BARWN Twin Peaks 20030324

Bay Area Wide Internet Access with 802.11 Radios: 

Bay Area Wide Internet Access with 802.11 Radios Matt Peterson & Tim Pozar March 25th, 2003

Public WiFi or NANs: 

Public WiFi or NANs Traditional telco infrastructure does not need to be involved Last mile recurring cost is $0 Networks do not have to connect to the Internet. Can be used to tie individuals and groups in the radio foot print. I.e.: SeattleWireless is just concerned about providing bandwidth to each other. Bring your own internet

Slide3: 

How does the city and public benefit?

Neighbourly thing to do.: 

Neighbourly thing to do. Community networks help get people into their neighbourhoods to meet each other and help each other participate. That's ultimately good for the city.

Public Safety: 

Public Safety A very fast network. Typically the data over voice channel is limited to 19.2Kb/s. 802.11 can be 500 to 3,000 times faster. Parallel infrastructure is ideal for backup (or concurrent) emergency communications. Common Intra and Interdepartmental network. Can be utilized in extreme emergency conditions such as the '89 earthquake. Neighbour Emergency Response Team (NERT) Everyday applications: Building and Fire inspection reporting via Tablet PCs

Digital Divide: 

Digital Divide Extends the efforts of the city to provide Internet access to locations such as community centers. Much beyond current attempts such as the terminals in the libraries. Some areas in San Francisco do not have access to DSL as they are in an area that isn't served or are too far away from the Central Office. With the downturn in the economy, this problem will likely not be rectified in the near future by commercial interests. Even if they can access the Internet, at $50 a month some folks will see food and rent as more of a priority over network access.

Competition: 

Competition A city-wide community network promotes business and competition, as anyone can participate and offer services. Much like Palo Alto's fiber ring.

Could keep other providers competitive: 

Could keep other providers competitive The latest FCC ruling that feds do not regulate the copper for the last mile. This could be the death knell for competition for DSL providers.

Increases City and Business Revenue: 

Increases City and Business Revenue Encourages commerce as tourist and business visitors will likely stay (and shop) in SF if a public network is there. Also encourages park use and benefits businesses surrounding the parks.

Experimentation Test Bed for the Community: 

Experimentation Test Bed for the Community Test bed for experimentation for public and commercial use. Support art community. Feeding public access content to cable access channels. Provides better access to the community for news reporting. Via photo blogging. BBC news asking for images from clients.

BARWN: 

BARWN Community wireless network based in San Francisco. Affiliated with the Bay Area Wireless Users Group - http://www.bawug.org Currently incorporating in California as a non-profit Currently has an access point located on Mnt. San Bruno - just south of San Francisco serving the Colma, Daly City and the southern half of San Francisco.

BARWN Objectives: 

BARWN Objectives Development and documentation of long range (>2 mile) wireless networking using very low cost, commodity unlicensed radio transceivers. Be a wireless network test bed for developing new protocols or "tuning up" current protocols such as dynamic routing protocols originally designed for "wired" networks. Research into the deployment of remote LANs for the support of public safety events and incidents.

BARWN Objectives...: 

BARWN Objectives... Provide a “back-bone” to tie together other communities and groups. Respond to the loss of bi-directional access on the Internet through experimentation with true broadband access to the home with features including: Limited AUP restrictions. Symmetrical bandwidth. No port filtering. Real (non RFC-1918) static address space.

Ideas on how SF can help...: 

Ideas on how SF can help... We would like introductions to city departments that have a need for networking. Such as: Emergency Services, Public Safety, Community Centers Be involved in City communications policy making Help with expertise for proposed public wireless access. Review proposals.

Ideas on how SF can help...: 

Ideas on how SF can help... Roof / tower access Tower access such as Twin Peaks / Christmas Tree Point City buildings such as libraries and community centers Access to city owned fiber Backbones to access points Financial resources Pointers to grants or resources to attain grants. Partial fee from commercial use could go to community access

Slide23: 

Thank you for this opportunity. This presentation is available at: http://www.barwn.org Tim Pozar Matt Peterson pozar@lns.com matt@peterson.org