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NYC Mesh

A community owned network

  • Decentralized
  • Resilient
  • An infrastructure commons

Mesh needs a backbone network

Wi-Fi routers

OpenWrt

Ad hoc Wi-Fi:

Mesh protocols extend Ad hoc. Devices can connect to any device that is within the network (multiple hop), automatically find the fastest routes and reroute around outages.

Mesh Packages!

Wi-Fi modes

Mesh is an old idea. BGP is used to mesh tier 1 providers. Newer mesh protocols are bringing this original decentralized nature of the Internet down to individual Wi-Fi routers.

a device can connect to another device that is in range- one "hop".

Problems with multiple hop mesh over Wi-Fi

  • each hop halves bandwidth
  • each hop adds ~100 milliseconds latency.

Mesh networks need to reduce the number of hops to keep network usable.

  • Use rooftop backbone and make "supernodes".
  • Use multiple radio routers (MIMO)
  • Use fiber or Ethernet where possible-

An antenna, a radio and a very small computer running Wireless Receiver Transmitter (WRT) software.

WRT software is mostly based on Linux.

Linksys used Linux to build the WRT firmware for their WRT54G router. Because of open-source licensing they had to make the code publicly available.

Tier 1 is AT&T, Cogent, Level 3, etc.

Internet Exchange Point (IXP)

Three common Wi-Fi modes are-

  • Access Point (infrastructure mode)
  • Client (laptop, phone etc.)
  • Ad hoc

Computer to computer

or router to router

Router software is now open-source. yay!

Let's add some mesh features to the ad hoc protocol-

Popular mesh protocol-

OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing)

Next-

BATMAN (better approach to mobile ad-hoc networking)

2 popular types of batman-

-BMX6 ad-hoc (BMX7 is being tested)

-Batman-adv: Not ad-hoc. It is a layer 2

protocol now part of Linux kernel

http://wndw.net/

http://goo.gl/PJQFjd

Our software

Questions-

USA- small community meshes

Our reasons for building a mesh network-

Outside U.S.- huge meshes!

Different countries are motivated by different reasons-

Guifi has ~30,000 active nodes!

The only thing large community mesh networks have in common-

3) Are you an Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

two well-known examples-

Inspired by Guifi, NYC Mesh now uses-

Great NYC projects-

Red Hook Wi-Fi

Sarah Grant- Subnodes

Dan Phiffer- Occupy.here

Isaac Wilder- Occupy freedom towers

Paul Garrin- wifiny.net etc.

No, not at the moment. Members share their Internet connections with neighbors and perhaps share their internet bill.

Eventually we hope to peer with other top tier providers so we can provide independent Internet service.

~25 nodes

Using Commotion/OLSR

We chose a BMX6/OpenWrt package- qMp.

qMp is used by Guifi and Freifunk. Well supported and scales.

Our images have tinc VPN which allows the nodes to securely connect and mesh over the internet. Isolated nodes can be still be on the mesh. Tinc is the scaffolding while we build the network.

Our download page has these images

https://nycmesh.net/download/

  • Self configuring (simple!)
  • Decentralized, no single point of failure
  • Emergency community networking (for next hurricane)
  • Freedom from Time Warner, Verizon and Comcast
  • A neutral network that does not block or discriminate content
  • Public Wi-Fi access points
  • Community building with highly localized websites
  • Close the digital divide
  • Symmetrical high bandwidth
  • Creating an infrastructure commons. The community owns the network.
  • Self-sufficient network as alternative to internet
  • Encryption?

Spain: People hate Telefónica. Before Guifi there was no internet in the farmlands. Telefónica was the only ISP.

Germany: Very few Wi-Fi hotspots. Public hotspots are liable for everything users do online. Freifunk clubs formed with the goal of creating open Internet access for all. They bypass legal problems by tunneling through VPNs based in Sweden.

Developing Countries: Need a quickly deployed resilient network

Oppressive governments: alternate networks are needed

4) Is this a replacement for my current Internet connection?

  • They don't speak English!

Why haven't we copied these large projects?

  • English speaking programmers prefer open source projects in their native language.
  • Google-translate can't translate technical documentation.

We have to get over this language barrier, find the successfully implemented ideas and copy them. Often the mail-lists accept English and are very helpful.

We must document everything we do here too!

https://github.com/nycmeshnet

1) Isn't it illegal to share your internet?

Short answer "No"

Long answer go to openwireless.org

It may be against your "terms of service" (who knows?)

Doing something against your TOS is not breaking the law.

2) Aren't open Wi-Fi networks dangerous?

No, sharing your Wi-Fi is

"basic politeness"

according to security expert

Bruce Schneier

https://goo.gl/b4MY4o

This is a myth perpetuated by

ISPs to stop you from sharing.

10 nodes

Using cjdns

Currently, you can use the mesh as a backup Internet connection. If you are within range of the mesh, your router will automatically use the fastest Internet connection. This means you will have a backup Internet connection if your own Internet connection fails.

NYC Mesh was started by Mark Blum in 2012 as part of the Hyperboria meshnet project using cjdns.

Cjdns is an experimental encrypted IPv6 protocol.

Others involved in starting NYC Mesh-

Peter Valdez, Kurt Snieckus

+ many small commercial WISPs

+

+ many others in Europe,South America and Africa

Biggest problems-

Strange questions-

Know your enemy (part 2)-

Growth

How do I join NYC Mesh?

How do I form a mesh network in my community-

Know your enemy (part 1)-

Q. Why is it so hard to get fiber in Manhattan and the Bronx?

A. Verizon has a monopoly of street conduits.

Node count doubles approximately every 3 months-

1) What is your company's revenue model?

We are not a company.

We have no revenue.

Publicity

  • Publicity saved us! Tweet-> Courier-> Pix11 (tv)
  • Publicity can come easily and be overwhelming.
  • With no publicity, no new nodes.
  • Strive to have some publicity always happening.
  • Technical publications are best for the early adopters.

2) How many customers do you have?

We have no customers.

Everyone who buys a router is a member.

  • Focus on the goal- a community owned network!
  • Take pragmatic steps to get to the goal
  • Use proven open-source software that scales
  • Solve immediate problems (e.g. a public space needs wifi)
  • You are building an infrastructure, do not limit uses
  • Don't scare away people with technical jargon
  • Recognize people that help the project
  • No organization hierarchy. Some people are more active than others or have different skills.
  • Identify and solve unique terrain problems. Mesh needs line-of-sight connections.
  • Early adopters are all techies and their neighbors
  • Talk to people on the phone or at meetups- (hard to explain everything over email)
  • Decentralize everything

Keeping momentum

This has been extremely difficult!

NYC Mesh has stopped and restarted about 4 times!

The last time was February 2015 (bad winter)

You have to persevere! (we are fine now)

Line-of-sight

NYC, a city with a jagged skyline. Line-of-sight is needed for long distance rooftop connections. There is usually a building in the way.

Short term solution- internet tunneling (tinc) to join nodes. Also rooftop installs can be directed at public spaces rather than other nodes.

Longer term, we need access to the taller buildings.

To join, fill in this form-

nycmesh.net/join

Get a router and download our software-

nycmesh.net/download

We make it easy!

You can also come to our meetups and we will do everything for you-

meetup.com/nycmesh

3) What if someone steals your ideas?

You are welcome to everything.

It is all open-source. Steal the license too.

TWC and Comcast are a duopoly. They agree to not

compete in the same regions

4) How is your team structured?

Alphabetically

Expanding across the country

Hopefully we make it easier to start networks in other places

40 red markers are active nodes, 170 gray markers are node requests

IRC chat

Panoramas for rooftop node requests:

Coney Island

chat.mesh

Adding servers to the mesh

ev.mesh

The mesh doesn't need servers.

Servers are to add functions like:

  • Local information
  • Chat
  • Wikis
  • News feeds
  • Network troubleshooting

We currently have servers in Harlem, Bay Ridge, Williamsburg and the East Village.

These servers are only available on the mesh and do not need an Internet connection.

Greenwood

East Village

Sunset Park

DBA bar, East Village- Ubiquiti Nanobeam router

Let qMp do its setup first, then run our scripts

Created as an OpenWRT package

tinc VPN - Auto configure script (keys, conf)

HTTP POST script to upload public key

health scripts - check if tinc is running, bmx6 is using tap0, other bmx6 confs

Misc. NYC Mesh settings - SSID, Channel, Hostname, nodogsplash, firewall

Study shows that 90% of our communications happen in a small geographical area, that mimics administrative regions.

People still connect in “a geographically cohesive, connected set of communities”, according to the authors.

Why should you get involved?

Wouldn't it be better if we talked directly?

So why do we rely on these big corporate infrastructures to exchange messages with our neighbors?

"Delineating Geographical Regions with Networks of Human Interactions in an Extensive Set of Countries" by Stanislav Sobolevsky, Michael Szell, Riccardo Campari, Thomas Couronné, Zbigniew Smoreda, Carlo Ratti at Senseable City Laboratory, MIT

Sooner or later, you might have a whole city covered by this community owned network.

Imagine your home network...

Then start connecting with the building next door...

You could even split the cost of the Internet...

Why not extend it to your neighbor?

Why not extend this to the whole building...

So the building could have its own message board...

NYC Mesh is a tool run by volunteers and citizens.

Our goal is to reclaim our communication tools.

Communications should be free.

Join us.

Or still keep both, but have a backup one when

when one is going down...

Get in touch with your neighbor(s) and start talking about sharing the internet connection...

and maybe more...

How can I get involved?

If you like challenges...

Due to the fragility of the network, this is a special place for experimentation.

Services have to be truly distributed, redundant, easy to install and maintain.

If you run a community in NYC

(community garden, hacker/makerspace, local bar, library)

Consider providing internet with NYC Mesh and talk to your community about it.

(We can come and present the project to your members)

Come talk to us.

We have mesh routers already configured for you.

If you're a content creator, technologist, developer, web designer, think about the service you'd like to set up on the mesh.

We already have IRC (chat) and a wiki. There could be message boards, VOIP, a network of weather and air quality sensors, a pirate radio station, etc.

nycmesh.net

Hardware issues

Monitoring nodes

tinc VPN

Modifications to qMp / OpenWRT

Decided to let qMp do its setup first, then run our scripts

tinc VPN - Auto configure script (keys, conf) / HTTP POST script to upload public key

health scripts - check if tinc is running, bmx6 is using tap0, other bmx6 confs

Misc. NYC Mesh settings - SSID, Channel, Hostname, nodogsplash, firewall

Networking

Nagios

Enabled NYC Mesh to add nodes that do not have line of sight

Self routing, encrypted mesh vpn

Using version 1.0 and 1.1pre11 in newer builds

Devices need at least 8MB of flash

Running bmx6, tinc and uhttpd (with https enabled) can be taxing on RAM / CPU

Some hardware doesn’t like tagged and untagged vlans on the same ethernet port

Made wired meshing difficult, fixed by using 802.1ad vlans

Let qMp do its setup first, then run our scripts

Created as an OpenWRT package

tinc VPN - Auto configure script (keys, conf)

HTTP POST script to upload public key

health scripts - check if tinc is running, bmx6 is using tap0, other bmx6 confs

Misc. NYC Mesh settings - SSID, Channel, Hostname, nodogsplash, firewall

Each node has a /24 from 10.0.0.0/8 (also a /64 ipv6, not used at the moment)

bmx6 tunnels all traffic via ipv6

Wondershaper for bandwidth limiting

Nodogsplash captive portal which can also be used to limit bandwidth per client

http://www.tinc-vpn.org/

NYC Mesh

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