General description
wlan slovenija open wireless network is an example of a wireless community network. It uses common and widespread wireless technologies based on IEEE 802.11 standards, open source systems and because of its wireless and innovative organic nature its spread and access to the network is limited only with participation of users in it: more users there is more the network is spread and useful, for more purposes users can use it, more and richer content it provides.
IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of LAN protocols, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) Wi-Fi computer communication in various frequencies, including but not limited to 2.4, 5, and 60 GHz frequency bands.
Around the network, which is in the first place an initiative, a community of people and organizations is forming and thus ideas, motivations and concepts around the network are various as participants in the network are various. But mostly all agree about common reasons for the network: free access and sharing of knowledge and information, building an alternative media and because it is interesting, educational and fun. More people put up nodes of the wireless networks, more people share their Internet uplinks with others, more everybody gains.
wlan slovenija tries to attract also people without technical skills but who still share common philosophy. Because of this wlan slovenija focuses on ease to use, proven good practices, polished open source technologies which not just work but also have good user experience, combined with education, lectures and workshops to teach people about wireless technologies and possible ways of contributing to the network. Nodes used are open and accessible and they protect shared uplinks with using VPN to connect to the rest of the network.
The network is constantly growing around Slovenia and other countries. For example, in Croatia it is known under the name Otvorena mreža.
Participants are developing open technologies for use in the network to make wireless technologies better and easier to use:
- nodewatcher helps with coordination with deployment of the network and its monitoring
- Tunneldigger provides performant VPN system
- Koruza, equipment for wireless optical connections
- some participants add to their nodes also various sensors, which data is then collected by nodewatcher
Koruza is a Slovenian open source and open hardware project providing equipment for low-cost free-space wireless optical connections. One can use 3D printing to create their own equipment. It is based on use of existing SFP optical modules which brings the costs of manufacturing down. Because it uses infrared light it is an alternative to Wi-Fi and does not have issues with spectrum congestion and radio interference. It is available in 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s forms. Connection can be established at up to 100 m.
nodewatcher
For easier planning, deployment and maintenance of the network nodewatcher open source system has been developed. It allows coordination between participants in the network without requiring them to know each other.
It is a centralized web user interface which enables easier coordination and planning of a network with monitoring at the same time. Furthermore, it is also a web based firmware image generator which generates a customized image of a system for a given network node, so no node configuration after flashing is necessary.
The idea is that for participation in the network almost no technical skills are required. Users can simply register location of a new node and select some basic properties of a new node, where system fills more technical properties with good-practice defaults (the system also allows customization if the user wishes so). nodewatcher system then produces customized OpenWrt based firmware image with all configuration already included so the user just have to flash the wireless router, connect the node to electricity and possible uplink and node is connected to the network over VPN or wirelessly if there is a neighboring node somewhere in vicinity.
Afterward, nodewatcher monitors the node and displays gathered data about its performance in intuitive and graphical ways so users can understand how their node is working, how many users are using it, how much of their shared bandwidth is consumed... And all this through longer periods of time so better understanding of how the node interacts with the rest of the network is possible and easier planning of future nodes.
A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. Applications running on a computing device, e.g. a laptop, desktop, smartphone, across a VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network. Encryption is a common though not an inherent part of a VPN connection.
In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP), or more generally just access point (AP), is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network. The AP usually connects to a router as a standalone device, but it can also be an integral component of the router itself. An AP is differentiated from a hotspot, which is the physical location where Wi-Fi access to a WLAN is available.
Started in 2002 in Athens Greece, Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network (AWMN) is a grassroots wireless community, taking advantage of new, state of the art wireless technologies, to connect people and services. The network comprises 1120 backbone nodes and more than 2900 client computers connect to it. More than 9,000 people have stated their intention to join AWMN in the near future. There is also an association-club named awmn.
OpenVPN is an open-source commercial software that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It uses a custom security protocol that utilizes SSL/TLS for key exchange. It is capable of traversing network address translators (NATs) and firewalls. It was written by James Yonan and is published under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Wireless wide area network (WWAN), is a form of wireless network.
The larger size of a wide area network compared to a local area network requires differences in technology.
Wireless networks of different sizes deliver data in the form of telephone calls, web pages, and streaming video.
Freifunk is a non-commercial open grassroots initiative to support free computer networks in the German region. Freifunk is part of the international movement for a wireless community network. The initiative counts about 400 local communities with over 41,000 access points. Among them, Münster, Aachen, Munich, Stuttgart, and Paderborn are the biggest communities, with more than 1000 access points each.
Wireless security is the prevention of unauthorized access or damage to computers or data using wireless networks. The most common types of wireless security are Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). WEP is a notoriously weak security standard: the password it uses can often be cracked in a few minutes with a basic laptop computer and widely available software tools. WEP is an old IEEE 802.11 standard from 1997, which was superseded in 2003 by WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access. WPA was a quick alternative to improve security over WEP. The current standard is WPA2; some hardware cannot support WPA2 without firmware upgrade or replacement. WPA2 uses an encryption device that encrypts the network with a 256-bit key; the longer key length improves security over WEP. Enterprises often enforce security using a certificate-based system to authenticate the connecting device, following the standard 802.1X.
DD-WRT is Linux-based firmware for wireless routers and access points. Originally designed for the Linksys WRT54G series, it now runs on a wide variety of models. DD-WRT is one of a handful of third-party firmware projects designed to replace manufacturer's original firmware with custom firmware offering additional features or functionality.
Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductors for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and private industry. The company was renamed Atheros Communications in 2000 and it completed an initial public offering in February 2004 trading on NASDAQ under the symbol ATHR.
A computer network is a digital telecommunications network which allows nodes to share resources. In computer networks, computing devices exchange data with each other using connections between nodes. These data links are established over cable media such as wires or optic cables, or wireless media such as Wi-Fi.
Wireless network cards for computers require control software to make them function. This is a list of the status of some open-source drivers for 802.11 wireless network cards.
A wide variety of different wireless data technologies exist, some in direct competition with one another, others designed for specific applications. Wireless technologies can be evaluated by a variety of different metrics of which some are described in this entry.
Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) is a set of multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technologies for wireless communication, in which a set of users or wireless terminals, each with one or more antennas, communicate with each other. In contrast, single-user MIMO considers a single multi-antenna transmitter communicating with a single multi-antenna receiver. In a similar way that OFDMA adds multiple access (multi-user) capabilities to OFDM, MU-MIMO adds multiple access (multi-user) capabilities to MIMO. MU-MIMO has been investigated since the beginning of research into multi-antenna communication, including work by Telatar on the capacity of the MU-MIMO uplink.
The Southampton Open Wireless Network (SOWN) is a non-profit student-led community wireless network based in Southampton, UK. Funded by the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, SOWN aims to be a research and development group for wireless technology. It also continues to aspire towards the provision of community based wireless broadband internet coverage for the city of Southampton.
Gargoyle is a free OpenWrt-based Linux distribution for a range of wireless routers based on Broadcom or Atheros chipsets, Asus Routers, Netgear, Linksys and TP-Link routers. Among notable features is the ability to limit and monitor bandwidth and set bandwidth caps per specific IP address.
LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) is a technology defined by the 3GPP. In LWA, a mobile handset supporting both LTE and Wi-Fi may be configured by the network to utilize both links simultaneously. It provides an alternative method of using LTE in unlicensed spectrum, which unlike LAA/LTE-U can be deployed without hardware changes to the network infrastructure equipment and mobile devices, while providing similar performance to that of LAA. Unlike other methods of using LTE and WLAN simultaneously, LWA allows using both links for a single traffic flow and is generally more efficient, due to coordination at lower protocol stack layers.
Wirelesspt is a non-commercial open grassroots initiative to support free computer networks that is not dependent of central infrastructure, corporation or entity which is done by the ordinary citizen provide free, open and democratic access to the highways of information technologies helping people and organizations implementing wireless networks that will benefit their communities.
