Kinetic aid in Africa

The dramatic rise in incidence of violence throughout the world is cause for concern. Terrorist attacks, organised insurrections and even street violence are resulting in large-scale damage to property and infrastructure.

One of the by-products of this growing culture of violence is the increasing vulnerability of communication networks. Vital in times of disorder and chaos, communications links - particularly those associated with the military and police - need to be maintained at all costs.

Communication networks supporting cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices have become ubiquitous. There will be nine billion mobile devices in use by 2020.

How are these networks to be protected? Private wireless networks have emerged as the key infrastructure for accommodating the world's seemingly insatiable desire for more bandwidth. However, the stability of the wireless world is often confronted by signal interference from, for example, the proliferation of wireless devices in the unlicensed band, competing networks and a host of other sources.

In a bid to meet these challenges head-on, wireless network designers came up with the concept of the 'mesh network' capable of multiple concurrent connections.

From a technical standpoint, a mesh network is a network topology in which each node relays data for the network. All mesh nodes co-operate in the distribution of data. This means there is often more than one path (redundancy) between a source and a destination. If a part of the network goes down for any reason, there is more than likely another path for data to take. As a result, mesh networks gained a reputation for reliability.

However, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001 revealed that, no matter how sophisticated the network, it can fail - as a number of mission-critical networks did on that fateful day.

Since then, work has been ongoing on a new type of wireless mesh network - the kinetic mesh network. Essentially, a kinetic mesh network enables people and organisations to rapidly deploy wireless networks into places where communications infrastructures have been severely damaged or destroyed, or to speedily move complete networks into areas where networks never previously existed.

In disaster scenarios, communications infrastructures need to deliver throughput and scalability. The way communications are routed plays an important part in achieving these goals. Thus, one of the keys to the kinetic mesh network's abilities is the design of its wireless router. Boasting extra processing power and solid-state memory, it is able to perform 'edge-processing'. The router can thus store video and other data, 'groom' the data, and enable the data to be consumed directly from it.

The ability of a kinetic mesh platform to handle changes and process tasks 'at the edge' allows networks to be established quickly, giving users faster access to applications.

In traditional mesh networks, the administrative overhead needed to keep the infrastructure operational increases as new nodes are added. Therefore, as devices join the network, the administration overhead can grow to a point where applications grind to a halt due to a lack of available bandwidth.

Vital in times of disorder and chaos, communications links need to be maintained at all costs.

A kinetic mesh network, on the other hand, keeps overhead low and constant - no matter how many nodes are added. This approach to network design, set-up, application and management has, in effect, eliminated the problem of curvilinear overhead expansion.

Importantly, devices in a kinetic mesh network must come in a variety of different configurations. Some need to be bolted to vehicles or pieces of equipment, while others must be carried by personnel. Unlike standardised network devices made for more benign environments, the unique devices earmarked for use in a kinetic mesh network must work wherever they are deployed - and be able to handle shock and vibration, dust, and extreme temperatures.

In proving its ability to deliver real-time mobility across the network under all conditions, the kinetic mesh concept has had to weather some stern challenges. For instance, in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, a kinetic mesh network - not too far advanced from the experimental stage - was quickly established to support relief efforts.

A feature of the kinetic mesh network is its ability to simplify and automate the many processes (including security) associated with accepting users onto the network - within milliseconds. This is one of the benefits helping kinetic mesh networks find favour in the business world. Here, ubiquitous connectivity is growing in importance. Companies' dependency on communications infrastructures is increasing exponentially, sparking a renewed emphasis on reliability and security.

Based on their proven successes in rugged environments and their demonstrated abilities to connect people to people under the most arduous of conditions and circumstances, kinetic mesh networks are set for a warm welcome on the African continent.