In 2017 a category-5 Atlantic hurricane, Maria, hit Puerto Rico and destroyed most of the island's infrastructure. Cellular and power were disabled for an extended period of time leaving medical and communications problems long after the hurricane passed. If access to a basic communications network was available, the community could have connected with emergency services, local government, or family to mitigate some of the widespread problems resulting from this disaster. [OWL Integrations] (formerly Project OWL) created the ClusterDuck Protocol to mitigate this communication issue so that we can connect to the people, places, and things that you care about.
The purpose of the ClusterDuck Protocol is to provide a base foundation for anybody to deploy a basic communication network and for developers to build upon for their own unique applications. The community has seen many applications of this technology from disaster response communications, agricultural sensor networks, ocean-based sensor networks, to aerospace and space-based networks.
The ClusterDuck Protocol, an innovative open-source project under The Linux Foundation, represents a significant leap in IoT communications. It is an easy-to-use mobile ad-hoc mesh network that can be accessed by people. The ClusterDuck Protocol is currently harnessing the power of low bandwidth and low power such as LoRa technology. Distinct from LoRaWAN, this protocol utilizes LoRa's point-to-multipoint capabilities to facilitate robust communication in diverse environments. The protocol has grown beyond only servicing people in need after a hurricane towards additional use cases around earthquakes, wildfires, cellular congestion (large events), sensor networks, and more.
