Technical Summary

L&D Community Network

(Part of the Consume Project)

"New licence-exempt low cost WLAN equipment enables high speed broadband 11,000Kbps interconnections for Amateur and Comunity WLANs."
(Approx ten times faster than BT ADSL for which you pay about £40/month)

Benefits may include:

  • High Speed Internet access, approx 80 - 100 times faster than standard 56Kbps modems. Faster browsing, downloads and uploads.
  • Free local DIY Internet-based radio and television
  • Free local high speed Internet-based multi-user interactive games
  • Free local DIY Internet-based personal data, telephone and video(-conferencing) communications...
  • Community building spirit

    Equipment A standard kit is being finalised.
    "We're using readily available commodities - license-exempt radio spectrum, off-the-shelf wireless network cards, old PCs and of course open source software." : James Stevens (project information co-ordinator)

    E.g. for 1 to 10 neighbours/users:
    (A) One Router System: An always-on interface to the radio network.

  • One old (486 or early pentium) computer
  • One WLAN card using IEEE 802.11b protocol (ISA, PCI & PCMIA cards exist)
  • One ethernet card to connect to user computers
  • One Rooftop radio antenna (range 400M-1500M) with Lightning Protector
  • One 15 Metre antenna connecting cable
  • Standard Router software (not finalised)
    Total Cost £300

    (B) Many Connections to User Systems: Assuming each user already has a computer

  • Additional Ethernet connections to "neighbours" computers using ethernet cards and standard Category 5 cable
    Total cost per connection: £15

    10-User cost: £300+10*£15 = £450
    i.e. A One-Off Cost of £45 per user

    (C) Portable system: For mobile use.
    The Apple Airport portable computer is 802.11b compatible, giving mobile access within range.
    Cost: About £350 ?

    Contraints May be as follows:
    1. For connectivity, there has to be another wireless user within 400M-1500M to route to the rest of the network. Hence, initial deployment is likely to be in densely populated areas. The trial is in London.
    2. There are legal and licencing restrictions associated with longer range direct radio broadcasting. (Licenced radio Hams only?)
    3. Gateway(s) to the Internet is/are required to gain full Internet Access. This/These may have to be purchased through ISP(s).
    4. Users must sign an agreement - a key feature of which is to allow other users to route-though their WLAN transmitter-reciever (transceiver) card and to keep it "always-on" (24 hours a day)
    5. You may have to agree that under-used Internet connection (#3 above) bandwidth may be used by other users.

    Progress Report - How Its Working
    Consume has already demonstrated proof of concept - including at the recent ApacheCon at Olympia and at the Global Chillage cafe in Amsterdam.

    According to the router design engineer, Peter Galbavy, a feature of the approach taken is that the power of the network increases as the square of the number of users. Thus, given sufficient users, it has the potential to compete with the third generation wireless standard, UTMS (for which communications companies have paid billions of pounds in licences).

    The project has been discussed with the Govenment's Radiocommunications Agency (RA) and meets with their requirements.

    A database of user nodes exists and can map their locations and connectivity. It is possible to locate nearest neighbours to see if there is any node within your range.

    Several working groups are developing the user agreement, the routing system, the legal aspects, the node database and information dissemination about the project.

    For full details see: www.consume.net

    Local Contact: Paul Clarke
    30 Dec 2000