, in the middle of no-where (maybe using a satellite link to the outside world).
We still need to get in-bound calls (from the PSTN to mesh) sorted, as well as SMS. Power optimisation and extending the range beyond what WiFi allows us are also things we need to do.
From our perspective the main issues are energy consumption and range, both of which have a variety of potential solutions and enhancements. Basically I view it like the internal combustion engine, it is not necessarily something entirely simple or elegant to get right, but by making the first model it starts to become apparent where the improvements can be made until you end up with something really compelling and useful. And just like the early cars, we are as much hamstrung by policy and corporate interests (early car drivers had to have someone walk in front waving red flags!) that some times limits our use of spectrum and phone hardware in artificial ways.
– What are your plans for the future, in order to achieve those improvements?
There are some other unlicensed spectrum allocations that we can use on off-the-shelf phones, but this requires secret information about the baseband processors to accomplish it. More generally, we have quite an extensive technology roadmap that we are pursuing. We are applying for grants, looking for volunteer developers and also exploring commercial contracts to fund our development work.
– How do you see Serval in the context of the broader technical movement for a true p2p internet, global wireless meshworking, and the like?
I think I see us as right in the thick of it. We arguably have the only system that has the potential to be a contender for a global wireless mesh networking system, and seem to have found ourselves at the forefront of practical mesh systems for all people.
– How do you relate to the social aspects of new free culture, p2p and commons movements that are more non-technical in nature, i.e. the value revolution around sharing, openness, transparency ?
I think that we cannot begin to imagine the changes that will happen as ubiquitous mesh networking realises it’s potential.
– Do you have any particular philosophical or political points of view, not necessarily part of the project, but which inspired you and your team to work in this direction?
I think my main motivation is an outworking of my Christian faith that makes me not want to see people suffer, people treated unjustly or in entrenched poverty. As well as being emotionally and intellectually satisfying, it is also the most fun job I have ever had. For example, right now I am organising to buy a small blimp for some testing work. I am very privileged to have such great fun while helping to make the world a better place.”
In a related development: