The goal of the Trust Zone program is to have select partners run the FOAM protocol in different geographical environments and test different zone configurations. The selected participant partners will also assemble the current prototype of the Zone Anchor, secure a minimum of four locations for installation, run localization experiments and submit the results for evaluation.

This is a beta testing program for early qualified stakeholders aligned with the mission of the protocol to contribute to refining and defining needed features. The partner participation process will be to maintain your own Zone with a focus on building a high quality fault tolerant network that will seed the network’s initial growth and security.

Until now, we’ve been running these experiments in a closed network. We are excited to announce that it is now time to open up this experiment by adding community run Zones!

Additional information about the Trust Zone Program can be found in the Brochure Overview linked below

What is a Trust zone?

A Trust Zone is a beta radio network run by partner participants to further test and further develop the FOAM Proof of Location protocol. A Trust Zone also serves as a development platform to implement new features and run localization experiments.

A Trust Zone requires a minimum of 4 radios installed with quality line of site visibility to each other. A Zone maintains a quorum over time and space across their location horizon by upholding accuracy and precision, Trust Zones will play a crucial role in verifying the growth of the network and uphold sovereign and secure location services. This is infrastructure for the future.

What kind of locations are qualified and what are the basic requirements?

The goal of the Trust Zone program is to test FOAM technology is as many types of environments as possible. A diverse set of test data will further refine localization performance. Participants in the Trust Zone program are welcome to build their Zones across urban and rural environments.

In addition to line of sight between four Zone Anchors, basic requirements for a Zone regardless of environment type is for each Zone Anchor radio to have access to power and internet backhaul.

What is the size and distance between Zone Anchors required?

An additional goal of the Trust Zone testing program is to further understand this question. As a radio based system, the performance of the network is impacted by a number of factors such as signal obstruction from buildings. Each Trust Zone will have its own limits on distance and size and  will need to take this into consideration. The optimal zone configuration for each Trust zone will take some trial and error.

While the radio’s used in each Zone Anchor can transmit up to multiple miles, within FOAM the localization performance is directly correlated to how consistently each of the four or more nodes receive each others radio packets. The further away Zone Anchors are from each other the higher the chance there will be packet loss, degrading performance of localization. Participants will contribute in determining a system wide maximum zone as a best practice.

The Current FOAM test Zone in the Brooklyn Navy Yard has a maximum distance of 1 kilometer between Zone Anchors, in a dense industrial environment, as a starting baseline data point. When building a Zone tests are required before committing to the selected locations. One of the first steps is to run a visibility and packet align test across the Zone Anchors to assess the location's viability. Partner participants will work with the Foamspace team on assessing the results of these tests before approving a permanent installation of the Zone.

Can I build my own hardware?

Yes, initial selected parter participants for the Trust Zone program are highly encouraged to build and assemble their own Zone Anchors. The Foamspace team will be able to provide key custom components as well as components that may be hard to find due to supply chain challenges. Participants will have the option to receive pre-assembled hardware on a need be basis.

The first Zone Anchor product for purchase is currently under development and will be made available in the next phase of the program.

I do not own the buildings I am looking to install Zone Anchors on, or I am setting up a Zone without buildings, what do I need to do?

If you are planning on installing Zone Anchors on buildings that you do not own, you will need to arrange authorization or procure a lease with the building owner. Each partner participant will have to solve for this based on their circumstances. In general Universities are great hosts for Trust Zones as an agreement is needed with only one entity for multiple buildings.

In areas without tall buildings, such as suburban or rural environments, for good radio visibility, properly secured and legally set up antenna masts or small scale towers can be used to mount the Zone Anchor and/or its antennas. Installing such a set up on top of elevated areas such as hills is also a recommended solution

What types of Antennas will I need?

Currently, a single Zone Anchor requires two antennas that operate in LoRa frequency band, with quality signal fidelity driving localization. Example recommendations are the following antennas based on visibility between static nodes and installation topography:

1. Low visibility and/or Urban landscapes: 9 dBi Panel Antenna, PulseLarsen 11 dBi Yagi Antenna

2. High variability in elevation between node installations: RAKWireless 3 dBi Fiberglass Antenna

3. High visibility and open landscapes: Taoglass 8 dBi Omnidirectional Antenna

For example, in a densely packed city, where visibility between the nodes is low, a directional antenna can be used as a Receiving antenna and an omnidirectional antenna can be used a Transmitting antenna.

A 50 ohms LMR 400 coaxial cable, that is rated for outdoor usage, is recommended to connect the antenna to the Zone Anchor: Linx Technologies RF cable assembly

Based off of the preliminary locations submitted to host your Trust Zone when applying, we will work with you to select and assess antenna type, gain and elevation required for your zone.

How will I manage and interact with my Trust Zone?

FOAM has developed a web application called Hostel for managing experiments and viewing results. Hostel is a suite of tools for: remotely configuring radios and the Zone, executing and monitoring experiments, data pipelines for processing localization data, dashboards for quality assessment and visualizations as well as health monitors for the status of all of the nodes.

How much power is required? Do I need a license? Will this be disruptive to the energy draw and power bill for the building?

The current Zone Anchor prototype is a low power device. It draws a maximum current of 0.9 A and 0.4 A when idle at 12 V, leading to a power requirement of 11 W. You do not need a license to operate this device as it uses unlicensed frequency band for wireless communication. This will not cause disruption to the power consumption of the building. It is equivalent to having a phone charger plugged into a wall socket.

How much space/ what is the footprint of the installation?

The current Zone Anchor prototype enclosure has the dimensions: 11.750"L X 9.980"W. The wall-mounted installation will span 2 ft by 1 ft. Antenna masts can be attached to this installation.

What are the technical requirements to participate?

• Basic DIY competency (using hand tools, following instructions)

• Basic technology competence (connecting cables, installing software, etc.)

• Familiarity with the Linux shell preferable, though should be rarely required. (ability to SSH into devices)

• Experience interacting with web3 protocols and or operating blockchain infrastructure preferable

• LTE network subscription with SIM cards

What is the best way to learn how to build and operate Zone Anchors?

Once you sign the agreement to participate in the program, we will share our repository of documentation, called the FOAM Knowledge Base. It includes guides and manuals covering everything from location scouting to Zone Anchor assembly and installation instructions, operating manuals, and user guides for our Hostel web-app for managing Zones. We intend to eventually open-source this information.

Who is the owner of the Zone Anchors I setup during the program?

The individual. You are the sole owner of the Zone Anchors you assemble and install.

What is the data that is collected by the Zone Anchors during the Trust Zone Program?

The FOAM protocol for localization works through time synchronization over radio between Zone Anchors. The data collected includes transmission patterns of those Zone Anchors (radios), the visibility and packet loss between them during experiments, the signal to noise ratio, and the timing of the packets transferred. That last piece of data is directly used by localization algorithms (using time difference of arrival) to calculate the location of an end sensor.

What prevents Zone Anchors from picking up any other devices or data, if it is connected to a WiFi network?

We typically advise each Zone Anchor to have its own mobile LTE hotspot for internet backhaul purposes. Therefore, access to a secured WiFi network would not necessarily be required, but that is up to the participant and the location owner to work out. The Zone Anchors are only used for running localization experiments and capturing the data on each experiment. We are not obviously able to answer concerning each WiFi network’s security, but if the devices were connected to a WiFi network, from a risk/security perspective we do not see any difference between the Zone Anchors and any regular person’s laptop or cell phone on that network.

Can the Zone Anchors track the location of other devices inside or outside of the Trust Zone area?

No, for the Trust Zone Program, only pre-registered devices will be able to be localized within the Zone. For later releases after the Trust Zone Program, a core feature of the protocol is that localization will only be able to be triggered by the end sensor requesting its location. Privacy and user-control of their location data is a key pillar of our project, and one of our main motivations in building this protocol.

What is the duration of time Trust Zone program?

The initial engagement for partner participants working with the existing Zone Anchor prototype will be for 6 months. The program will further expand to increase the number of participants and features tested and include the initial Zone Anchor product currently under manufacturing development.

What are FOAM's expectations of a Partner, number of experiments/tests, hours per week?

The time required to set up a Trust Zone will vary by each participants circumstances. The program is broken down into stages, across applying, sourcing locations, assembling hardware and initial tests before installation. We will provide time estimates for these stages with all associated resources and guides.

Once a Trust Zone is established, operating stable and permanently installed the expectation is that participants are running experiments to localize devices within their zone, contributing to analyzing the results and providing feedback and feature requests. We estimate a minimum of 5 hours a week will be required to operate, maintain and troubleshoot an established Trust Zone.

We expect participant teams to communicate with us throughout the process, including but not limited to providing qualitative and quantitative feedback about the protocol, products and experience as well as creating content and documenting the program experience.

What are the benefits to participating in the Trust Zone program?

As a participant in the Trust Zone program you will be eligible for earning FOAM token rewards. The Trust Zone program is designed to attract and align stakeholders that believe Proof of Location is a critical prerequisite for the further development of Web3 use cases, accelerating a world where smart contracts interact with the physical world.

Participating in the program puts you at the center of FOAMs development and steward new forms of location technology. You will have a key role in shaping the development of the protocol and needed features while helping to refine localization results.

Trust Zone participants will be in a position to be the first Zone Operators when the network further opens to stake FOAM tokens, earn mining rewards and offer location services to customers.

I am interested in applying to participate, what are the next steps?

Registration is temporally closed as we process the first batch, sign up for waitlist registration. We want to hear from you!