[liberationtech] Mesh Networks?

[Charles N Wyble]

On 06/19/2011 08:40 AM, Jon Lebkowsky wrote:
> The CIty of Austin has been operating a mesh network since 2006: 
> http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/help/mesh/.  When the World Congress on 
> Information Technology was coming to town, those of us asked to give 
> input on tech for the event suggested a mesh network, and Cisco agreed 
>  to build it and donate it to the city. Unfortunately it's relatively 
> low power, and that's because they didn't want to appear to be 
> competing with commercial providers. But it does work.

There is also a volunteer mesh. http://hsmm-mesh.org/

I've built a few mesh networks. They are pretty easy now days. Check out 
http://www.villagetelco.org . They have produced a turn key firmware. 
Two actually. One for running a VOIP network and one for 
campus/enterprise networks. I have used both images (and did the 
original work to modify the VOIP image into the enterprise one).

Mesh works. It's mature. The access layer can be mesh. On gear that's 
~100.00 delivered. Check out http://www.ubnt.com. Nanostation2/5 is 
what's used by anyone doing commodity hardware with open source software 
meshes. There is also routerboard.com running a proprietary Linux build 
(though I found out last night that you can run openwrt on those boards).

So if anyone wants help with building a mesh network, e-mail me off list 
(charles at knownelement.com) or join the villagetelco list. We've done 
this dozens of times. It's operationally mature. It's boring actually. 
It's turn key and routine.

I have used Meraki gear. It is pretty nice and turn key. However it does 
have a reliance on a central command and control system. Use 
http://www.open-mesh.com instead. That has a central system, but you can 
also setup and host your own dashboard/registration system.


-- 

Charles N Wyble charles at knownelement.com @charlesnw on twitter
http://blog.knownelement.com
Building alternative,global scale,secure,
cost effective bit moving platform
for tomorrows alternate default free zone.