CypherCon 2023

Now anyone can become a cellular provider! How anyone can build their own cellular network and how I built one for Milwaukee

Russell From

Abstract:

This presentation is a sequel and update to last years talk, The Rise of the Largest Decentralized IoT & Cellular Communications Project of All Time in Our Backyards, where I set the stage for where decentralized cellular technology was headed.

Now, specifically I will be going into detail how I was able to put up 21 different cellular radios providing coverage in Milwaukee as well as in many other cities like San Francisco, Miami, Houston with more sites going up weekly. Not many people know that they can purchase a cellular radio, put it up on their roof, and immediately have cellular service that works on their existing cell phone! Have bad cell coverage? This is how you can fix it yourself!

I have given related talks at CypherCon focused on non-cellular networks, and on this technology at earlier stages of development for the ISSA of WI, The UW-Madison Blockchain Club, and the UW-Milwaukee Disruptive Technologies lab.

Importance: This talk is covering a very specific niche of blockchain I have been a leading enthusiast in and have been actively educating people on and now worked my way into a job fulltime. Specifically this is a very specific application of real world use cases of crypto, a branch of TIPIN, token incentivized physical infrastructure networks which includes decentralized compute, weather monitoring, IoT lorawan networks, air quality monitoring, etc.

Russell From

Crypto, Cellular, & Network Security

Russell From is the VP of Deployment for Hexagon Wireless, a decentralized telecommunications startup which recently deployed 21 blockchain powered cellular sites in Milwaukee. Russ previously worked as the Enterprise Services Security Specialist Lead for Tanium where he led Tanium’s Enterprise Services to enable public and private organizations to utilize Tanium’s real-time endpoint management and visibility technology. Previously, Russ was a Senior Network Security Engineer for US Cellular where he defended customers and business partners by focusing on proactive network behavior analysis, network forensics, mobile malware identification and remediation, DDoS defense, and threat intelligence automation. Russ also defended the largest electronic medical records vendor in the US as the Network Security lead on IPS, IDS, Network Decryption, Traffic Analysis, and Network Security Response on fully Micro-Segmented & Multi-Tenant infrastructure. Before moving to the defensive side of cyber security, Russ had 8 years of technical experience including being a Principal Network Engineer where he worked to build the first public cloud infrastructure for North America’s largest wireless telecommunications carrier. Russ currently holds the CISSP, GCPM, GCLD, GMON, GCIA, GCIH, and GSEC Gold certifications. Russ also has a bachelor’s from UW-Madison in Computer Engineering, an MBA from Marquette University, and was in the first class of graduates from Milwaukee’s Forward48, a public service focused leadership program. Russ’ hobbies and interests include bass fishing, residential solar, gorwing his Threefold decentralized server farm, and working on small engines.