More than five years ago, I was introduced to the concepts of “mesh
networking” at George Gilders TeleCosm conference.  A speaker from
MIT talked through the basic concept of turning every radio in a
network into a “packet repeater” that was able to send and receive
packets of data … and also forward them on for other users of the
network.

Mesh has slowly been evolving in the various research circles … and
is now emerging in various projects and commerical companies.  One
of the places to look for more information is the IETF Manet working group.  There are several experimental standards that have been developed.

In the commercial space, there are now several companies coming up – LocustWorld is an interesting system being used in the UK, PacketHop is a company using research out of SRI, and now Strix Systems mentioned in the article below.

I am currently working on two different embedded Linux systems … both
of which I want to embed mesh/manet software.  I’m working to have
demonstrable units this winter …

DON’T LAUNCH — The Structured Wireless Revolution.
Mesh technology allows networks to be redefined around business needs,
work operations, data and employees, says Strix Systems’ Bob Jordan. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]