Technology writer Jeremy Hsu, writing for the IEEE Spectrum, reports that widespread individual and corporate adoption of wireless technologies has produced a Wi-Fi cloud over Salt Lake City could be a “make do” alternative to a municipal wireless network. The article goes on to postulate “Such unplanned wireless networks could provide the foundation for integrated citywide wireless coverage without huge investments in new infrastructure.”
Ad hoc networks can be–and are–powerfully attractive in areas where public access is the only goal of a municipal network. Companies like Meraki Networks and FON have already proven that they can work to extend access within neighborhoods. But these solutions never were designed to provided truly ”integrated citywide wireless coverage” that could support the many applications municipalities are finding for wireless service (automatic meter reading, emergency and off-site data communications, video surveillance in high-crime areas, and monitoring and management of public transit systems are just a few that come to mind) .
The article cites the research of geographer Paul Torrens who mapped access across the Salt Lake City and Jon Crowcroft of Cambrige who developed an authentication scheme for access on such a network, admitting that both experts “remain skeptical about cities tapping their unplanned wireless anytime soon.”
That’s not surprising. The article mentions only a few of the many challenges to the notion, including the need to identify existing hot spots (which Torrens did in his research) and to identify a means to authenticate users (which Crowcroft did in his). I can think of many others. Who, for instance, would prioritize traffic and balance loads in a patchwork system in which any home or business with a Wi-Fi connection essentially becomes an individual service provider? Who would monitor ongoing availability? People do move away and businesses, well…go out of business. Access that is available in one area one day could disappear overnight.
The notion that multiple overlapping Wi-Fi hot spots could meet the mettle of true public service compares to the idea that we could all extend blacktop patches to one anothers’ driveway to create an alternative to the public highwaysystem. (After all, an ambulance could still get to your house–eventually.)
Click here to read the story.
There may be an interesting hybrid model to achieve the citywide capabilities. One of the challenges for citywide deployment is the density required to provide in-home access; yet most municipal applications only require outside coverage. A few, such as utility meter reading require coverage to a property, but the slow data rates required again do not support that density of deployment. The hybrid approach would couple a city backbone and “seeded” ad-hoc units, to provide the density needed for the municipal uses, with the “seeds” providing the roots for ad hoc coverage throughout the area.
There are many variations to explore along the lines of the hybrid approach, but it may provide a vehicle in a time of limited municipal budgets to work around the problem that subscriber revenue cannot support the cost of a subscriber financed network.