USER PROVIDED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

Edwin Brownrigg

Open Access Solutions
Roseville, CA 95678, USA
E-Mail: EBB@OTLET.BERKELEY.EDU


  Keywords: Access, Information Access, Internet, Network, Personal Network, Wireless Communication, Communications, Packet Radio, LAN, Local Area Network, MAN, Backbone Network, California, OPAC, TCP/IP Protocol, ARPANET, BITNET, NSFNET, NEARNet, MELVYL OPAC, San Diego Public Library, San Diego State University, Apple Library of Tomorrow, ALOT, Tetherless Access Ltd., Packet Radio Internet Extension project , PRIE, Council on Library Resources, Public Libraries, AppleTalk, NREN, EDUCOM.

Abstract: This paper is a sequel to the paper entitle "The Personal Network: International Access and Information," that the author delivered at NIT '90: The 3rd International Conference on New Information Technology in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1990. Because of the explosion and resultant ubiquity of the Internet, there is a growing expectation on the part of more and more individuals about the critically important role that networking can contribute to improving the quality of life among the public. At the same time, technology has advanced to the stage where it is no longer necessary for individuals to be tethered to their institution or business in order to access the Internet. This paper discusses how the first wireless MAN continues to be grown in the state of California. It describes the planning and management of the high speed MAN backbone network, the role of the low speed neighborhood sub-networks, and the economy of the whole enterprise. Finally a key issue involving use of the Internet is explored: central command and control vs. cooperative anarchy.

 1. WHAT IS PACKET RADIO?

Packet radio is a technology that combines data packet switching with wireless communica-tion -- hence the name, packet radio. Packet radio has been used in sophisticated ways by the military for some quarter century. Civilian use of packet radio began in the Hawaiian Islands in the early 1970s with the original intent of connecting terminals to a remote host computer. The ALOHA protocols used in the inter-island experiments evolved into today’s local area Network (LAN) protocols, while packet radio itself still awaits wide-spread civilian use.

There are reasons, having to do with the market place, technology and public policy, for the late arrival of packet radio; the PRIE project probes each of them to some degree. It focuses on the uni-que market role that libraries have to play with packet radio technology in keeping with recent public policy changes at the Federal Communication Commission.

2. WHAT IS THE INTERNET?

The Internet is a worldwide collection of thousands of computer networks that can intercommu-nicate. All of them speak the same "language," namely the TCP/IP protocol suite. Users of any of the Internet networks can reach users on any of the other networks. The Internet started with the ARPANET, but now includes such networks as NSFNET, NEARNet, and others. Many other networks, such at BITNET, are tied to the Internet, but are not an integral part of it. Approximately one million people use the Internet daily.

The Internet supports a number of standard services, including remote login to another host computer, transferring files between computers, and electronic mail. Over the years "interest groups" have developed so that mail can be exchanged one-to-many within a particular group. In addition, there are now over two hundred online public access catalogs (OPACs) on the Internet, as well as dozens of data archives and reference services. Most recently experimental publication of electronic journals on the Internet has begun.

3. PACKET RADIO INTERNET EXTENSION PROJECT

3.1. Project History

This project began with a request on August 18, 1991 from Edwin Brownrigg as Principal Investigator for grant funding from the Council on Library Resources (CLR). The request read, in part:

"The purpose of the packet radio network will be for the San Diego Public Library (SDPL) to access the SDSU (San Diego State University) OPAC and beyond that the MELVYL OPAC of the University of California at Internet address 31.1.0.1." The significance of the proposal was that it would demonstrate the feasibility of public libraries connecting to the Internet: not under common carrier regulation -- meaning high on-going costs;

rather, under radio regulation -- meaning bypassing the local common carrier, with the library pro-viding its own access at an affordable on-time cost.

CLR awarded the grant on October 11, 1991, with further generous support was forthcoming from:

• Apple Computer - Apple Library of Tomorrow (ALOT)

• Tetherless Access Ltd. (TAL)

3.2. Project Technical Goals

The goals of the Packet Radio Internet Extension (PRIE) project were to test various radios, net-work protocols and application software that can be used to interconnect sites in a metropolitan area into a wireless metropolitan area network. Furthermore, they were to provide Internet access to all sites in the project via the facilities of SDSU and to study how access to resources available on the Internet can provide additional capabilities and services to the participants in the experiment.

3.3. Project Sites

SDSU -- Campus Library

SDPL -- College Heights Branch

-- North Park Branch

-- Main Library

San Diego Zoological Library1

3.4. Installation Schedule

The project plan has been that the following five sites first would receive low speed hardware before any high speed hardware was installed:

• SDSU

• SDPL -- College Heights

• San Diego Zoological Library

• SDPL -- North Park

• SDPL -- Main

Three are installed at the time of this publication. The first goal to accomplish was to establish con-nectivity to each site in the network. During that time, Tetherless Access Ltd. would adhere to the principle of conserving spectrum by using low speed hardware during the initial period, when staff would be testing the system and exploring the Internet. The low speed hardware will serve as a backup system once high speed hardware had been installed at each site.

3.5. Radio Hardware Used in Project

TAL is using various radio hardware during the course of the project. The hardware will operate at various speeds and power levels which are outlined in detail below. Each site is intended to be equipped with both low speed and high speed hardware. Only one type of hardware will be used at any one time.

The radio hardware operates under various parts of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. Part 97 contains the rules that govern the Amateur Radio Service (also known as "Ham Radio"). This is a licensed service that requires that the individual operator be licensed by the FCC. For the purposes of this project, the radio hardware when operating under Part 97 will be under the license authority of Dewayne Hendricks, WA8DZP.

Part 15.247 contains the rules for use of unlicensed radio equipment that uses spread spectrum modulation methods, carrier detection with multiple access (CDMA), and complies with other tech-nical specifications outlined in that section of the rules. The high speed radio hardware used in this project will operate under these rules subject to type-certification by the FCC.

Part 5 contains the rules for experimental use of radio equipment under conditions that the FCC approves. The high speed radio equipment used in this project will operate under the Part 5 rules until the FCC has certified the equipment.

At the end of the project, it is intended that the low speed radio hardware be removed from all sites and that the high speed hardware operating under Part 15.247 will be left at each site and become the property of the respective jurisdiction.

The Low-Speed Hardware

• Part 97

• 70 cm band (433.05 MHz)

• Speeds: 9.6 Kbps to 38.4 Kbps

• Power: 1 to 5 watts

• Antennas: Omni- and Uni-Directional at various sites

• Non-CDMA. Uses FSK modulation

The High-Speed Hardware

• Part 15.247

• 2.4 GHz band

• Speeds: 56 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps

• Power: 1 watt

• Antennas: Omni- and Uni-Directional at various sites

• CDMA

High Speed Hardware

• Part 97

• 2.4 GHz band

• Speeds: 56 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps

• Power: 1-3 watts

• Antennas: Omni- and Uni-Directional at various sites

• CDMA

3.6. Network Extensions

In addition to the radio hardware, the project will be testing software extensions to the Macintosh Operating system that TAL has developed. These allow for the transmission of AppleTalk network protocols over a wireless network. This software has the following characteristics:

3.7. Extensions to the Macintosh Operating System

These extensions build upon the communications architecture that the System 7 environment provides. TAL will be testing and refining extensions it has made to AppleTalk to adapt it to the special requirements of a wireless, as opposed to a wired, network.

• Interfacing the AppleTalk protocol stack to the TAL radio hardware

This extension implements an interface to the TAL hardware from the Macintosh. TAL will be testing and refining this interface during the course of the project.

• Handling AppleTalk packet routing over a wireless network

This extension implements an experimental routing protocol that TAL has developed. TAL will be testing and refining this protocol during the course of the project.

4. CONCLUSION - ISSUES FOR LIBRARIES

Brownrigg’s proposal to CLR further set forth that:

"This project should give high visibility to the public policy issues arising from practical use of Part 15.247, namely priority of use and relative public benefit. These issues are addressed [in] ... Developing the Information Superhighway: Issues for Libraries, A LITA Discussion Paper (Parkhurst, 1990). That "Discussion Paper" anticipated ten issues ranging from application of the First Amendment to free market principles in the Internet. The issue that this project seems to have raised above all others is the very notion of "extensions" to the Internet.

In the" Discussion Paper" Brownrigg wrote that:

"... bottlenecks should not be used as a rationale to extend control. As bottlenecks

occur, the NREN participants should be left alone to eliminate them by whatever pluralistic process is available, or to live with the consequences of not doing so." (Parkhurst, 1990, p. 61).

 Clearly there has been a bottleneck between public libraries and the Internet, with a few exceptions. This project has demonstrated that there are two aspects to the bottleneck. The first is the cost of a common carrier circuit. The second has to do with what is known in the Internet community as "the boundary issue."

As to the cost of a common carrier circuit, the fact speaks for itself, that only a few public libraries have justified it.

As to the boundary issue, in the "Discussion Paper", Brownrigg wrote:

"There are many who would cite the Internet as being a good example of bad manage-ment. At the same time, most of those same people are members of institutions connected in one way or another to the Internet, and many of them use it on a regular basis, if only to exchange electronic mail. For example, defining the line of demarcation between research and education is one of the management problems with the proposed NREN. It arises because of the formal and informal hierarchies within the Internet with respect to both its use and content. As long as priorities are clear, the EDUCOM NTTF [Networking and Telecommunications Task Force] approach, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, appears to prevail, provided that it does not erode the value of the network for the very highest quality of research." (Parkhurst, 1990, p. 59) And, therein lies the issue. The San Diego PRIE project has generated, so far, sharp informal debate within the library and Internet communities regarding the practical interpretation of the above. The Internet traditionalists take the view that the Internet, to succeed, must remain under central command and control. A corollary to this view is that packet radio extensions to the Internet are out of control; they will give rise to communities cooperating in metropolitan or neighborhood areas to engage in "end-user--provided" access to the Internet.

The Internet anarchists cite that:

"The TCP/IP protocols from which the NREN protocols have evolved defy control in the classical management sense, and rest, rather, on philosophically pluralistic notions of convention, cooperation, interoperability, and redundancy." (Parkhurst, 1990, p. 61) Libraries, however, have an opportunity to stay in the middle of the road on this issue. They can do so by establishing themselves as another evolving institutional tier in the Internet. As such, they have just as much warrant to manage users of their community sub-nets as they do their circulation patrons. But, unless there are revolutionary changes in the current common carrier market place, the only affordable means for libraries to partake in and extend the Internet is by packet radio.

Only packet radio offers institutionally affordable high speed backbone networks among libra-ries, such as is the aim of the San Diego PRIE. Only packet radio offers the potential of affordable end-user, medium speed access from the home or office to the library backbone network.

Tools for Access

Not surprisingly, the project also demonstrated the need for a comprehensive and up-to-date software suite for the professional Internet user as well as one for the occasional user. It would be like a "front end," guiding the user among the ever-growing number of services on the Internet. As the number of services becomes too great, perhaps such a software suite of necessity will subdivide along some hierarchy resembling the "body of knowledge." In any case, the project demonstrated that, although these software front ends today are created piecemeal, that such is the case reminds us that we are still in the horse and buggy age of exploiting electronic library service on the Internet.

REFERENCE

Parkhurst, Carol A., ed. (1990). Library Perspectives on NREN. Chicago, IL: Library and Infor-mation Technology Association. pp 5-66.