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What is a Community Node? |
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The Network Node Project from Think Community Networks has two primary tasks.
1. We are building, installing and testing our own network nodes so that users can share resources.
2. On our web site, we are documenting methods and progress to inspire and empower others to do the same.
We will deliver a resource to our community that our community hasn’t seen before.
The internet was intended to be a decentralized service based on smart transmitters and receivers, or nodes.
In New Zealand, as with other parts of the world it has stopped being this as we, as a community, have left it up to telephone companies to build.
We are building internet as it was meant to be build rather than a centralized networks built, owned and operated by one or more carriers
We are building community based network nodes that can move content around in the same way the internet works.
Yes, you’d be quite right if you’re already thinking ‘doesn’t that mean you’re just building more internet?’. That is exactly what we’re doing. Just faster and cheaper.
We are not limiting our selves to any one technology to connect nodes and users to nodes. We are also not attempting to develop new technology. All the technology we’re using has existed for years.
Our point of difference in New Zealand is simply that we’re using this existing technology in a smart way – innovation.
So far we’ve built nodes using a number of different Linux distributions. We chose to use more than one version because every geek out there has their own preference. As our first mission is to inspire geeks we have to fit in with their passions.
We choose to use computers and software as routers rather than simply use wifi access points because it delivers far more power to the network. Standard off the shelf routers simply don’t offer enough flexibility yet to delivery what can be done with a PC and Linux.
We’ve spent a lot of time working with USB wifi technology that was developed by students in Wellington because it is far more cost effective than using existing antenna technology.
We have been researching VDSL technology for node to node connectivity. With the local loop being unbundled in the near future it will be very practical to rent short runs of copper from Telecom to move large chunks of data between nodes where buildings or trees affect line of site transmission.
We’re already using 100mbit UTP cable to link neighbours. This has the advantage that it frees up wifi channel space for inter-node traffic or private networks within buildings.
Understanding that the 802.11b/g technology is now at its limits we’re also looking at newer 5.8 gigibit technology, but we don’t see that as being cost effective for another 24 months for anything but node to node interconnection.
Applications need to be delivered on top of the basic network.
We’ve been collection information about voice and video services and up skilling with this technology.
Skype is a very powerful technology as it allows a user within any part of the private network to communicate with anyone else in the world across the telephone network, and in many cases, for less than the cost of a local call in New Zealand.
With the release of new hardware, such as the Skype Dual Phone, this technology is now very practical for users.
Thou a little more complex to set up, SIP services, such as those provide by Slingshots iTalk, are also another very powerful technology that a community node network empowers.
There is now no reason for our neighbours to have a telephone line connected to a Telecom or Telstra exchange. They can choose between a number of different providers.
The Linux based node also means they can choose between different data providers. Even users within the same node can choose between different data providers at different times of day if they want to.
The benefit to the telecommunications market is that is that they can mirror the electricity market and sell off extra capacity in low demand periods.
For example, a provider who has a large business customer in the city that uses big links for workers from 9am to 5pm can then sell that redundant capacity to the domestic market outside those hours. The concept of peek and off peek data is already been well accepted in the Australian market.
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