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Question 2: How should we do it?
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Pick a technology.....
The world of broadband technology is fast-moving, and it really does evolve each and every day. There would no point in us trying to say, "This is the technology for your community," because as soon as write it, we would be wrong!!
So, in order to ensure that this page has at least a couple of days lifetime (!), we are going to look at some of the issues, and hopefully lead you to the answers that, whenever you read this, are the right answers for you.
Firstly, there are two major technologies required in order for you to create a CAN.
a) The backhaul - this is the term used to describe the connection to the Internet. However, you distribute the connectivity locally within your network, you still need to connect everyone outwards to the internet.
b) the local distribution - this is the method you will use to connect each and every subscriber to the local network.
Backhaul
The options for backhaul are fairly limited. They also differ enormously by price and availability, so for each CAN it is necessary to discover the options available to your geographic area, and then decide what your community actually requires, and look at the possible upgrade path you may need to take. For instance, if today you have 10 people wanting to connect, but you know that once it is working, you are going to get people coming out of the woodwork to join in (cynics, why can't they just support you from the word go?!), then you will need a backhaul that can be upgraded to cope with 20, 50 or 100 users in the future.
COMMON FACTORS with any backhaul
Firstly, make sure you are allowed by the provider to commercially share the connection. Many ISPs (Internet Service providers) prohibit resale of the connection to third parties, and you will be breaking the Terms and Conditions if you do so. This can end up in court so be careful.
Secondly, check the data limits per month. There is no point choosing the cheapest backahul solution if that only allows 1GB a month of data transfer. You will run up huge charges in additional bandwidth each month. 1GB is about enough for a teenager surfing the Net for 3 or 4 hours!!
Thirdly, if you are signing a contract for a year, or 18 months, make sure that there is an upgrade path available to you ie can you move up to a better service without leaving that provider? If not, what seems absolutely fine right now may prove inadequate in 6 month's time but you are tied in for another 12 months. You should always look for suppliers who offer less than 12 months contract if possible anyway, because they may prove to be hopeless and you need to be able to get out of the situation.
Finding a backhaul solution
You need to consider how many people you plan to provide a service to, the finances available, and what is available in your area.
1) Satellite - for some communities there are very few options about backhaul, and satellite is a great solution for those people. There is only ever any point in buying a 2 way satellite solution ie one which allows users to upload and download content over the connection. A 1 way service allows you to download and then uses a telephone line for the upload/return path. This is pointless. Although you may not realise it, the upload path is as important as download, and you need both.
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Imagine if your uncle in Australia sends you a home video of the family gathering. You DOWNLOAD it from your email. Then you want to share it with your cousins etc. That means you need to send it and that means you need to UPLOAD it. If you have a very very thin pipe to send that home movie through ie a very poor phone line with dial up, it could take literally days. That process will slow down every single process for your internet connection - from sending tiny little packets of data to check the connection is still working, right through to regularly checking your email automatically for new mail.
------------------------------
Satellite connections are available in a wide variety of flavours and prices.
Many of them are contended - this means that you share the connection with others. This is bog standard on ADSL connections, for instance, and as many people have discovered, if the other 49 people also sharing your connection are all busy on the Net, your connection can slow right down to snail speed.
Look for a connection that has minimum contention ie only 4 others sharing it.
You want, if possible, static IP addresses, and Quality of Service, and preferably additional services such as email server, anti-virus and firewall, as this saves you setting them all up for your users.
Satellite connections suffer latency. This is the time-delay between a message being sent from your satellite dish, up to the satellite miles above the planet in space, being sent back down to the main hub, and then passed on to its end destination. And then for the whole lot to do the return journey back to you. It is measured in milliseconds, so it isn't any more noticeable particularly than when you watch a TV jounalist on the news in Afghanistan or America hesitate before hearing and responding to a question from the London studio.
However, there are real-time certain applications where this time delay is noticeable on internet applications such as video conferencing, Voice over Internet, gaming, etc. You can be shot by your opponent before you even have a chance to respond to their last attack!
Latency is liveable with, particularly if you have only ever had dial up, but it can be a cause of irritation at times, and it does take a little getting used to with VoIP! (Saying 'Over' after each sentence helps!)
Satellite connections are generally asymmetrical. This means you may get 2Mbps download, but only 1/2Mbps upload.
2) Leased Lines are pretty expensive because you pay for a leased line by length. So, if you are a long way from a Point of Presence (POP) which are normally found in big towns, you will pay a lot fo a line. However, you get a guarantee of service quality and uptime, plus leased lines are uncontended. Therefore, if you buy a 2Mbps service, that is what it should be. They are also symmetrical which is ideal - you can send data as quickly as you can receive it. However, the boon with leased lines is that you can put a leased line into one property and then share out that connection using an EPS8 or EPS9 line from BT. This is a product that is generally kept under wraps but is VERY useful for community networks.
If you install a leased line, and then wireless out from it via mesh or point to point or multipoint, there is inevitably a degradation of the signal as it journeys across your community. However, with an EPS8 line, there is very little degradation if the copper wires within your exchange area are in good nick.
A leased line can generally be had for around £8000+ per year, and an EPS8 line is £800/year.
So, in order to ensure that this page has at least a couple of days lifetime (!), we are going to look at some of the issues, and hopefully lead you to the answers that, whenever you read this, are the right answers for you.
Firstly, there are two major technologies required in order for you to create a CAN.
a) The backhaul - this is the term used to describe the connection to the Internet. However, you distribute the connectivity locally within your network, you still need to connect everyone outwards to the internet.
b) the local distribution - this is the method you will use to connect each and every subscriber to the local network.
Backhaul
The options for backhaul are fairly limited. They also differ enormously by price and availability, so for each CAN it is necessary to discover the options available to your geographic area, and then decide what your community actually requires, and look at the possible upgrade path you may need to take. For instance, if today you have 10 people wanting to connect, but you know that once it is working, you are going to get people coming out of the woodwork to join in (cynics, why can't they just support you from the word go?!), then you will need a backhaul that can be upgraded to cope with 20, 50 or 100 users in the future.
COMMON FACTORS with any backhaul
Firstly, make sure you are allowed by the provider to commercially share the connection. Many ISPs (Internet Service providers) prohibit resale of the connection to third parties, and you will be breaking the Terms and Conditions if you do so. This can end up in court so be careful.
Secondly, check the data limits per month. There is no point choosing the cheapest backahul solution if that only allows 1GB a month of data transfer. You will run up huge charges in additional bandwidth each month. 1GB is about enough for a teenager surfing the Net for 3 or 4 hours!!
Thirdly, if you are signing a contract for a year, or 18 months, make sure that there is an upgrade path available to you ie can you move up to a better service without leaving that provider? If not, what seems absolutely fine right now may prove inadequate in 6 month's time but you are tied in for another 12 months. You should always look for suppliers who offer less than 12 months contract if possible anyway, because they may prove to be hopeless and you need to be able to get out of the situation.
Finding a backhaul solution
You need to consider how many people you plan to provide a service to, the finances available, and what is available in your area.
1) Satellite - for some communities there are very few options about backhaul, and satellite is a great solution for those people. There is only ever any point in buying a 2 way satellite solution ie one which allows users to upload and download content over the connection. A 1 way service allows you to download and then uses a telephone line for the upload/return path. This is pointless. Although you may not realise it, the upload path is as important as download, and you need both.
------------------------------
Imagine if your uncle in Australia sends you a home video of the family gathering. You DOWNLOAD it from your email. Then you want to share it with your cousins etc. That means you need to send it and that means you need to UPLOAD it. If you have a very very thin pipe to send that home movie through ie a very poor phone line with dial up, it could take literally days. That process will slow down every single process for your internet connection - from sending tiny little packets of data to check the connection is still working, right through to regularly checking your email automatically for new mail.
------------------------------
Satellite connections are available in a wide variety of flavours and prices.
Many of them are contended - this means that you share the connection with others. This is bog standard on ADSL connections, for instance, and as many people have discovered, if the other 49 people also sharing your connection are all busy on the Net, your connection can slow right down to snail speed.
Look for a connection that has minimum contention ie only 4 others sharing it.
You want, if possible, static IP addresses, and Quality of Service, and preferably additional services such as email server, anti-virus and firewall, as this saves you setting them all up for your users.
Satellite connections suffer latency. This is the time-delay between a message being sent from your satellite dish, up to the satellite miles above the planet in space, being sent back down to the main hub, and then passed on to its end destination. And then for the whole lot to do the return journey back to you. It is measured in milliseconds, so it isn't any more noticeable particularly than when you watch a TV jounalist on the news in Afghanistan or America hesitate before hearing and responding to a question from the London studio.
However, there are real-time certain applications where this time delay is noticeable on internet applications such as video conferencing, Voice over Internet, gaming, etc. You can be shot by your opponent before you even have a chance to respond to their last attack!
Latency is liveable with, particularly if you have only ever had dial up, but it can be a cause of irritation at times, and it does take a little getting used to with VoIP! (Saying 'Over' after each sentence helps!)
Satellite connections are generally asymmetrical. This means you may get 2Mbps download, but only 1/2Mbps upload.
2) Leased Lines are pretty expensive because you pay for a leased line by length. So, if you are a long way from a Point of Presence (POP) which are normally found in big towns, you will pay a lot fo a line. However, you get a guarantee of service quality and uptime, plus leased lines are uncontended. Therefore, if you buy a 2Mbps service, that is what it should be. They are also symmetrical which is ideal - you can send data as quickly as you can receive it. However, the boon with leased lines is that you can put a leased line into one property and then share out that connection using an EPS8 or EPS9 line from BT. This is a product that is generally kept under wraps but is VERY useful for community networks.
If you install a leased line, and then wireless out from it via mesh or point to point or multipoint, there is inevitably a degradation of the signal as it journeys across your community. However, with an EPS8 line, there is very little degradation if the copper wires within your exchange area are in good nick.
A leased line can generally be had for around £8000+ per year, and an EPS8 line is £800/year.
