Finally, a practical application of mesh networks

Mesh networks, the idea of passing data from one node to another around the globe has had one of its first sightings in an unlikely place this week when Dust Networks, a Berkeley-based company, launched SmartMesh, a networking solution for sensors.

Up until now, every time I’ve read about mesh–and I’ve been reading about it for years–it was always talked about in the context of IEEE 802.11x technology. Data would hop from user notebook to user notebook or even to access points installed along the highway or integrated into vehicles until it reached its final destination.

At the risk of getting hate email, I must say that I always found the idea interesting but somewhat fanciful.

However, along comes Dust Networks. Its co-founder and CTO Kris Pister is credited for coining the name “Smart Dust.” Co-founder Rob Conant is vice president of business development.

SmartDust as originally conceived were tiny sensors that would be used to monitor and transmit data about the physical world. For example, in one experiment Pister says sensors were sprinkled in the desert and used to detect any movement across the sand.

But then Pister got really smart and saw that there were already millions of wired sensors deployed around the globe for enterprise-class monitoring and control.

For example, there are sensors that measure temperature, fluid flow, gasses, air quality, vibrations in motors, and lighting. You name it and there is a sensor measuring it.

The good news for Pister was these sensors were going wireless.

Honeywell is one of the leaders in this creating wireless versions of their industrial strength sensors, and thereby saving companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in the cost of wiring them to the network and or in sending out field technicians to take scheduled readings.

What Dust Networks is, is a wireless networking solution that uses mesh technology to transmit the data from node to node, in this case sensor to sensor, to its final destination, usually an application in the operations center.

Each sensor would have to have Dust Network battery-powered SmartMessh technology built in. Think of it as a micro-NIC. Each sensor has its own MAC address so the point of origin of the data being transmitted is known.

As Pister told me, mesh is the only way to use low power to get the data to the final application. If a node goes down the mesh network re-optimizes itself to find a different path.

The lesson here is that fanciful ideas, like mesh networks for WiFi, will remain such until people like Pister and Conant discover that the idea incorporates a practical solution to a real world problem.