Bottom-Up Broadband Project

= concept (Bottom-Up Broadband), research project, and paper

This entry focuses on the research project and links to the paper.

Project

= the bottom-up broadband mailing list is at https://llistes.guifi.net/sympa/arc/bub

The project is trying to particularize the general ideas of peer production and p2p infrastructures to data networks

Related research projects:

1. Mobile Node‎ A mobile streaming solution for IEEE 802.11 infrastructure and mesh networks
2. Open Sensor Network‎

Typology

Bottom-Up Broadband Access Models

• Shared Internet Access
• Open Access Networks
• Free Libre Networks

Examples

Of the Shared Internet Access model:

(the authors also distinguish the Open Access Networks model and the "Free (Libre) Networks" model (see: Free Libre Networks.)

"Eduroam is an international WiFi roaming service for members of education institutions. It is useful for visiting scholars and for students using libraries of different universities. All of them can use their home university credentials to access the Internet from the premises of any other affiliated institution. It is useful for the visitor and also for the host institution that benefits from the visit.

ProvinciaWiFi is a WiFi service available in the province of Rome and other regions in Italy that offers WiFi access in public locations. Many commerces collaborate and share their own bandwidth with ProvinciaWifi to attract and retain customers. In this case, the commerces acquire an access point with ProvinciWifi’s open firmware called OpenWisp, and ProvinciaWifi takes care of the user authentication according Italian law." (https://github.com/jbarcelo/open_networks_paper/blob/master/bub.pdf?raw=true)

Business Model

Example:

"FON is an example of a business model built on collaboration. Collaborating members of FON install a FON access point to their Internet connection and share that connection with other users. This becomes a FON hotspot. The members can connect to any of the millions of FON hotspots worldwide for free. Non-members can also connect, but they have to pay. FON has partnered with large Telecom operators, such as BT and Deutsche Telekom, that have recognized the benefits of network sharing." (https://github.com/jbarcelo/open_networks_paper/blob/master/bub.pdf?raw=true)

Paper

* Article: Bottom-up Broadband: the Open Source Spirit in Networking Initiatives.

URL = https://github.com/jbarcelo/open_networks_paper/blob/master/bub.pdf?raw=true

Abstract: "This paper discusses open networks. The open software and open hardware movements are relatively well established and known. Contrastingly, there is little discussion on open network initiatives. Software, hardware and networks are closely knitted together and therefore it makes sense to explore open networks by establishing parallelisms with open software.

The first part of this paper presents a classification of open networks, according to the degree of openness. Then we study the driving principles behind open networks to see that these principles are not that different from those found in open software development. The community-centered approach that has allowed the growth and the success of open software may as well represent the key strength of open networks. We point out the advantages of the peer-to-peer production model found in communities. Finally, we introduce the Bottom-up Broadband project that has the goal to study and promote open networks."

More Information

• Shared Internet Access
• Open Access Networks
• Free Libre Networks