Magnus on Mon, 9 Jun 2003 10:14:15 -0400


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[PLUG] DelCo Wireless (and maybe Philly Wireless too)


I'm starting work on my own wireless mesh in DelCo, which may or may not coincide with the goals of the existing DelcoWireless project. In any case, DelcoWireless now has a mailing list.

From:

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As requested, I have created a discussion list for Delcowireless. To subscribe go to:
http://mail.airpower.com:82/guest/RemoteListSummary/d_w_talk
or you can do so by email as airpower takes standard majordomo commands. The list name is d-w_talk. For help with AirPower's list server, email majordomo@airpower.com with the word help in the subject

The mesh network I'm hoping to get started on this summer will start in Delaware County primarily because that's where I live and that's where I've been able to get several high rooftops to use.


However, from my place in Prospect Park I may have a clear LOS to Philadelphia including south Philly & University City.

High level overview of what I intend to do is initially have a series of access points running in HostAP mode, all on the same channel, same SSID, running IPv6 and OSPF. Node operators can NAT to IPv4 for their local clients if they wish but the AP's themselves would communicate with each other using IPv6. I'm hoping for some early adopters that are willing to spend the extra to set up not only the omnidirectional antennas for their own local coverage, but also one or two directional antennas to set up long haul links. I'm looking at probably running Pebble Linux (Debian offshoot) on Soekris boards for the early access points, and then something like OpenAP or LinuxAP on cheap commodity hardware for the stripped down omnidirectional access points to come later on.

I've had an easy time of getting rooftop access in Delaware County so provided there are people willing to buy hardware for this, we should be able to make a go of it down this way. I've also been approached by some IPv6 evangelists who are willing to help in various respects.

What I need more immediately is people who are willing to put some $$$ into setting up the initial backbone. I don't expect hardware costs to exceed $1,000 and in fact I expect they will be less than this. I'm also working on cheaper access points that are stripped down and can only handle one good omnidirectional antenna for under $500 (maybe less still).

The primary lure of this is not free internet. The lure of this is having high speed network coverage blanketing parts of Philadelphia, Delaware County, and other local counties. Node operators may, however, choose to give or sell Internet access from their nodes (node operators should not, however, charge for access to the mesh itself). This can be a real boon for file sharing, gaming, and other high bandwidth applications. Initially we would be on 802.11b on the omnis (because of the availability of drivers for all OS's on that standard) but backbone links may use 802.11a (or g) for now with an eye on emerging technologies like 802.16 in the future.

Who's game?

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