How do you get in touch with family and friends if the internet and mobile network are down? Hackerspace Drenthe is working on a possible solution: an emergency network. You don’t need a subscription, it works without internet, but it does offer the option to send messages from A to B.
A mobile network uses large transmission towers. If the transmission tower fails, for example due to a power outage or worse, the connection will also be lost. The emergency network, on the other hand, must consist of all kinds of special devices, so-called ‘nodes’, that communicate with each other. “We make the connection. Between the devices, but also between people,” says Rein Velt of Hackerspace Drenthe.
The operation of the emergency network can be compared to a walkie-talkie relay. The sent message jumps from device to device until it reaches the right place. Is a node missing? Then it looks for another route. But: before it works, a lot of nodes have to be added.
Velt: “The dream scenario is to have a comprehensive network throughout Drenthe next year. I don’t know if we will make it, but that is what we are going for.” There is already a connection in larger places such as Emmen or Assen. “Not at all in villages such as Erica, Weerdinge and Nieuw-Weerdinge.”
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