Mesh Networks, Governments Worst Nightmare?

Since reading The Diamond Age, I've been wondering just how much of an Impact a truely Secure and Anonymous Internet would work and be setup, and something hit me. We might be able to accomplish such a feat within a decade as WiMAX Becomes more popular it will start a snowball effect in Urban and Rural area's alike driving the costs of access down to near zero and further cementing the Utility aspect of such access.

Info on WiMAX Technology
Because IEEE 802.16 networks use the same Logical Link Controller (standardized by IEEE 802.2) as other LANs and WANs, it can be both bridged and routed to them..

WiMAX is a wireless metropolitan area network (MAN) technology that can connect IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi) hotspots to the Internet and provide a wireless extension to cable and DSL for last mile (last km) broadband access. IEEE 802.16 provides up to 50 km (31 miles) of linear service area range and allows users connectivity without a direct line of sight to a base station. Note that this should not be taken to mean that users 50 km (31 miles) away without line of sight will have connectivity. The technology also provides shared data rates up to 70 Mbit/s, which, according to WiMAX proponents, is enough bandwidth to simultaneously support more than 60 businesses with T1-type connectivity and well over a thousand homes at 1Mbit/s DSL-level connectivity.

Emphasis Added

More information on en.wikipedia.org...

Mesh Networks are selfhealing and nearly impossible to control as it's decentralized, and since you can connect to a WiMAX Mesh Network with any Laptop with the correct wireless card, it's very private. You could be sitting in your home connecting to a WiMAX Meshwork(There are also plans on selling short range WiMAX Transmitters to homes and businesses) 5 miles away, no more risking prosecution for Wardriving for open WiFi ports(several people are being prosecuted right now for surfing on an OPEN WiFi network...)

More information on en.wikipedia.org...

Wireless mesh networking is mesh networking implemented over a Wireless LAN.

Networking infrastructure is therefore decentralised and inexpensive, as each node need only transmit as far as the next node. Nodes act as repeaters to transmit data from nearby nodes to peers that are too far away to reach, resulting in a network that can span a large distance, especially over rough or difficult terrain. Mesh networks are also extremely reliable, as each node is connected to several other nodes. If one node drops out of the network, due to hardware failure or any other reason, its neighbours simply find another route. Extra capacity can be installed by simply adding more nodes. Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile devices.

The principle is similar to the way packets travel around the Internet - data will hop from one device to another until it reaches a given destination. Dynamic routing capabilities included in each device allow this to happen. To implement such dynamic routing capabilities, each device needs to communicate its routing information to every device it connects with, "almost in real time". Each device then determines what to do with the data it receives - either pass it on to the next device or keep it. The routing algorithm used should attempt to always ensure that the data takes the most appropriate (fastest) route to its destination.

In the Diamond Age the people have access to an Internet-like network that is completely anonymous and completely secure, the Payer and Payee cannot find each other, for all they know they could be on different sides of the planet. My questions are Just really how far is such a Network? Is it even possible? And if Possible what steps do we have to take to get there?

I personally feel we are close, closer then we all realize. The Net is going to change what it is to be Human over the long term and we really do not know what the end result will be in a hundred years. We can speculate though

As for it being a Governments Worst Nightmare just think what such a Secure and Anonymous system would do. It would make collecting taxes much harder, and lets face it. Any attempt to control the net always fails one way or the other. Look at China for instance, they put up their Great Firewall of China and the people turned to BlueTooth wireless messaging on their cellphones. The future is going to be veeerrry interesting.

[edit on 10-8-2005 by sardion2000]