A community AI assistant that works without internet.
Gemma 3 1B runs entirely on the Signal Mesh node. No cloud. No API cost. No data leaves the village. Answers drawn from 256GB of local content. Responds in 15–60 seconds.
How it works.
Three stages from question to answer — all running on a single CM4 8GB inside the village mesh.
Any device connected to the Signal Mesh WiFi opens a browser to signalnode.local. The Open WebUI interface looks identical to ChatGPT. Type any question in plain language — works on any browser, no app required.
Ollama passes the question to LlamaIndex, which queries ChromaDB — a vector store built from the Signal Mesh CDN library. In milliseconds it surfaces relevant passages from Wikipedia, WHO health guides, FAO farming manuals, Liberia government documents, and Khan Academy content already on the 256GB microSD.
The Gemma 3 1B model synthesizes a plain-language answer from the retrieved local content. Response appears in 15–60 seconds. No internet used. No data sent anywhere. Complete privacy.
Use cases for rural Liberia.
Real questions Signal Mesh AI answers from cached CDN content — no internet round-trip.
“Why are the leaves on my cassava turning yellow and what should I do?”
AI searches the FAO tropical farming guide and Wikipedia agronomy content on the node and gives a specific diagnosis and treatment plan.
“My child has a fever and rash — what does the WHO guide say I should do before reaching a clinic?”
AI searches WHO Essential Medicines and maternal health content on the node and gives immediate first-response guidance.
“How do I register a birth in Bong County and what documents do I need?”
AI searches the Liberia government services directory cached on the node and returns step-by-step instructions.
“Explain photosynthesis like I am 12 years old.”
AI references Khan Academy content on microSD and gives a clear, curriculum-appropriate explanation.
“What is the current price of cassava in Monrovia?”
AI reads the daily crop price JSON cached during the sync window and returns today's figure.
“What are my rights if a landlord refuses to return my deposit in Liberia?”
AI searches Liberia legal codes cached on the node and returns a plain-language answer.
Two hardware tiers.
The AI Gateway adds on-node inference to the Standard mesh + CDN platform.
WiFi mesh · 8-category CDN · 200 users · No AI
Everything in Standard plus Ollama, Open WebUI, ChromaDB, LlamaIndex, and Gemma 3 1B pre-loaded.
Model performance on CM4 8GB.
Tokens per second, measured on the AI Gateway with passive heatsink + 0.3W bottom fan.
Gemma 3 1B recommended · 140+ languages · 4.2GB RAM · fastest response for community Q&A
AI software stack.
| Service | Role | Port | RAM | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ollama | Inference engine | 11434 | 2000MB | MIT |
| Open WebUI | Browser chat UI | 3001 | 200MB | MIT |
| ChromaDB | Vector store | 8001 | 300MB | Apache 2.0 |
| LlamaIndex | RAG pipeline | internal | 300MB | MIT |
| nomic-embed-text | Embedding model | 11434 | 300MB | MIT |
| Gemma 3 1B | LLM weights | — | 2GB on SD | Gemma |
AI Gateway tier total RAM ~5.5GB — requires CM4 8GB. Standard tier (~2.5GB) ships CM4 4GB without AI services.
How Signal Mesh AI is deployed.
One AI Gateway per village network. The gateway node — the one with 4G LTE or Starlink backhaul — runs the AI service. All other nodes in the mesh relay AI requests to the gateway over the 5GHz P2P backhaul. All 200 users across all 5 nodes access the same AI assistant through their browsers. One CM4 8GB handles the AI for the entire village network.
Thermal note. CM4 8GB generates heat during sustained inference. Signal Mesh uses a passive heatsink pad between the CM4 and the ABS tube wall, plus a 5V 0.3W fan at the tube bottom with a vented bottom cap. This maintains safe operating temperature in direct equatorial sun and adds +$7 to the AI Gateway BOM.
Your village. Your data. Your AI.
All questions and answers stay on the Signal Mesh hardware inside the village. No company can read your health questions, your crop data, or your legal inquiries.
Zero per-query cost forever. No Anthropic, no OpenAI, no Google Cloud, no subscriptions. The AI runs on hardware Signal Technologies sells you once.
The AI assistant answers from local CDN content even with no backhaul at all. A village cut off from connectivity still has AI-assisted health guidance, education support, and agricultural advice.