Advantages of MWNs

The goals that MWNs can provide are to improve worker productivity, make a city more attractive to businesses, boost the economy, bridge the digital divide, or all of the above with just one network. Such network would make broadband more financially available to more people. As of 2007, approximately $460 million will be spent on MWNs. San Francisco, Portland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have already built these citywide networks. They have provided connectivity to improve the local quality of life and public policy strategies.

The city of Philadelphia is an early adopter on this technology. Imagine getting lost while visiting Philadelphia. You are not a happy camper while asking for directions and struggling to find your way. Now imagine, getting lost there with a mobile device. Not too bad of a feeling now because you packed to be prepared for anything. You can fire up your mobile device and get instant driving directions and be on your merry way.

You can view places where you can get WiFi here: http://www.jiwire.com/browse-hotspot-all-united-states-us-new-york-ny-35.htm

Not only can we begin to bridge the digital divide through the use of MWNs and white space, city and government agencies, as well as emergency services can make use of this connection. In the event of an emergency where networks can get congested and/or experience downtime, this connectivity would allow them to connect to whoever they need to and continue operations to protect the public.Using the concept of a Wide Area Network with white space, a transmitter would be located on a building (base station). A wireless bridge will pick up the signal and pass it to a hard-wired router. A Wireless Access Point (WAP) will be located throughout the complex for Internet connectivity. Nodes can be placed on lamp posts to provide a stronger signal so that all areas have the same speed of connection (See figure 1). The server would be located at the base station. This is where user access is granted to the MWN (See Figure 2).

Figure 1: Courtesy Motorola: A node on a streetlight.

Figure 2: Municipal Broadband Wireless Network Diagram

References:

Hamblen, Matt. (October 2006). Municipal Wireless Networks are growing. Computerworld.com. Retrieved on June 24, 2008 from http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9004430

JiWire. (2008). Wi-Fi Finder. Jiwire.com. Retrieved on July 1, 2008 from http://www.jiwire.com/browse-hotspot-all-united-states-us-new-york-ny-35.htm

Koprowski, Gene J. (April 2005). Municipal Wireless Networks Generating Controversy. TechNewsWorld.com. Retrieved on June 17, 2008 from http://www.technewsworld.com/story/42543.html?welcome=1215389576

Roos, Dave. (2008). How Wireless Mesh Networks Work. Retrieved on June 17, 2008 from http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-wireless-mesh-networks-work.htm

Shinkle, Kirk. (2008). Jeffrey Sachs on Beating Global Poverty. The Columbia economist says it can be done with little investing. US News & World Report. Retrieved on June 20, 2008 from http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2008/04/11/jeffery-sachs-on-beating-global-poverty.html

Wilson, Tracy V. (2208). How Municipal WiFi Works. Retrieved on June 17, 2008 from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/municipal-wifi.htm