Byzantium Linux is a Live Linux distribution designed to fulfil a crucial role in the evolution of the Internet. That role is a rapidly deployable ad-hoc wireless mesh network which can augment or replace the current telecommunications infrastructure in the event that it is knocked offline (for example, due to a natural disaster) or rendered untrustworthy (widespread surveillance or disconnection by hostile entities). Unlike other mesh networking projects Byzantium was designed to be run on any x86 computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface. Byzantium can be burned to a CD- or DVD-ROM (the .iso image is just over 300 megabytes in size), booted from an external hard drive, or can even be installed in parallel with an existing operating system without risk to the user's data and software. Byzantium Linux will then act as a node within the mesh and will automatically connect to other mesh nodes and act as an access point for WiFi-enabled mobile devices.
The goal of Project Byzantium is to develop a communication system by which users can connect to each other and share information in the absence of convenient access to the Internet.
The use cases for such a system would be:
1. The infrastructure for accessing the internet has become damaged or inaccessible. (Eg, a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina.)
2. A central authority has decided to explicitly block or shutdown key infrastructure. (Eg, Egypt's recent internet blackout.)
3. A zombie apocalypse in which the personnel responsible for maintaining key infrastructure have all been turned.
The project aims to develop and publish the necessary documentation, best practices, and software to construct and support such a system. Our current approach is to start by investigating and documenting the existing technologies which would support such a system. In particular, mesh networking protocols, wireless networking technologies, and decentralized (or less-centralized) alternatives to internet addressing/naming systems such as DNS. In designing the system, we aim to reduce the dependency on exotic hardware or skill sets so that the system can be deployed quickly and easily by average internet users.
An additional goal is that users not actively participating in the mesh network (i.e., not running mesh routing software on their devices) can make use of the network without having to install anything new, jailbreak their phone, or pry the information out of a hacker infected with the Exsurgent virus.
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Here are some key features of "Byzantium Linux":
· Binary compatible with Slackware v13.37, so existing packages can be converted with a single command.
· Able to act as a gateway to the Internet if a link is available.
· Linux kernel v2.6.38.8
· Drivers for dozens of wireless chipsets
· KDE v3.5
· LXDE (2010 release of all components)
· Mplayer
· GCC v4.5.2
· Perl v5.12.3
· Python v2.6.6
· Firefox v4.0.1
· X.org v7.4 (? - hard to tell because each module has its own release code)
· Custom web-based control panel
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