Building a Free Wireless Backbone?

DigiWood asks: "Ok. I have been remembering the old days of BBS's. When you sent mail from one system to another it had to dial up and transmit it. Given the ability to wirelessly interconnect nodes in a city why hasn't anyone suggested that wireless server interconnects get put up? I know that people have 802.11b public access points. What I am talking about is aggregating these wireless islands together to form a sort of wireless backbone. A free wireless backbone. The only place you'd need a pop is the downlink into the hardwired internet. There could be multiple downlinks. With the advent of companies like Vonage that supply IP telephony the local telco could be cut out. I am not looking for a debate over which telco is worst. Nor any of the major media provider bashing as of late. Just a discussion of the whys and why nots to putting this together."

consume.net

[david.given]

...do exactly this [consume.net].

Re:Will it hold together?

[Anonymous Coward]

If this becomes too popular, the established providers could set up their own (private) wireless networks which would interfere with the free public networks. One would have to use directional antennas to achieve ranges which could be useful for "backbone" purposes anyway, so maybe this isn't a big issue, but anyone attempting this should be on the lookout for artificially created problems. Not everybody likes the idea of free (and possibly unaccountable) public networks.

Initiative in Leiden (Dutch universisty city)

[Koos Baster]

This is exactly what's happening [wirelessleiden.nl] in Leiden, the Netherlands. (English version here [wirelessleiden.nl])

The idea is to make sure there's an open and free (as in beer) network of interconnected 802.11b WLAN hubs, before telcos or other commercial initiatives eat up the available bandwidth. Getting a stable network with good coverage is first priority. Getting BBS-like applications (or video distribution, or grid computing, or...) is second. Using it for last-mile internet access has a relatively low priority, but is not ruled out.

--
The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children -- Linus Torvalds

Check it out!

Similar projects

[majestynine]

Have a look at Melbourne Wireless [wireless.org.au] which is a wireless initiative taking place where I live. I'm an active member and we are in the process of setting up the wireless 'mesh' of nodes. It's slow work but we're getting there.

Also see Seattle wireless [seattlewireless.net] which is a project that aims to do the same sort of thing.

You'll find that in a lot of places you won't legally be allowed to get internet access from nets sush as these because that would mean you become a internet provider, and there are legal ramifications of this. But as for sharing files and other applications, its quite useful.

cheers

Yes, let's do this, please!

[Anonymous Cowdog]

You're not the first one to think of this, but you are one of the few I've seen who have articulated it. Most people who talk about wireless networks don't make the leap to talking about a free wireless backbone. Here are a couple more comments about this:

Re: next, forward packets [slashdot.org]

Mesh Networks [slashdot.org]

and this story which, like so many others about wireless networks, doesn't quite go far enough toward what you are suggesting:

New Wireless Technologies [slashdot.org]

Locustworld MeshAP is what you're looking for

[no_such_user]

Locustworld [locustworld.com] is a great starting point. This project needs more press. From their site:

Our mission is simple. We like this wireless technology, there is a huge potential in free community networks, as idealised by www.communitywireless.org We will research and make this technology available to everyone at the lowest cost we can. Wherever possible, this will be at the cost of parts. In other words, we're working totally for free here, even charity workers get paid! Where required, we will also help by providing live prototype networks and application development. Our primary interest is simply in providing the enabling technology to make this dream work. All the plans for building or modifying all our units will eventually be available as will the software itself. We hope to distribute this under an opensource license so that others can improve our work.

Their goal is to provide free software to setup just the type of wireless community network you're looking for. Though their software package [locustworld.com] can be used with generic hardware, they're also selling a specialized embedded-esque box [locustworld.com] explictly for use with this project.

In NYC, the NYCwireless [nycwireless.net] group has a "wireless cloud" SIG [nycwireless.net] which is (slowly?) trying to accomplish just this task.

Good luck!