[sugar] 65-node simple mesh test (and counting... ;-)

[Greg Smith gregmsmi]

Hi Morgan,

Got it, thanks! 

Let me know if we have a chance to comment on the design of future tests
to help align them with user requirements. I want to find a few basic
cases which we can support now (e.g. 10 or less Xos is a good start) and
help position the timing and details of use cases which we may support
in the future.

We can buy as much time as needed to rebuild this code if we set the
right expectation. We just have to warn them before they start counting
on things which don't work well yet.

Any input on that is appreciated.

FYI they put up a training on how to use the XO at:
http://www.ceibalflorida.blogspot.com/

It includes two sections on mesh usage (Experiencias colaborativas) one
of which has a list of activities. Let me know if you want a
translation.

In the mean time, they are going to have a development "Jam" in Uruguay
next week http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ceibal_Jam I asked them to try out a
few mesh tests if they have enough Xos. I'll let you know if they get
any useful results.

Thanks,

Greg S

-----Original Message-----
From: Morgan Collett [mailto:morgan.collett at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 11:01 AM
To: Greg Smith (gregmsmi)
Cc: OLPC Development; Sugar ml
Subject: Re: [sugar] 65-node simple mesh test (and counting... ;-)

Hi Greg

A couple of points in clarification...

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:01 PM, Greg Smith (gregmsmi)
<gregmsmi at cisco.com> wrote:
> Hi Polychronis,
>
>  Thanks for sharing the results. Did you use a wireless AP or active  
> antenna? If you can include a few details on that it will help. Can 
> you  also include the XO build # and XS build and config if relevant?

Cerebro isn't in the builds yet. It looks like the plan is to integrate
Cerebro into a Telepathy connection manager, for link local
connectivity.

>  Would you say that this test passed? That is, can we recommend that  
> schools use the chat activity with one chat session which all join?

The Chat activity used currently with Cerebro isn't the regular Chat
activity - it is one that has been customised to work with Cerebro
outside of the existing Presence Service collaboration framework.

>  I ask because there is recent feedback on mesh issues from a teacher 
> at  Lambayeque, Peru 
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Lambayeque#Inconvenientes and  a teacher in 
> Uruguay has asked about supported Mesh features too. The  Lambayeque 
> page says: they wish they knew in advance that Acoustic  Measure
Activity would not work with 6 groups of two students each.
>  That's mostly an issue with activity design and our communication 
> about  what activities support but it does raise a good test case (6 
> groups of
>  2 sharing a single activity).
>
>  I think both (Peru and Uruguay) teachers can help define meaningful 
> mesh  use cases which will be applicable in many schools. I want to 
> set the  right expectation on our capacity before I ask them to spend 
> a lot of  time working with us.
>
>  I can start by telling them that chat as you describe above will work

> well, if you agree. Then we can follow up to gather more details on 
> how  they want to use the mesh.

Please don't tell them to use the existing Chat on the existing
collaboration framework in that way - I think we can only handle less
than 10 XOs on simple mesh (no jabber server) with some reasonable
reliability.

>  The good news is they are motivated to use the mesh which helps 
> validate  one design goal of the XO. Now we just need to understand 
> how they want  to use it :-)
>
>  It looks like you are focused on finding the maximum scale of Xos 
> which  can be in a mesh. That's clearly important info too. I'm just 
> checking  if you have capacity to look at a few other test scenarios
as well.

Regards
Morgan