[Cerowrt-devel] New FCC requirements and CeroWrt

[Eric Schultz]

Dave,

Thanks for the quick response and I appreciate your passion.

No one here wants Secure Boot or DRM at all. I personally find the
idea abhorrent and no one at prpl wants it. The difficulty is figuring
out how companies can comply with the regulation in a way that doesn't
require hardware be locked down. I wish I could avoid ever thinking of
this topic but unfortunately, if companies don't find a solution that
fulfills the FCC's requirements, they're going to go with DRM. I want
to see if we can give manufacturers a solution that avoids DRM
entirely.

I'd be happy to learn more about the make-wifi-fast effort and to see
how we can facilitate it's success.

Thanks a ton,

Eric

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Dave Taht <dave.taht at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 9:11 AM, Eric Schultz
> <eschultz at prplfoundation.org> wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> I work for the prpl Foundation, an open source foundation organized by
>> a number of companies, most related to MIPS. One project we work with
>> externally is the OpenWrt project. Recently one of our members
>> mentioned a new FCC requirement (described at
>> http://wiki.prplfoundation.org/wiki/Complying_with_FCC_rules_on_5ghz_wifi)
>> which requires wifi hardware devices to restrict modifications in ways
>> that were not previously required. Some of the suggestions the company
>> had internally for complying would be to use features like Secure Boot
>> and other types of DRM-like mechanisms to prevent routers from being
>> modified. This obviously would be quite bad for the OpenWrt ecosystem
>
> It would be bad for everyone. Worse, since the research contingent
> making progress on keeping wifi working in the first place in the face
> of enormous growth, is centered around the ath9k chipset, additional
> rules and regulations centered around DRM are likely to choke off
> further development of then new ideas and techniques needed to keep it
> working.
>
>> so we agreed as a group
>> to try to provide hardware companies with a way of complying without
>> harming the community.
>
> My view is mildly more extreme - the 2.4 and 5.8 ghz spectrum currently
> allocated to wifi is the *public's* spectrum.
>
> I am deeply concerned about  further intrusions on it by things like this:
>
> https://www.qualcomm.com/products/lte/unlicensed
>
> and we need more spectrum, not less, in order to keep wifi for
> everyone, working.
>
>> I'm looking to find individuals (and other companies!) interested in
>> working with myself and the foundation, companies, the OpenWrt
>> community
>
>
>> and eventually regulators to provide guidance to hardware
>> companies on how to best comply with these rules.
>
> I intend to continue ignoring them to what extent I can. Regrettably
> this situation is contributing to community members being unable to
> apply new queue management techniques to new standards like 802.11ac,
> and seems to be the source of all the proprietary ac firmware.
>
> I think a first step would merely to be for a big maker to publicly
> release their 802.11ac firmware and let the chips fall where they may.
>
>> If you're interested
>> in getting involved or just would like to know more, please get in
>> touch with me. We want to make sure that routers are hackable
>> and we could use all the help we can get.
>
> +10. I would like to see prpl participating in the make-wifi-fast effort, also.
>
> http://snapon.lab.bufferbloat.net/~d/ieee802.11-sept-17-2014/11-14-1265-00-0wng-More-on-Bufferbloat.pdf
>
>
>
>> Thanks and I look forward to working with you,
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> --
>> Eric Schultz, Community Manager, prpl Foundation
>> http://www.prplfoundation.org
>> eschultz at prplfoundation.org
>> cell: 920-539-0404
>> skype: ericschultzwi
>> @EricPrpl
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cerowrt-devel mailing list
>> Cerowrt-devel at lists.bufferbloat.net
>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/cerowrt-devel
>
>
>
> --
> Dave Täht
>
> thttp://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Upcoming_Talks



-- 
Eric Schultz, Community Manager, prpl Foundation
http://www.prplfoundation.org
eschultz at prplfoundation.org
cell: 920-539-0404
skype: ericschultzwi
@EricPrpl