hpwren

HPWREN Public Information Materials : Annual Report

The HPWREN Annual Report (June 2001 to May 2002) consists of the following sections:

Project Participants

Project Activities and Findings

Training and Development

Outreach Activities

Publications and Products

Contributions within Discipline

Contributions to Other Disciplines

Contributions to Human Resource Development

Contributions to Resources for Research and Education

Contributions Beyond Science and Engineering

Objectives and Scope

Special Reporting Requirements

 Primary Project Participants

Hans-Werner Braun, UCSD/SDSC, Principal Investigator
Frank L. Vernon, UCSD/SIO, Co-Principal Investigator

Bud Hale, UCSD/SDSC staff
James Hale, UCSD/SDSC staff
Todd Hansen, UCSD/SDSC staff
Kuo-Wen Lo, UCSD undergraduate student
Kimberly Mann Bruch, UCSD/SDSC staff
Tamara Marshall-Keim, UCSD/SDSC staff
Angie Ng, UCSD undergraduate student
Glenn Offield, UCSD/SIO staff
Jose Otero, UCSD graduate student
Rock Yuen Wong, UCSD undergraduate student

 Additional Project Participants

UCSD:
Fran Berman, SDSC director
Gary Crummer, School of Medicine professor
Geneva Lofton Fitzsimmons, American Indian Outreach coordinator
Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies professor
Larry Larson, Center for Wireless Communications director
Don McLaughlin, Telecommunications manager
Ramesh Rao, Computer Science and Engineering professor
Frieder Seible, School of Engineering dean

SDSU:
Pablo Bryant, Ecological Field Stations technician
Paul Etzel, Astronomy Department chair
Eric Frost, Geology professor
Jay Grover, Mount Laguna Observatory manager
Eric Riggs, Geoscience professor
Norrie Robbins, Geoscience educator
Sedra Shapiro, Ecological Field Stations director
Kris Stewart, Education Center on Computational Science and Engineering director

Other:
Greg Aldering, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Palomar Observatory researcher
Jared Aldern, Warner Unified School District technology outreach coordinator
Pam Arviso, Rincon TANF office manager
Gene Jackson, Palomar College
Ben Linton, Hewlett Packard Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet)
Frank Murphy, Warner Unified School District superintendent
Doretta Musick, Pala Learning Center director
Jack Musick, La Jolla Band of Lusieno Indians Tribal Chairman
Lorraine Orosco, San Pasqual Learning Center director
Chuck Patterson, EPA environmental coordinator (La Jolla reservations)
Mike Peralta, Hewlett Packard Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet)
Walter Pistone, Palomar College
Pat Schwerdtfeger, Palomar College
Robert Smith, Pala Band of Mission Indians Tribal Chairman
Sukumar Srinivas, Hewlett Packard Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet) coordinator
Bob Thickensten, Palomar Observatory manager
Denis Turner, Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association director
Hunwut Turner, Rincon Band of Mission Indians Learning Center director
Roger Wynn, Mountain Empire High School science teacher

Additional people/organizations who have been involved (and continue to be involved) with the project:

Disciplinary Science Applications (field researchers):
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and California Institute of Technology (Palomar Observatory)
San Diego State University Astronomy Department (Mount Laguna Observatory)
San Diego State University Ecological Field Stations (Santa Margarita and Sky Oaks)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics

Education Applications (learning centers):
La Jolla Band of Lusieno Indians
Pala Band of Mission Indians
Rincon Band of Mission Indians
San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians
Santa Rosa Band of Indians
UCSD Early Academic Outreach Program
Warner Unified School District

The HPWREN team has worked with the following entities regarding microwave tower access and installations:
California Department of Forestry (Red Mountain)
California Department of Telecommunications (Red Mountain)
Palomar Communications (Mount Woodson)
Peak Relay (Stephenson Peak)
San Diego Sheriff's Office (North Peak and Monument Peak)
SpectraSite (North Peak)

In addition to those collaborations described in the Activities and Findings section, the HPWREN team has also been exploring incident/crisis management applications that might benefit from wireless networking. This exploratory investigation has included the following contacts:

Local Agencies and Organizations:
City of San Diego Wireless Communications Office (http://www.sannet.gov/)
Pala Fire Station
San Diego Sheriff's Wireless Communication Office
(http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/safety/sheriff/)

State Agencies:
California Department of Forestry (http://www.fire.ca.gov/)
California Transportation (CalTrans) Transportiation Management Center (http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/operations/tmc.htm)
California Highway Patrol (http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/offices.html#BorderCC)
California Communications Alliance (http://www.businesswire.com/emk/sddpc_cca_faq.htm)

Federal Agencies and National Organizations:
Robotics, Wireless, Crisis Management, and Law Enforcement Divisions within Space and Naval Warfare, Spawar Systems Center - San Diego (http://www.nosc.mil/sandiego/)
Multi-Sector Crisis Management Consortium (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/mscmc/)

Additionally, the HPWREN team has been working with similar research projects that aim to accomplish similar goals (wireless networking for research and education in "hard to reach" areas). These contacts have included the following:

CENIC (http://www.cenic.org/) CIVNet (http://www.civnet.org/)
EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu/)
NSF-funded Advanced Networking Project with Minority Serving Institutions (http://www.anmsi.org/)
UC White Mountain Research Station (http://www.wmrs.edu/)
University of Maine (George Markowsky)
American Distance Education Consortium (http://www.adec.edu/)

The HPWREN team has also been involved with the planning and implementation of several additional education applications; these are described in the Training, Development, and Outreach sections. These efforts have included the following contacts:

Cisco, Contract Telecommunications Engineering, Ericsson, Intrinsync, Hewlett Packard, Ricoh, Space Instruments, and several other industrial collaborators
SDSU Education Center on Computational Science and Engineering (http://www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/)
SDSC Education, Outreach, and Training Group's CAMP Program (http://www.camp.uci.edu/)
SDSU Indigenous Earth Sciences Project (http://rohan.sdsu.edu/~eriggs)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Two Directions (Native American organization)
UCSD Early Academic Outreach Program and the UCSD American Indian Outreach Coordinator (http://ucsdeaopnt.ucsd.edu/)
UCSD Preuss School (http://preuss.ucsd.edu/)

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 Project Activities and Findings

This section encompasses summaries of HPWREN's major activities and findings for the past year. For details of each summary, please refer to the corresponding URL.

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May 24, 2002
Wireless Connectivity Enables Sensors on Coronado Bridge

Activity: On May 15, the HPWREN and ROADNet teams participated in a UCSD activity that demonstrated an ad-hoc and temporary multi-media installation of seismic and visual instrumentation at the Coronado Bridge. The installation provided wireless IP access, using off-the-shelf 802.11b technology, from the bridge to the UCSD campus, where participants examined and discussed the feasibility of a permanent networked monitoring system of this type. The system would specifically be used for UCSD research aimed at the crisis management community. The primary goals of the activity were to assess the feasibility and discuss the added value of such a networked monitoring system for UCSD research and involved government agencies.

The demonstration was the first major step in testing the feasibility and understanding the values of a remote monitoring system, and was conducted after several local and federal government agencies expressed an interest in working with UCSD in developing and deploying multi-functional sensor networks on the Coronado Bridge for the purpose of seismic/infrastructure monitoring and crisis management of the bridge. In addition, such instrumentation will be usable for security surveillance of the navy piers and nearby waters as a means of directly addressing principal homeland security and defense needs.

Finding: The demonstration went well and the team is now focusing on the production of an end product that will serve specific needs of the various involved agencies while also providing meaningful research parameters for UCSD.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020524.html

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May 16, 2002
HPWREN Collaborates with UCSD ACT for Wireless Connectivity at 2002 CENIC Conference

Activity: For the second year in a row, the HPWREN team worked with UCSD Administrative Computing, and Telecommunication Services (ACT) to provide the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) annual conference with wireless connectivity. Additional collaborators in the activity included UCSD Media Services and Cisco Systems. The connection encompassed a temporary three-day link from the San Diego Supercomputer Center to Mount Soledad to Paradise Point, which was the location of this year's CENIC 2002 ­ CalREN - Catalyze, Connect, Collaborate. A six-foot antenna atop the San Diego Supercomputer Center points to another six-foot antenna on Mount Soledad, approximately 3.1 miles away, creating one of the 45Mbps HPWREN links. From Mount Soledad, via routing and switching equipment, a sector antenna on a microwave tower pointed to the conference facilities at Paradise Point, approximately 4.5 miles from Soledad. The radios used the unlicensed 5.8GHz spectrum and provided an Ethernet bridging functionality.

Finding: The 45 Mbps wireless link provided CENIC 2002 participants with Internet access, including web, email and an ability to conduct an IP video/audio conference with Internet2 2002 participants in Arlington, Virginia. Polycom equipment was used for the video/audio conference and utilized about 15Mbps. The HPWREN team was pleased with both the connection and video/audio performance - the participants were pleased as well.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020516.html

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April 30, 2002
SDSU Collaborates with HPWREN to Test High Performance Wireless Connection with Airplane

Activity: San Diego State University's Global Change Research Group (GCRG) and Field Station Programs recently collaborated with HPWREN to develop and test a high performance data communications link between a research airplane and a ground station. Rommel Zulueta, a doctoral student in the GCRG's program as well as the airplane pilot; along with Pablo Bryant, research technologist from SDSU's Field Station Programs; and HPWREN's Todd Hansen and Hans-Werner Braun ran their first flight test in a San Diego inland area on April 9.

Finding: One of the most important aspects of this demo was the use of inexpensive equipment for real-time air-to-ground data communications. To make real-time data available from airborne vehicles is nothing new; however, to make this high-speed link work with relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment is the interesting part of the experiment.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020430.html

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April 15, 2002
Swiss Botanist Studies Southern California Wildlife Using HPWREN-Connected SMER Camera

Activity: When Rolf Baumberger, a biology researcher at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, studies southern California wildlife, he no longer has to buy a plane ticket to San Diego. Instead, he logs onto a computer. Together with Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve Director Claudia Luke, Education and Outreach Coordinator Adrienne Marriott, and Student Conservation Association Intern Maria Wiehe, Baumberger will use camera stations developed in collaboration with HPWREN at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve to determine the role of hummingbirds, bees, and moths in the pollination of bush monkey flower, Mimulus aurantiacus.

Initially, the project will address hummingbirds as pollinators because they are easily tracked with a motion detector. Every hour of the day, a camera photographs pots of bush monkey flower representing each color of subspecies as they grow and bloom - as well as a hummingbird feeder as it encourages the hummingbirds to feed at the camera's location. From Switzerland, Baumberger can observe the flowers' rates of growth and see how often the hummingbirds feed at the site. Once the flowers bloom, the feeder will be removed, and Baumberger's team will begin observing the hummingbirds' decisions about which color of flower to feed from. This data will help him track the rate of hybridization among these California subspecies.

Finding: The SMER cameras, installed in collaboration with HPWREN, collect real-time data that will help Baumberger study this new phenomenon. The cameras connect this remote valley to HPWREN's 45 Mbps backbone and allow researchers to access real-time field data from a computer connection anywhere. Now that high-resolution still cameras are available as Internet accessible hosts, the new technologies outperform collected video image quality by a wide margin. Delivering more than three megapixels per image, the connection of the camera to the Internet can capture the wing of a hummingbird in flight. Such precise detail provides data that field researchers can use from their offices, wherever they may be.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020415.html

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March 25, 2002
San Diego Native American Communities Continue Transition from HPWREN to Tribal Digital Village Network

Activity: The Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) recently completed additional milestones in their efforts to transition HPWREN to their Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet), which continues its expansion to reach all 18 San Diego County reservations. Additionally, the tribes added another antenna on a Palomar Mountain relay station. This relay, which is often referred to as Cluster 1, connects three Native American tribes to broadband telecommunications - allowing the tribal communities to have the same access to high-speed Internet as their urban counterparts.

Via splitter, the new TDVNet Cluster 1 antenna points toward Red Mountain, which links to Mount Soledad and finally on to the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD. Prior to the new antenna, Cluster 1 was only connected by a rather long 24 mile connection to Mount Woodson. While the TDVNet team provided all of the equipment and labor for the new installation, the HPWREN team helped with network design and instruction for the TDVNet network engineers.

The La Jolla tribe's connection is also being re-engineered to connect via the closer Cluster 1. This is expected to become fully operational over the next few weeks. In preparation, a prototype relay was deployed at the new TDVNet office in Pala.

The team is also working on several additional relays for a Cluster 2 area, which will provide connectivity to the Los Coyotes, Mesa Grande, and Santa Ysabel tribes. These three tribes are also located in rural San Diego county and will utilize the connectivity at their learning centers as do the Pala, La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual tribes.

Finding: "It is really great being able to understand the technology and work with it," says Michael Peralta, TDVNet network designer and Rincon tribal member. "I sure am ready to take the next steps for our tribes."

Another major accomplishment being completed is the transition of equipment ownership from HPWREN to TDVNet. "This technology transfer is being conducted by in-kind replacements of the equipment back to HPWREN, and assuming TDVnet ownership of what had been deployed earlier," says HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun. "This transfer of equipment ownership also includes educating TDVNet staff with the expertise that they need to design, build, configure, and operate a high performance wireless data network."

"We are very pleased with this technology transfer, which is possible so quickly due to the dedication and commitment by the TDVNet staff and the financial resources provided by the Hewlett-Packard grant to the Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association."

"HP is very pleased with the progress made by the TDV team in the last few months," adds Sukumar Srinivas, the Hewlett-Packard Executive responsible for the TDVnet grant to the SCTCA. "The level of competence in dealing with the HPWREN technology and the enthusiasm for creating their own infrastructure is very encouraging from the viewpoint of sustainability of this project beyond the HP grant."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020325.html

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February 13, 2002
Wireless tests aboard US Navy ship include exploration of USN/SIO SeaLab II

Activity: In February 2002, the U.S. Navy Deep Submergence Unit (USN-DSU) brought their ship, the Kellie Chouest, as well as the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Scorpio, to the waters off Scripps pier. Their mission: to locate and dive the site of SeaLab II, a USN/SIO undersea habitat that operated in August-October 1965. This would be the first return to the site since the habitat was pulled up. This cruise was a regularly scheduled training exercise for the USN-DSU personnel; however, several guests (including UCSD faculty and staff) were able to join the crew for a day-long excursion.

Finding:"The purpose of our trip was to recon the SeaLab II site for a possible live broadcast and webcast through UCSD this coming March," explained SIO's Centennial Program Director Kevin Hardy, who proposed and organized the test dive. "In doing so, we bring a shared chapter of the U.S. Navy and Scripps history alive, explore cooperative research opportunities between Scripps/UCSD and the USN Deep Submergence Unit, and test new communication technologies embodied in the HPWREN link between the Kellie Chouest and Scripps pier. We succeeded in all three."

In addition to these tests, HPWREN and ROADNet researchers aboard the ship experimented with a web-accessible, high-resolution camera, which is also being tested at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. "We also tried out multicast from ship to shore - using a video cable from the Scorpio to a USB-attached frame grabber on a laptop," said Hans-Werner Braun, HPWREN PI. "The software we used for this exercise was vic, which we have been experimenting with for educational purposes as well with the objective of using multicast to distribute real-time ocean floor data."

"This experiment helped us to understand issues with 802.11b traffic over water and specificially the technical challenges behind connectivity from a boat," said Todd Hansen, ROADNet systems coordinator.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020213.html

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January 30, 2002
HPWREN Team Experiments with Small, Low-Power Network Performance Measurement Machines for User Sites

Activity: While network measurement machines typically consist of relatively large desktop or rack-mountable computers, the HPWREN team is currently experimenting with a 3"x3"x3" computer that examines the quality of links at user sites. An early deployment includes the Pala Native American Learning Center, which is connected to HPWREN. This machine allows for reachability as well as throughput tests and is available for additional applications, such as weather stations. The CerfCube, which runs a Linux operating system, consists of a high-performance Intel StrongARM 1110 processor with 32 MB RAM and 16 MB Flash.

Finding: "This Internet-ready, low-power machine gives us the capability to efficiently measure the performance of 802.11b HPWREN's access links," says Hans-Werner Braun, HPWREN principal investigator. "If the machine performs as well as anticipated at Pala, we will deploy additional performance machines of this type at other access points."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020130.html

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January 4, 2002
HPWREN Collaborates with Palomar College and SCTCA's Tribal Digital Village: Computer Science Class Includes Multicast Technology Experiments

Activity: The HPWREN team worked with Palomar College and the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) Tribal Digital Village Network to offer a Computer Science and Information Systems course for local Native American reservations. The course was primarily taught in traditional classroom style at the Pala Learning Center for Pala, La Jolla, Rincon, and San Pasqual tribal members. The HPWREN team and Palomar students also experimented with multicast technology via HPWREN. The multicast experiments included the use of vic, a multicast video tool, and rat, an audio tool. Meanwhile, Blackboard was the browser interface used for all class lecture presentations, assignments, and on-line discussions.

While Palomar College provided instruction funds and administrative support, the SCTCA Tribal Digital Village (which is funded by Hewlett Packard) provided the students with computer equipment and textbooks for the course. Meanwhile, the HPWREN team provided broadband connectivity, instruction, curricula, and technical support for the course.

Finding: "The performance using multicast across the 802.11b access links was dismal," said HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun. "The tests showed that the loss rate was too high, as multicast traffic is dealt with differently from unicast traffic for 802.11b networks, specifically when there is a need for link-level retransmission. A result of this trial is to more carefully consider the tradeoffs between multicast and multipoint traffic for future classes."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/020104.html

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December 18, 2001
HPWREN Team Participates in Phase Two Tests of Coastal Wireless Networking Deployment

Activity: The HPWREN team worked with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Integrative Oceanography Division and UCSD Telecommunications to conduct a wireless network feasibility demonstration, as a follow-up to initial connectivity tests that took place in June. By extending a fiber optics network connection from the pier via a wireless ethernet bridge, researchers now have the ability to relay real-time data from ocean sensors to their laboratories. The team of researchers and engineers completed the permanent installation of two antennas and radio transceivers at Scripps Pier: one to cover the pier itself and another to cover the coastal areas north of the pier. After this installation was complete, connectivity along Black's Beach up to the Torrey Pines State Reserve was tested and the signal worked as far as 3 miles away from Scripps Pier.

Finding: "We were happily surprised that we had good coverage both at the coast as well as in a boat off shore across multiple miles," said Hans-Werner Braun, HPWREN principal investigator. "The collaboration with Scripps is a very important aspect of our activities as we continue to explore and build wireless network capabilities in remote areas spanning from the coast to the deserts and mountains of San Diego county."

This activity marks the second phase of the wireless networking deployment, which will allow coastal researchers to better study the evolution of surface gravity waves propagating across the continental shelf through the shoaling region and surf zone. Specifically, this demonstration is part of the Integrative Oceanography Division's preparation for the 2003 Nearshore Canyon Experiment (NCEX), which has been proposed to the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. The NCEX will also concentrate on corresponding inner shelf and breaking-wave driven nearshore circulation, sediment transport, and subsequent bathymetric change.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011218.html

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December 6, 2001
HPWREN Partners with Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve for High-Res Camera Installations

Activity: Field researchers are now able to take high quality images of the Santa Margarita river crossing - thanks to a newly installed camera that overlooks the river. The Ricoh RDC-i700 camera delivers more than three megapixels per image, and is controlled from a remote server across the Internet. The camera is connected via the Ethernet cable directly into a hub at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve's North Station. The station houses a router and radio for the 45Mbps HPWREN link via Red Mountain and Mount Soledad to the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego. A server at SDSC then allows for automated control of the camera, initially collecting a new image every ten minutes.

Finding: "One of the areas of considerable concern relative to the consumption of network bandwidth is the desire of researchers to utilize video cameras that are able to continuously consume large amounts of networking resources. These cameras create very limited quality images, typically with 640 by 480 (or fewer) pixels per images, with their interlace mode causing an additional issue," said Hans-Werner Braun, HPWREN's principal investigator. "We are pleased to see that high quality progressive-scan Internet capable cameras are now becoming available."

"The installation went really well and the image quality is outstanding," said Pablo Bryant of the San Diego State University Field Station Programs. "We simply packaged the camera into a PVC box and mounted it onto a pole," explained Bryant. "We used two external connectors - one to connect the camera to an AC power supply and another for the PCMCIA Ethernet card connection."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011206.html

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November 15, 2001
Real-time Distribution of Seismic Data Now Available Via HPWREN's Mquake

Activity: Last month, HPWREN researchers wrote and implemented software that utilizes SIO's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) existing seismic sensor network to distribute real-time data to client computers. Coined Multi-cast Quake, or Mquake, the software provides date, time, location, magnitude, and additional details regarding seismic activity that occurs within the 15-station ANZA Network. Mquake makes multi-cast real-time distribution possible for parametric information from individual sensors, as well as summary data - providing analyzed results after the determination of location and magnitude of seismic activity. The data is being transferred to many machines simultaneously via the IP multi-cast overlay called MBONE; however, with less network efficiency, the data can also be transferred into a non-multicast environment. The objective is to provide notification prior to actual shockwave arrival at the client machine, as well as analyzed information within a minute or so following an event.

Finding: "The ability to stream real-time seismic data straight from sensors to worldwide computers via MBONE is interesting," said HPWREN co-PI Frank Vernon. "We have used a variety of methods for distributing data over the years; however, multi-cast capabilities present potential novel methods for the rapid dissemination of essential information."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011115.html

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November 9, 2001
Interdisciplinary Team of Researchers Plan to Drive Real-Time Environmental Technology to New Levels: HPWREN Provides Wireless Networking Expertise for New Scripps Institution of Oceanography's ROADNet

Activity: Although the ability for scientists to collect and store remote environmental field data is becoming more commonplace in today's wired world, researchers still need interdisciplinary repositories from which they can easily share and infuse real-time information straight from the field. Along the shoreline of southern California, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is leading efforts to create an environmental observing/monitoring testbed that will demonstrate the collection and streaming of real-time seismic, oceanographic, hydrological, ecological, geodetic, and physical data via wireless networking. The HPWREN team will provide support for the wireless networking aspects of the Real-time Observatories, Applications, and Data management Network (ROADNet) project - while working with interdisciplinary scientists ranging from oceanographers to ecologists. Building upon existing HPWREN infrastructure, ROADNet will allow researchers to collect, post, analyze, and retrieve data from seismic stations, lowland river watersheds, mountainous watersheds, observatories, ocean buoy research vessels, and GPS observatories.

Finding: "This prototype repository will allow us to observe many aspects of the environment in near-real-time and provide the data in a very flexible manner to a wide variety of scientists and decision-makers," said PI John Orcutt, Director of the Cecil and Ida Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. "Historically, there have been many technological and institutional barriers to sharing environmental data. We are working to remove at least the technological barriers to accessing real-time environmental information."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011109.html

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October 30, 2001
HPWREN-Connected Native American Learning Centers Begin Transition to Tribal Digital Village Network

Activity: The HPWREN team worked with the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) to connect the first leg of their Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet), which is being funded by a grant from Hewlett Packard. Antennas of a relay station on Palomar Mountain now point toward Pala, Rincon, and San Pasqual American Indian reservations. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the connectivity is the power source currently being used at the San Pasqual site: a car battery! Although the battery does last for more than 24 hours and only needs to be charged once per day, San Pasqual tribal members plan to eventually transition to a grid power source. In the meantime, this car battery does an efficient job of powering their connection!

Finding: Originally connected via HPWREN equipment, both Pala and Rincon - as well as San Pasqual - are the first phase of the TDVNet's endeavors to connect all 18 San Diego County tribes to the tribal-owned network. "TDVNet's Lorraine Orosco and Ben Linton are doing a great job in leading the efforts to transition the connection from HPWREN equipment to TDVNet equipment," said HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun, who serves on the TDVNet's Technology Committee.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011030.html

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October 3, 2001
Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve Connects to HPWREN's 45 Mbps Backbone: Researchers Now Capable of Remotely Accessing Real-Time Field Data

Activity: Spanning more than 4000 acres, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER) is nestled between the Santa Ana Mountains in the northeast portion of San Diego County. Until last week, remote access to field data was only a dream. However, SMER scientists are now connected to the HPWREN 45 Mbps backbone and have the capability of accessing real-time field data from anywhere in the world. In addition to HPWREN connectivity, the reserve is being equipped with sensors that provide researchers with high-resolution time series measurements of physical, chemical, and biological variables. These sensors include audio/video capture systems, water, air, and soil quality/temperature instruments, and weather stations. "In meeting our aspiration for becoming a central environmental observation area for the South coast ecoregion, we have embarked upon a goal to develop strength in ecoinformatics," said Shapiro.

Finding: "Santa Margarita's connection to HPWREN is the first step in changing the ways in which field science is conducted at our four field stations," explained San Diego State University's Field Station Programs Executive Director Sedra Shapiro. "This high-speed connection also gives us the power to efficiently disseminate information to our students, nearby landowners, government agencies, and policy makers."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011003.html

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September 26, 2001
Local agencies team with researchers for crisis management exercise

Activity: A group of local San Diego government agencies collaborated with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego) and HPWREN researchers to demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating real-time images and maps into incident management situations. The location for the August 28 exercise was the local National Guard Armory, located on Mesa College Drive, and surrounding areas. Creating a simulated scenario involving a chemical spill that required assistance from multiple agencies, researchers from SSC San Diego and UCSD demonstrated the use of high performance wireless communications and web-based interfaces. The network linked SDSC to the California National Guard Armory via a nearby hospital rooftop relay.

Finding: "This exercise allowed us to evaluate an Internet-based data sharing scheme, where multiple agencies could view tailored perspectives of the same incident in real-time," said Dr. Steve Murray of SSC San Diego's Crisis/Consequence Management Initiative team. "The drill also gave us a chance to recognize the importance of applications like crisis management within the world of wireless communications," said participant Hans-Werner Braun, HPWREN PI. "We were honored that Hal Holmerud of SSC San Diego asked us to participate in this demonstration that he organized, as we learned a great deal from both the SSC folks and the many other participants from various agencies."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/0110926.html

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September 13, 2001
HPWREN Team Plays Role in Native American Summer Youth Academy

Activity: A group of high school students from San Diego county Native American reservations recently completed a summer Youth Academy sponsored by the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association Tribal Digital Village project. The HPWREN team worked with Academy students throughout the summer - answering questions regarding wireless networking, touring students through various laboratories, and providing guidance for their endeavors to connect additional tribes to the Tribal Digital Village Net. Part of a major grant from Hewlett-Packard (HP), the Tribal Digital Village Youth Academy provided participants with opportunities to learn about GPS, mapping, construction of antenna radio relays, and much more.

Finding: One of the primary objectives of the Academy was to expose the students to a range of technologies, and allow them to choose what best suits their interests. For instance, the students were shown how an HPWREN solar-powered relay site works to provide a Native American learning center with high-speed Internet access. Specifically, the students toured the La Jolla Native American solar-powered relay site, which was installed by the HPWREN team earlier this year. The HPWREN team also arranged for the HP Youth Academy students to tour a local robotics laboratory this summer. The students were able to build upon their knowledge of Global Positioning (GPS) information and understand how robots also use GPS systems. By the end of the summer, Academy participants had a working knowledge of both GPS and basic computer networking concepts.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010913.html

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August 30, 2001
HPWREN Student Researchers Present at San Diego Supercomputer Center Poster Session

Activity: Kuo-Wen Lo, Angie Ng, Jeff Pinnow, and Carmen Zavala recently presented posters regarding their HPWREN research. The August 10 session was held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) Summer Student Poster Session.

Finding: Jeff Pinnow, a UCSD pre-medical student, worked with Kim Bruch of SDSC and Bob Pozos of SDSU to develop a telemedicine literature review and an on-line course. Carmen Zavala, a UCSD math education (computer science concentration) student, also worked with Kim Bruch - focusing her efforts on distance learning. Angie Ng, a UCSD electrical engineering student, primarily focused on two projects: 1) literature review of RF effects on humans, and 2) field work regarding spectrum analysis, power measurements, etc. Meanwhile, UCSD computer science student Kuo-wen Lo worked closely with Todd Hansen on HPWREN network analysis and measurement. HPWREN students continue to play an important role in the project's activities and findings.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010830.html

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August 27, 2001
HPWREN Backbone Expands to Red Mountain and Mount Soledad

Activity: Three HPWREN antennas were recently mounted on the California Department of Forestry tower atop Red Mountain. While one eight-foot dish points toward Mount Soledad, another 4-footer points toward the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. The new connectivity extends the 45 Mbps HPWREN backbone.

Finding: Given line of sight considerations, an additional relay site at a UCSD location on Mount Soledad became necessary, with one eight-foot antenna pointing toward Red Mountain, and a 6 foot antenna completing the link to the UCSD campus. Additional connectivity from Mount Soledad to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will be used, in anticipation of earthquake sensors that are expected to be connected soon.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010827.html

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August 3, 2001
HPWREN PI Testifies Before House Committee on Science

Activity: A July 31 Congressional hearing before the House Subcommittee on Research included testimony from HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun. Braun's testimony concentrated on the HPWREN project and its impact upon research and education communities in remote areas. "I believe that the involvement of the federal government in the evolution of the Internet is as crucial as ever," reads Braun's testimony. "While the federal government has historically played a key role in driving the network performance edge, significant areas remain underdeveloped, including the sophistication of Internet applications and national network ubiquity fulfilling demanding performance requirements."

Finding: "On June 26th, we met to examine the federal investment in IT research and development and to understand how that investment is divided up among agencies and research priority areas. That hearing covered the federal IT oversight structure and the recommendations of both the President’s Information Technology Advisory Council, or PITAC, and the Interagency Working Group on Information Technology R&D," said Research Subcommittee Chairman Nick Smith (R-MI). "Both oversight groups recommended increased support for long-term, high risk and high potential IT research while the July 31st hearing focused more closely on the way the National Science Foundation uses the recommendations of oversight groups and other members of the community to prioritize its IT R&D funding."

"As this subcommittee moves ahead with legislation to authorize the federal role in supporting IT research, I hope our witnesses can also share their impressions of NSF’s role in the process," Smith said.

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010803.html

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August 1, 2001
Palomar Observatory Receives High-Speed Network Connectivity Via HPWREN: Near-Earth Asteroid and Supernova Researchers Reap Benefits

Activity: More than 50 years have passed since astronomers first started using the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch Oschin telescope to study the night sky. Known throughout the world as the meter-class-aperture telescope with the largest field of view, the Oschin's most recent "claim to fame" is its link to an NSF-funded 45 Mbps network - the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network ((HPWREN).

Finding: Even though most of these asteroids and comets will never pose a threat to Earth, there are a few that could eventually collide with our planet. Scientists with the NEAT project continue Helin's work and track the orbits of possibly hazardous near-Earth asteroids and comets. "This newfound 45 megabits-per-second connection allows us to automatically transfer large images from the observatory to laboratories around the world," says Steve Pravdo, project leader for the NEAT program at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "We are also able to easily access data-intensive archival systems, which was really cumbersome - and often impossible - with a 56 kilobits-per-second dial-up modem," says Pravdo. "These archives let us compare current images with past images in real-time, which means that we are able to be more efficient in our efforts to discover and confirm potentially dangerous asteroids." In only one month (July 2001), NEAT researchers discovered 16 near-Earth objects and one comet, and three of their discoveries were larger than one kilometer in diameter! Specifically, the scientists found 12 Amors (asteroids that approach the Earth's orbit from the outside), three Apollos (asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit), and one Aten (asteroids that approach the Earth's orbit from the inside).

Images captured by NEAT cameras are also used by researchers conducting supernova research. One group of supernova astrophysicists that is reaping great benefits from a combination of the NEAT images and the HPWREN connectivity work on an international collaboratory project called the Nearby Supernova Factory. These researchers hail from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et de Haute Engergies de Paris, the Institut de Physique Nucleaire de Lyon, and the Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon. "The Nearby Supernova Factory's goal is to discover nearby supernovae and study them in detail so that they can be used more effectively as cosmological distance indicators," explains Greg Aldering, a staff scientist at LBNL and project leader for the Nearby Supernova Factory. That is, Aldering and his supernova research colleagues use their findings to measure distances to galaxies that are tens of billions of light years from Earth. Their most notable discovery was named Science Magazine's "Discovery of the Year" in 1998: the expansion of the Universe is accelerating! The cause of this expansion is currently unknown; however, some scientists believe that it is related to Einstein's famous Cosmological Constant and is commonly called "dark energy."

Not only is the real-time data an important factor in supernova research, but the amount of data required to conduct such studies is enormous. For instance, the supernova researchers currently have approximately eight terabytes of data within their database; however, this number is by no means stagnant. The database increases by 50 gigabytes daily! "By receiving access to the high-speed broadband connection, we are able to more efficiently advance our supernovae research," says Aldering, "and we hope to someday answer this most mysterious, yet fundamental, question about our Universe - the nature of dark energy."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010801.html

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June 29, 2001
San Diego's Black's Beach Receives Wireless Network Connectivity via Scripps Pier: HPWREN Participates in Demonstration with UCSD Telecomm and SIO's Center for Coastal Studies

Activity: The HPWREN team recently worked with UCSD Telecommunications and SIO's Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) to conduct a wireless network feasibility demonstration from Scripps Pier to Black's Beach. By extending a fiber optics network connection across the beach via a wireless ethernet bridge, scientists from CCS and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will soon have the ability to relay real-time data from ocean sensors to their laboratories. Specifically, this demonstration was part of CCS' preparation for the 2003 Nearshore Canyon Experiment (NCEX), which has been proposed to the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. When completed, the NCEX will encompass a nearshore processes community model that allows scientists to study better the evolution of surface gravity waves propagating across the continental shelf through the shoaling region and surf zone. The NCEX will also concentrate on corresponding inner shelf and breaking-wave driven nearshore circulation, sediment transport, and subsequent bathymetric change. While UCSD Telecommunications and HPWREN provided the wireless equipment and networking expertise, the SIO team led the overall demonstration effort.

Finding: "This technology is just what we are looking for to complete our overall data acquisition system design, said CCS engineer Bill Boyd. "Although more testing is necessary, we are very optimistic about the capabilities of this wireless network." In addition to testing the feasibility of using a laptop connected via a yagi antenna pointing from the beach to the pier (as seen above), a sector antenna was also used with this PDA/wireless card set-up. Though the PDA was able to make a network connection with only a wireless card at the ~2 mile testing station, a sector antenna was needed to reach a distance of 2.5 miles. "Without the need for power-consuming amplifiers, oceanographic research via these telemetry stations is much more energy efficient," said HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun. "We were pleased by the better than expected outcome of the recent connectivity tests."

Details: http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010629.html

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 Training and Development

HPWREN continues to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience in the field of wireless networking; this field work allows them to build upon knowledge learned in the classroom and expand their expertise in the overall computer science and networking arena.

HPWREN staff members also continue to stay on the cutting edge regarding wireless technology, FCC issues, OSHA microwave tower regulations, and more. One staff member is currently finishing a masters program at SDSU's School of Communication, specializing in telecommunications and social science; her thesis topic is regarding the impacts of broadband telecommunications (HPWREN) upon ecological field research (Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve). Her thesis work examines the diffusion of HPWREN within the 4500-acre Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER). The SMER, which is located in southern California, is primarily utilized for studies by researchers from San Diego and Riverside county research and teaching institutions. Recently deployed sensors and high-resolution cameras, however, allow researchers from all over the world to conduct their studies at SMER–and receive their sensor and camera data via the Internet. That is, the collected ecological data travels via the Internet (originating with the HPWREN connection) from dataloggers and cameras in the field directly to the researcher’s computer. Before such an innovation is adopted by users, though, it is important for them to be familiarized with the technology. Therefore, this thesis project examines the perceived attributes and communication channels used during the deployment of the HPWREN technology. This thesis also looks at the ways in which the SMER scientists perceive the HPWREN and related technology. Specifically, the project discusses how the technology will be relative to their research and teaching endeavors, how the network will be compatible with their current data collection procedures and teaching curricula, and whether or not the technology will be too complex for them to use within their current and future work.

The NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate positions have provided HPWREN student researchers with opportunities to apply lessons learned in the classroom to actual research. Projects conducted by the REU (and additional HPWREN) students over the past year have included the following:

• Kuo-Wen Luo, Research Experience for Undergraduates (Fall 2000 to present): Network Measurement and Analysis
• Angie Ng, Research Experience for Undergraduates (Summer 2001 to Winter 2002): Electrical Engineering Research (RF effects)
• Jeff Pinnow, Academic Enrichment Program (Summer 2001): Distance Health Education Research (On-line Course Curricula and Paper)
• Huggy Price, Pre-Law Student Researcher (Spring to Fall 2001): Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (HP Youth Academy)
• Pavana Yalamanchili, Computer Science Graduate Student (Fall 2000 to Summer 2001): Center for Wireless Communications Research (Masters Thesis)
• Carmen Zavala, Summer 2001 Academic Enrichment Program (Summer 2001): Distance Learning Research Project (Conference Presentation)

Specifically, Jeff Pinnow, a UCSD pre-medical student, worked with Kim Bruch of SDSC and Bob Pozos of SDSU to develop a telemedicine literature review and an on-line course this past summer. The course focused on glucose and metabolism and is hoped to be tested with a focus group at one of the learning centers via HPWREN; the literature review was presented at a UCSD Summer Research Program conference and is also posted on the HPWREN web site. Additionally, Jeff presented his summer research at a Native American Physician's Conference in New Mexico. Jeff's on-line curricula is posted at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/team/pinnow.ppt while his literature review is posted at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/team/pinnow.doc.

Meanwhile, Carmen Zavala, a UCSD math education (computer science concentration) student, also worked with Kim Bruch this past summer - focusing her efforts on distance learning. Carmen specifically looked at ways in which high-speed networks like HPWREN can better assist with distance learning in remote education communities. Carmen's final report is posted on the HPWREN website at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/team/zavala.ppt.

Similarly, Angie Ng, a UCSD electrical engineering student, primarily focused on two projects: 1) literature review of RF effects on humans, and 2) field work regarding spectrum analysis, power measurements, etc. Meanwhile, UCSD computer science student Kuo-wen Lo worked closely with Todd Hansen on HPWREN network analysis and measurement.

Additional information regarding these students and their projects is available at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/team/students.html and http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/010830.html.

In addition to the training and development among the HPWREN team, collaborators and partners have also benefited from the lessons learned during the past year. For instance, the Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet) participants have repeatedly expressed their gratitude for the personal training and mentorship provided to them by Hans-Werner Braun and the HPWREN staff. Additional benefits experienced by collaborators are described in the activities and findings section of this report.

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 Outreach Activities

HPWREN's major outreach activities are described in the Activities and Findings section; however, the team also continues to be involved with several additional outreach projects. For instance, HPWREN team member Kim Bruch continues to teach occasional classes (Introduction to Internet, Advanced Search Skills, and HTML) at a couple of local reservations while HPWREN PI Hans-Werner Braun mentors the TDVNet team as they transition the HPWREN to their tribally-owned network. Further, the UCSD Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) continues to provide math tutoring to several HPWREN-connected learning centers.

Perhaps one of the most significant HPWREN outreach activities includes the team's involvement with the continued formation of the Hewlett Packard Tribal Digital Village Network (TDVNet), which encompasses a $5 million dollar grant awarded to the Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association. HPWREN is specifically involved with providing the Digital Village Network Executive Committee with guidance regarding the provision and utilization of high-speed internet access among all San Diego county Native American reservations. The TDVNet continues to build upon the work already accomplished by HPWREN, by adding additional reservations to the wireless network and establishing additional education programs at more learning centers.

Outreach continues to play an important role within HPWREN, as the team often serves as a catalyst between government agencies and various research and education programs. Because of HPWREN's interaction with a wide array of field researchers, educators, and administrators, the team has been able to assist with a number of proposals that build upon HPWREN. For example, the Real-time Observatories, Applications, and Data Management Network (ROADNet) was recently awarded an NSF grant that utilizes HPWREN connectivity; details regarding this collaboration can be found at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/011109.html. Further, the astronomers, ecologists, and geophysicists involved with the research applications are also establishing education programs - which often involve the HPWREN-affiliated Native American learning centers.

Continued exploratory work with the incident and crisis management communities provide the HPWREN team with additional insight. For details of this year's related demonstrations, please refer to the Activities and Findings section of this report.

The HPWREN team has also given several academic and community outreach presentations over the past year. These are listed in the Publications and Products section (Other specific products) below.

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 Publications and Products

What Have You Published In Journals?
The team has published in several academic conference publications:

Bruch, K. M., Braun, H-W., Hellweg, S., Musick, D., Collins, K., & Nelson, M. (2002, March 3). Communication Impacts of an NSF-funded High Performance Wireless Network Upon Rural Native American Learning Centers. Panel presented at the Western States Communication Association 2002 Convention, Organizational Communication Interest Group. Panel abstract found at http://www.westcomm.org/conventions/2002_program2.html.

Hansen, T., Yalamanchili, P., Braun, H-W. (2002, March 25-26). Wireless Measurement and Analysis on HPWREN. Paper presented at the Passive and Active Measurement 2002 Workshop. Paper found at http://www.labs.agilent.com/pam2002/proceedings/Measurements_on_HPWREN.pdf.

Vernon, F.L. (2001, October 29). Wireless networks and sensor connectivity: HPWREN. Paper presented at the 2001 SINE conference. Conference proceedings found at http://www.sdsc.edu/pbi/sine_workshop_agenda.html

Berger, J., Orcutt, J.A., Vernon, F.L., Braun, H-W., Rajasekar, J. (2001, December 10). Ocean Wireless Networking and Real Time Data Management Eos Trans. AGU conference proceedings, 82(47), Fall Meeting Supplement. Abstract OS11B-0363 found at http://agu.org/meetings/waisfm01.html.

What Books or Other One-Time Publications Have You Produced?
HPWREN frequently publishes on-line news stories regarding major research and often discusses such activities and findings with the mass media. The project has been featured in publications ranging from the "The Congressional Record" to "Supercomputing Online." The following list outlines the majority of local, regional, national, and niche coverage to date:

San Diego Union Tribune: April 28, 2002
Tribal Transformation

San Diego Union Tribune: April 17, 2002
Internet links students on Pala reservation to tutors at UCSD

National Academy Press, Committee on Broadband Last Mile Technology Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences National Research Council: 2002
Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits

NSF FY 2001 Management and Performance Highlights Brochure: February 27, 2002
An Impressive Return on Investment

Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2003: February 4, 2002
Research Network Brings Wireless Internet to Native American Reservations

First Monday: January 7, 2002
Object Lessons: Towards an Educational Theory of Technology

San Diego Reader: January 3, 2002
Native Bytes

NGA Center for Best Practices: January 2002
'Digital Divide' Being Creatively Bridged in Several States

Nuts 'n Volts: November 2001
Reader Feedback (.jpg or .pdf)

Outlook: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego October 12,2001
SSC San Diego teams wtih local emergency agencies (.jpg or .pdf)

MPulse: A Cooltown Magazine: October 13, 2001
Blazing a Trail Across the Digital Divide

Tech Learning: October 2, 2001
High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network Performs

Wireless Web: October 2001
Wireless Internet Reaches Remote Locations

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Newsletter: October 2001
'Digital Divide' Being Creatively Bridged in Several States

Transfert: October 2001
Les indiens sur le sentier du Web (.jpg or .pdf)

Digital Divide Network: September 24, 2001
Native Networking Trends: Wireless Broadband Networks

Slashdot: News for Nerds: September 21, 2001
Wireless Networks to Native Reservations

Benton Foundation's Policy and Practice, The Digital Beat: September 20, 2001
Native Networking Trends: Wireless Broadband Networks

The Cosmic Mirror: September 11, 2001
Palomar Observatory receives high-speed network connectivity via HPWREN

Philadelphia Area Computer Society News: September 2001
I Communicate Therefore I Am

Cabazon Circle: September 2001
University Project Networks Indian Reservations (.jpg or .pdf)

Supercomputing Online: August 27, 2001
HPWREN Backbone Expands to Red Mountain and Mount Soledad

Geek.com: August 21, 2001
Broadband helps protect the Earth

Newswise: August 21, 2001
Palomar Observatory Receives 45 Mbps Wireless Connectivity

Tek Central: August 20, 2001
Palomar Observatory Receives High-Speed Network Connectivity Via HPWREN

San Diego Union Tribune: August 7, 2001
Tribes connect to campuses, one another

Supercomputing Online: August 6, 2001
HPWREN PI Testifies Before House Committee on Science

iKnowledge: August 1, 2001
Palomar Observatory Receives High-Speed Network Connectivity Via HPWREN: Near-Earth Asteroid and Supernova Researchers Reap Benefits

Online Learning Magazine: July/August 2001
Solar-powered Internet access? (.jpg or .pdf)

The Congressional Record: July 31, 2001
Hearing on Innovation in Information Technology: Beyond Faster Computers and High Bandwidth -- HPWREN testimony by Hans-Werner Braun

nbc4.com: June 2001
Next Generation Net

Additionally, HPWREN continues to be regularly featured in the San Diego Supercomputer Center's Online publication.

Other Specific Products: (database, software, instruments, inventions, physical collections, educational aids, etc)
The primary product of the project is the 45Mbps full-duplex wireless backbone (consisting of six nodes) that is being established between the San Diego coastline and the county's eastern mountains. During the previous year we also extended more north, specifically by connecting the Mt. Palomar Observatory and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. The transfer of technology and expertise to several area Native American reservations, as part of their Tribal Digital Village Network, resulted in the three original HPWREN reservation connections being extended to eight reservations (with many more under way).

The HPWREN backbone nodes consist of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Mount Woodson, North Peak, Stephensen Peak, Red Mountain, and Mount Soledad; additionally, Toro Peak will be added to the backbone in 2002. Various access connections utilize either 45Mbps or 802.11b equipment.

The HPWREN team also continues to maintain a website (http://hpwren.ucsd.edu) that focuses on the project's progress. While thousands of photographs of the project's development are available within the online photo gallery, several flyers, handouts, and posters have also been produced and distributed.

The team has made several presentations, including the following:

Caltrans (Sacramento) Workshop: June 12, 2001
On-Line Structural Monitoring and Data Management
Frank Vernon (with A. Elgamal, F. Seible, M. Trivedi, M. Fraser)

Scalable Information Networks for the Environment (SINE) Workshop: October 29, 2001
Wireless networks and sensor connectivity: HPWREN
Frank Vernon

Bay Area Wireless Users Group (BAWUG) Workshop: November 14, 2001
http://www.bawug.org/howto/
Todd Hansen

San Diego State University School of Communication Colloquia: December 5, 2001
http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/kmb/hpwren.ppt
Kimberly Mann Bruch and Hans-Werner Braun

American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference: December 10, 2001
Ocean Wireless Networking and Real Time Data Management Eos Trans
Frank Vernon and Hans-Werner Braun (with J. Berger, J.A. Orcutt, A. Rajasekar)

E2Epi Measurement Workshop: January 30-31, 2002
http://www.internet2.edu/e2epi/WK01/workshop01_summary01.shtml
Todd Hansen

Long-Term Ecological Reserve Workshop: February 6, 2002
http://www.lternet.edu/technology/ Hans-Werner Braun

Western States Communication Association 2002 Convention: March 3, 2002
http://www.westcomm.org/conventions/2002_program2.html
Kimberly Mann Bruch and Hans-Werner Braun

IGPP Visualization Center Opening: March 4, 2002
Sesimic arrays and the HPWREN wireless network in southern California
Frank Vernon

Passive and Active Measurement (PAM) Workshop: March 25-26, 2002
http://www.labs.agilent.com/pam2002/
Todd Hansen

Earthscope IT Workshop: March 26, 2002
Wireless Networks and Real-Time Data Management
Frank Vernon (with John Orcutt)

Birch Aquarium Lecture: April 10, 2002
ROADNet: Real-Time Observatories, Applications and Data management Network: Bringing the Information Superhighway to the Dirt Road and the High Seas
Frank Vernon

Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve's Spring Celebration: April 27, 2002
HPWREN and SMER
Hans-Werner Braun

SDSU Sensor Networking Conference: May 14, 2002
HPWREN and Sensor Networking
Hans-Werner Braun

Do you have any other major journal publications to report?
We are currently developing two articles that we plan to publish in 2002-2003. Because we would like to measure both technical (network measurements and analysis) and non-technical (social impacts) aspects of the network, we are hopeful to publish in multiple academic journals within the upcoming year.

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 Contributions Within Discipline

How have your findings, techniques you developed or extended, or other products from your project contributed to the principal disciplinary field(s) of the project?

The HPWREN team is not just building a high-speed network for the sake of fast connectivity. Instead, the team is concerned with the "hows" and "whys" this network is important, and the specific applications that require such broadband connectivity.

The principal objective of the HPWREN project is to apply wireless technologies to various science and education environments, and to research the performance parameters. Such latter research is supported by dedicated measurement machines at network nodal sites, as well as measurement capabilities within other equipment such as network routers and radios. Weather stations and video cameras further allow HPWREN researchers to collate environmental data with measurements gained via the networking equipment. Data and results are being principally communicated via our web site, specifically http://stat.hpwren.ucsd.edu/.

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 Contributions to other Disciplines

How have your findings, techniques you developed or extended, or other products from your project contributed to disciplines other than your own (or disciplines of colleagues and associates not covered under "Contributions within Discipline")? Please enter or update as appropriate.

HPWREN's contributions to the disciplinary science fields of geophysics, astronomy, ecology, hydrology/meteorology, integrative oceanography, and marine biology are described below by geophysicist Frank Vernon (UCSD/SIO), astronomers Greg Aldering (Palomar Observatory) and Paul Etzel (Mount Laguna Observatory), ecological reserve director Sedra Shapiro (Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve), climate researcher Dan Cayan, integrative oceanography researcher Jerome Wanetick, and marine biologist Doug Bartlett.

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Geophysics

Frank Vernon, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics:
HPWREN enables researchers like myself and others to collect and distribute datasets that we wouldn't otherwise have access to. For example, current monitoring systems do not have enough station coverage for understanding the detailed three-dimensional fault structure of the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults. HPWREN's availability in hard to reach areas provides us with the ability to do more detailed studies of fault zone structure and seismic wave activity. One significant event occured on Halloween, 2001 when we trapped a Ml 5.1 earthquake inside our seismic network and we recorded over 3000 aftershocks. For more information about this, please refer to http://eqinfo.ucsd.edu/special_events/2001/304/a/index.html.

These data are shown at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visualization Center.

HPWREN researchers wrote prototype software that utilizes SIO's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) existing seismic sensor network to distribute real-time data to client computers. Coined Multi-cast Quake, or Mquake, the software provides date, time, location, magnitude, and additional details regarding seismic activity that occurs within the 15-station ANZA Network.

Mquake makes mult-cast real-time distribution possible for parametric information from individual sensors, as well as summary data - providing analyzed results after the determination of location and magnitude of seismic activity. The data is being transferred to many machines simultaneously via the IP multi-cast overlay called MBONE; however, with less network efficiency, the data can also be transferred into a non-multicast environment. The objective is to provide notification prior to actual shockwave arrival at the client machine, as well as analyzed information within a minute or so following an event.

The ability to stream real-time seismic data straight from sensors to worldwide computers via MBONE is interesting. We have used a variety of methods for distributing data over the years; however, multi-cast capabilities present potential novel methods for the rapid dissemination of essential information.

The HPWREN project will play a great role in expanding and improving the ways in which seismic research is conducted. We will soon be able to set up experiments where the number of sensors are an order of magnitude greater than today.

Concentrating his research on the San Jacinto fault zone, Frank Vernon will use the HPWREN in conjunction with the ANZA Broadband Seismic Network, a 24-bit broadband real-time telemetry network in southern California. This activity at ANZA will serve as a model for real-time seismic monitoring. Furthermore, it will be used as a prototype for proposed NSF/Major Research Equipment initiatives such as the USArray Component for the Earthscope project.

HPWREN is essential for the NSF ITR funded ROADNET project. Specifically, ROADNet enhances our capacity to monitor and respond to changes in our environment by using the HPWREN wireless networks and developing an integrated, seamless, and transparent information management system that delivers seismic, oceanographic, hydrological, ecological, and physical data to a variety of end users in real-time.

The ROADNet multidisciplinary science and technology team is building upon currently deployed autonomous field sensor systems, including sensors that monitor fire and seismic hazards, changing levels of environmental pollutants, water availability and quality, weather, ocean conditions, soil properties, and the distribution and movement of wildlife. ROADNet scientists are also developing the software tools to make this data available in real-time to a variety of end-users, including researchers, policymakers, natural resource managers, educators and students.

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Astronomy

Greg Aldering, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Palomar Observatory:
HPWREN worked with the Nearby Supernova Factory and CalTech's Palomar Observatory to establish a 45 Mbps connection from Palomar Observatory to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Planning for this connect began in January 2001 and full operations began in July 2001. This high-bandwidth connection has allowed images from a wide-field CCD camera at Palomar Observatory to be searched for near-earth asteroids and supernovae. The camera, operated by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) team at JPL, enables NASA in its mission to protect our home planet while providing a wealth of data on new asteroids, comets and other solar-system bodies.

These same images can be used to search for nearby supernovae. These rare objects are key cosmological distance indicators, and have been used by astrophysicists to establish that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. The technique used involves digital subtraction of images taken days, weeks and months apart to reveal the new light of a supernova. It would be impractical to maintain the necessary image archive of tens of terabytes and a large PC cluster at a remote and electronically-hostile site such as Palomar Observatory.

The HPWREN connections allows the data to be transported to Berkeley in close to real-time, were it can be processed, searched for supernovae, and also archived for future use. The realtime aspect is a key feature enabled by HPWREN, since the earlier supernovae are discovered, the more scientists can learn about the mechanism which makes them explode and how far away they are.

So far the NEAT data delivered via HPWREN have revealed more than 120 near-earth asteroids and six confirmed supernovae. At Berkeley the supernova work has been a key component of the graduate thesis of one student, while seven undergraduates have gained valuable research experience by assisting with the search. We expect that this dataset will soon surpass all others in the number of near-earth asteroids and supernovae it will find.

Paul Etzel, San Diego State University, Astronomy Department chair, Mount Laguna Observatory director
As planned last year, two pilot remote observing runs of four nights each were made with the MLO 40-inch telescope. Dr. Fred Ringwald sat at his workstation in his Fresno State University office while observers at MLO obtained digital images of his program objects and piped them to him in near real time. Ringwald examined the images to see if the candidate stars exhibited any short timescale variability. HPWREN demonstrated that 8 Mbyte images could indeed be sent to remote observers faster than they could be obtained at the telescope.

MLO has been proposed as the site for the second SuperWASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets) robotic telescope by Keith Horne of St. Andrews University, Scotland in his proposal to the UK's PPARC (Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council). SuperWASP consists of an array of four small telescopes, each 8-inches in diameter with its own CCD camera. Eight-degree wide fields of the sky will be repeatedly observed to search for the transits of "Hot Jupiters" around their host stars in crowded star fields in the Milky Way and galactic star clusters. Easily 20 Gbytes of data will be generated per night, which will be sent to St. Andrews by HPWREN. MLO will be the second site for SuperWASP, a clone of the first sited at La Palma.

SDSU is actively fund raising for $8.6M for a 100-inch robotic telescope to be sited at MLO. It will join its three smaller 80-inch cousins on La Palma, Maui, and Siding Springs, Australia, which are operated or managed by Liverpool John Moores University to form a growing global network of robotic telescopes. The global network is needed to work on high profile projects such as gamma-ray burst objects, detection of earth-mass planets by gravitational microlensing, supernovae identification, and cosmology via long-term monitoring of gravitationally lensed quasars. Additionally, it will also serve the astronomers in the 23-campus California State University system. These telescopes are each run by an array of seven local computers, one of which acts as a "virtual astronomer" to schedule observations during the night based upon preassigned priotities. Participating astronomers will submit their observing requests over the Internet, and receive their data over the Internet automatically. The educational prospects of this global network are interesting in that observations can be made during the daytime on another telescope in the network where it is nighttime. Telescope time would be shared between participating observatories.

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Ecology

Sedra Shapiro, San Diego State University, Ecological Field Stations executive director
Field scientists are increasingly using remote and in-situ sensor arrays to augment or even be the heart of field data collection efforts. Additionally, field stations that support research, teaching, and outreach are increasingly involved in developing resources and infrastructure to support long-term monitoring and research whose findings can be extended into classrooms and outreach. The SDSU Field Station Programs are engaged in a major effort to build a model research reserve that functions as a terrestrial observing platform outfitted with ubiquitous wireless sensor networks that provide real-time data to researchers, educators and students, and members of the community. The HPWREN collaboration has allowed the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER), one of four SDSU field stations, to link in as a node on the high speed wireless connection, further enabling SMER to be developed as a nascent "always-on" environmental site transmitting real-time data from sensors in the field directly to screen for around-the-world users.

During the past year SMER has deployed an "Intra-SMER" system that provides power and telecommunications within the reserve so that any sensor array placed within areas of coverage can be connected in real-time to HPWREN.

The pilot project for this concept is based on data acquisition towers based in the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve which collect micro-meteorological and carbon flux data, and newly established hydrographic data. Both these data types (air and water) are important baseline monitoring areas that provide environmental information that is of added value for almost every other kind of study. Further, information is intended to be used in teaching and will be used by several classes at SDSU. The Field Station Programs sees this as a pilot project for baseline monitoring at Field Station properties that can be used by a diverse set of users from resource managers, educators, scientists, students, and decision makers. It is the hope of the Field Station Programs to build upon this project in developing a model monitoring system with broad applications. Already researchers have begun to adopt this technology and scientists from Switzerland (Rolf Baumberger) studying flower morphology to meteorologists at SIO (Dan Cayan) have integrated their research with the technological developments at SMER. The activity at SMER has served as a model for real-time environmental observation and this group has pushed the frontiers of developing sensor networks. They have submitted for further NSF funding in the Field Stations and Marine Labs (FSML) program to continue to grow the observing capabilities of this research station.

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Climate, Hydrology and Meteorology

Dan Cayan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, climate researcher
The availability of wireless internet in San Diego County, the involvement of HPWREN in the NSF ROADNet project, and its extension into the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER) has had a great influence on the course of our research activities. This technology has influenced our effort to deploy a network of hydrological and meteorological sensors in Yosemite National Park and across the Owens Valley in the White Mountains--the information that we will gather from this mountain network should enable us to better understand the processes that build and melt mountain snowpack, a vital water resource for California. Also, HPWREN and SMERnet has been a key enabling element in our design to deploy meteorological and hydrological stations in SMER and, we hope, upstream along the streams feeding the Santa Margarita River. We are currently designing a low-cost data logger/transmitter for a 30 station meteorological network in SMER, along with a set of hydrologic samplers in the Santa Margarita River. The precipitation, wind, temperature and humidity should provide information at an incomparably fine scale to better describe and understand the dynamics controlling the microclimate in this mediterranean Southern California coastal watershed.

Additional information about this research can be found at http://meteora.ucsd.edu/cap/snow_monitor.html.

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Integrative Oceanography

Jerome Wanetick, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, oceanography researcher
Under the direction of Dr. Robert Guza* and Dr. Stephen Elgar** among others, the Integrative Oceanography Division of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is undertaking an ONR and NSF-sponsored study of the effects of coastal submarine canyons and complex ocean bottom topography on nearshore ocean circulation, wave propagation and coastal geomorphology. In the Fall of 2003, scientists and technicians from a number of institutions from around the country will deploy a large array of instrumentation along a 3.2Km stretch of coastline in La Jolla, California. from the SIO pier north to Torrey Pines State Beach.

With equipment and technical expertise provided by HPWREN, IOD has deployed a long-range wireless 802.llb network to provide access to remote, autonomous data acquisition nodes located within the study area. This wireless network connection will provide time synchronization between instrument nodes, a real-time data feed to scientists and engineers allowing them to monitor system health and diagnose instrument problems, and data transfer to a centralized storage and analysis computer cluster located at the Center for Coastal Studies building at SIO.

The network consists of a wireless access point located at the seaward end of the SIO Pier connected to two 180-degree sector antennas driven by 1000AGC amplifiers providing 360° coverage. Each remote data acquisition node will consist of a laptop computer running the Linux operating system and data acquisition software connected to the wireless network via a PCMCIA 802.11b network card and a highly directional grid antenna.

Along with the primary objectives of the NCEX study, IOD and HPWREN engineers are using this wireless network to measure the indirect effects of wave-induced aerosols upon 802.11b-based data transmission on the beach and across the surfzone. Preliminary results of these measurements have shown that these environmental conditions have no measurable affects on data quality or transmission bandwidth. Further tests are planned as more instrumentation is deployed in the study area.

* Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego

** Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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Marine Biology

Doug Bartlett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, marine biology researcher
I use HPWREN connectivity to read e-mail and to communicate with people in my lab and students in my courses when I am at home. I also use it to connect to various web sites for nucleic acid and protein analyses, to read and download electronic science journals, and to obtain Federal grant proposal information.

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 Contributions to Human Resource Development

How have results from your project contributed to human resource development in science, engineering, and technology? Please enter or update as appropriate.

HPWREN is providing an opportunity to several research disciplines and education communities to integrate their current means and practices into a new world of integrated high performance real-time data connectivity. Several project collaborators indicate that this network connectivity changes the way that their research is conducted. In other cases, the network plays an instrumental role in changing technology relied upon by disciplinary researchers (e.g., moving towards astronomy instruments with robotics capabilities that can be remotely operated from around the world).

As mentioned in the Training and Development section, an HPWREN staff member is pursuing a master's degree in telecommunications due to her involvement with HPWREN. She is specifically focusing her thesis on an assessment of HPWREN's impact upon the research being conducted at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. The many students affiliated with the HPWREN project also benefit from the human resource development aspects of the project; their activities are described in the Training and Development section as well.

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 Contributions to Resources for Research and Education

How have results from your project contributed to physical, institutional, and information resources for research and education (beyond producing specific products reported elsewhere)?

The High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network team is creating a large high performance networking environment, which is being used for both research and education applications. Beyond that, HPWREN researchers are directly working with representatives of the research and education communities to enhance the usability and impact of the high performance networking environment.

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 Contributions Beyond Science and Engineering

How have results from your project contributed to the public welfare beyond science and engineering (e.g., by inspiring commercialized technology or informing regulatory policy)?

The HPWREN team has quickly discovered that an excellent testbed for wireless technology lies within remote communities. Furthermore, the team has learned that mass media channels are important facets of information awareness among the networking research community; however, interpersonal communication channels play a much greater role in the diffusion of the technology among the remote community itself. Though HPWREN is in its infancy, the team anticipates that the relationships that have blossomed over the past two years will continue to provide the project with opportunities to continue its reach beyond contributions specific to science and engineering, such as the current impact study being conducted by an HPWREN staff member. That is, this formal social science study allows HPWREN researchers to measure the social and behavioral impacts of HPWREN upon publics involved with remote high-speed Internet connectivity; as aforementioned, our current study specifically involves Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve scientists, their use of HPWREN, and its impact upon their researh and teaching. This impact study may be quite useful for the NSF as they begin their endeavors with the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) as it closely examines the impact of broadband connectivity upon environmental monitoring.

The HPWREN team also continues discussions with the FCC, which provides greater understanding of spectrum allocation, policy, and usage issues; this relationship with the FCC additionally provides the FCC with insight regarding wireless networking issues.

Perhaps HPWREN's greatest contributions beyond science and engineering can be described by a couple of our collaborators.

Greg Aldering, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Palomar Observatory:
Understanding the danger from near-earth asteroids has tremendous public welfare implications. Already there is some evidence from NEAT data that the threat from near-earth asteroids, although quite real over the timescale of human activity on earth, may not be as bad as some have feared. Likewise, understanding what is causing the acceleration of the universe may have important implications for mankind centuries from now, just as the discovery of what powers the Sun (nuclear reactions) has been a dominant component of our lives since mid-way through the last century.

Sedra Shapiro, San Diego State University, Field Stations Program Executive Director:
Global issues of environmental protection, quality of life, and economic growth in a rapidly urbanizing region are playing themselves out in southern California. The South Coast ecoregion, one of the 25 most biotically diverse areas on the planet, is also an area experiencing one of the most rapid growth rates and developmental pressures. The collision of these biotic, economic, and social factors have given San Diego County the dubious distinction of having more threatened and endangered species than any other county in the continental United States and have posed an incredible challenge to biologists, conservationists and resources managers.

With HPWREN technology the SDSU Field Stations are developing into core areas for gathering environmental data, conducting experiments, and provided educational opportunities in an outdoor classroom. They can serve as regional environmental observation points that link to national areas and regional areas collecting environmental data. There is a need to develop foci of environmental observation points that document ecological function, biogeochemical cycling, land use and habitat alteration, and environmental stresses. These themes are important indicators in developing a report card on ecosystem health. Data vary from minute changes in carbon dioxide levels to movement patterns of carnivores. A component of this information management initiative is developing capabilities that can be collected from remotely accessed data towers and accessed through the internet for synthesis, analysis, and planning.

The development of a world-class field station program and state-of-the-art facilities will provide the needed bridge linking scientists, decision makers, students, resource managers, and citizens with the best available environmental information.

Pam Arviso, Pala Native American Tribal Member
Two Directions, Inc. is contracted to the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Assn., Inc. to provide life skill and job skill training to Native American recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds. Many of these families have been life long welfare recipients whose barriers to employment have been lack of child care, lack of reliable transportation, lack of skills, lack of experience and poor self esteem. The TANF program has addressed these needs with the passage of the new welfare reform legislation in 1998 which addresses the individual and the family as a whole. Two Directions provides classes on the reservation, closer to home in a setting which is less intimidating. One of the core training requirements for all TANf recipients requires them to learn to use the computer, and the past three years of experience these classes have proven to be the most popular.

The wireless internet provided by the HPWREN project have exposed these Native American TANF recipients to a whole world of opportunities, both educational, informational, cultural, and entrepreneurial. Beginning computer classes teach them the basic components of the computer and typing. The student then moves on to learn software programs, with 25 percent of the students receiving a MOUS certification. TANF recipients, who two years ago didn't know how to use a computer, now have email addresses. Two Directions computer lab on the Rincon Indian Reservation with ten computer stations was connected to the wireless internet thanks to the HPWREN project. Two Directions offers e-learning courses through InstructionNow.com to TANF recipients, and students are shown how to and encouraged to take on-line classes from accredited institutions. Because of the rural location of the nine north county reservations, alternative internet connectivity is cost prohibitive, and therefore, the importance of the HPWREN project cannot be expressed strongly enough.

Doretta Musick, Pala Native American Learning Center Director
HPWREN connected our learning center more than a year ago, and the students have benefited so much from this. Before HPWREN, we had one dial-up connection and it was so slow due to the poor telephone lines on the reservation. We are grateful for the HPWREN connection, as the students are now able to look up information for their homework on the Internet and keep in touch with distant friends and family via email.

Sukumar Srinivas, Hewlett Packard Digital Village Coordinator
The connection of HPWREN to the learning centers within the Southern California reservations of the La Jolla, Rincon and Pala tribes creates a wonderful opportunity for the students and adults in these underserved, remote communities to experience the power of the Internet. The current solutions for distance learning have created the environment of the right technical network, i.e. interactivity enabled by web cameras and input tablets, combined with the human resource network, i.e. tutors of Calculus and Algebra at UCSD. This model can be extended to teaching and learning of other subjects. Adult education at Rincon and Pala on programming and use of the Internet expose parents and others in the community to the positive impact the Internet can make in their lives and create the awareness and motivation to use this opportunity to raise the quality of their lives.

As part of the Tribal Digital Village QuickStart plan, HPWREN will be extended to all eighteen tribal communities within the Digital Village. Our belief is that this is the most expeditious, cost-effective solution to bring the benefits of the HP grant to all the tribes. As we investigate the long term networking solution for the Tribal Digital Village, we will be making great use of the HPWREN to further our understanding of the pedagogy and content creation requirements of the distance learning application of the Internet.

Hunwut Turner, Rincon Band of Mission Indians Education Center Director
The collaboration with HPWREN is very beneficial for our tribe's education center, as well as additional computer labs here on the reservation.

Robert Smith, Pala Band of Mission Indians Tribal Chairman
By providing the Pala Learning Center with high-speed Internet access, UCSD has opened up an incredible amount of opportunities for our tribe and its future generations. We will begin classes to teach both the older and younger generations of our tribe-so that they can become more familiar with the many opportunities available to them through the Internet.

Jack Musick, La Jolla Band of Lusieno Indians Tribal Chairman
The UC San Diego collaboration with La Jolla provides an opportunity for our learning center to receive access to technology and capabilities that we otherwise would not have in our remote county area. We look forward to building educational programs that allow both our children and adults to take advantage of the connectivity and learn more about how they can use computers and the Internet.

Geneva Lofton Fitzsimmons, UCSD American Indian Outreach coordinator and La Jolla Tribal Member
It is very important for our tribe to maintain the education necessary to keep up to speed with today's booming technology era. We are working hard to ensure that Native American children and adults are given adequate educational opportunities. And, projects like this help us to do just that.

Kimberly Mann Bruch, UCSD/SDSC
After teaching classes on both Pala and Rincon reservations, I came to better understand the importance of this connection for the tribes. Not only does the broadband connectivity via HPWREN allow rural learning centers the same access as urban communities, it also provides the youth with opportunities to better their math and science skills. For instance, a young girl who lives on the Pala reservation recently told me that her seventh grade average math score was a C; for the first six months of eighth grade year, her average math score was an F. However, her eighth grade math average has increased from F to an A/B (she wasn't sure of the exact average) over the past three months. She feels that this recent grade improvement is due to her daily participation (Monday through Thursday, 2:30-5pm) with UCSD math tutors via HPWREN. Three days per week, the tutors assist the students with their homework via HPWREN using distance video and whiteboards from UCSD to the Pala Learning Center; in addition, the tutors travel to the reservation and meet with the youth person-to-person once per week.

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 Objectives and Scope

Our primary objective is to complete building out the network to include field research communities already described in the HPWREN proposal: the aforementioned seismology stations and ecology sites. The Palomar Observatory is an additional collaborator and HPWREN connectivity is currently being established.

Additionally, the collaboration between HPWREN and the HP Digital Village project will comprise a portion of future educational activities. As HP provides funding, labor, and resources to extend the wireless network to additional reservations in the county, HPWREN team members provide guidance regarding installations. We also continue to advise and provide guidance for additional entities, such as UCSD's Teacher Education Program, which is interested in remote field observations between UCSD and rural county schools.

The HPWREN team also continues to explore ways in which incident/crisis management applications may be added to the research portion of the network. This work allows us to experiment with and demonstrate additional aspects of wireless networking - including rapid deployments of networking technologies, as well as creating and maintaining connectivity under difficult circumstances (e.g., a brush fire). Examples of these demonstrations are discussed in the Activities and Findings section of this report.

A formal study within the social and behavioral discipline is also being conducted. Specifically, the HPWREN team is using a multi-methodological approach (field experiment with both survey and ethnographic data collection methods) that allows us to better understand the impacts of broadband connectivity upon our ecological field science collaborators. This study is in conjunction with an HPWREN staff person's master's thesis at San Diego State University's School of Communication.

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 Special Reporting Requirements

Do special terms and conditions of your award require you to report any specific information that you have not yet reported?

no

 Unobligated Funds

Do you anticipate that more than twenty percent of the funds under your NSF award will remain unobligated at the end of the period for which NSF currently is providing support?

NSF granted the three-year project all equipment money within the first year, which allowed the project much greater flexibility relative to building the network. However, a significant amount of that equipment funding remains to be allocated over the remaining duration of the project, and hence more than 20 percent of the funds allocated to the project time so far are not yet obligated, with the majority being equipment funds.

 Animals, Biohazards, Human Subjects

Has there been any significant change in animal care and use, biohazards, or use of human subjects from what was originally approved (or approved later)?

Yes. We have received permission from both the UCSD and the SDSU Human Subjects Committees (IRB) to conduct social science research regarding the impacts of HPWREN upon the Santa Margarita ecological field researchers. This information is on file with our NSF program manager.

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