ORBIT-USER: A proposal to share the main grid

[chris at orderonenetworks.com]

Hello All,

I’d like to propose sharing the main grid.

Things seem more and more crowded lately on the grid. I also expect that
most people running experiments and debugging are not using the entire
grid, nor are they using all the available radio spectrum.

There are a few basic requirements for sharing.

1.	You can’t be using ‘NodeHandler’ if you’re either the sharer or sharee.
Whenever ‘NodeHandler’ runs it shutsdown/resets every node in the grid.
2.	You need to know what channels you’re using (and hopefully can change
them) which nodes or how many nodes you’ll need.

I’d highly recommend using ‘OrbitHandler’, since it allows you to
precisely specify which nodes to use. These lists of nodes are in a file
that can be easily changed when you’re sharing with someone else.
‘OrbitHandler’ supports imaging, power on/off and a few other things
without affecting the rest of the grid.

If you’d like to share perhaps a message posted indicating which nodes, or
how many nodes you can share and what spectrum you’ll need. That way
people who would like to share your timeslot can be sure they won’t
interfere with you.

If you’d like to share someone elses time slot a similar message could be
posted, either to the main list or to them individually.

I haven’t tried it, but to allow others to join you on the grid is just as
easy as selecting ‘participants’ when you create/modify your timeslot with
scheduler.

I’d welcome any thoughts on this idea, or ways to improve it. In the mean
time, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and make the offer to
anyone who’d like to share with me during my timeslots.

Thanks,
Chris