The Wireless City

bigfatlamer writes "This week's NY Times City Section has an article (FRRYYY) on wireless access in New York City's busiest park, Bryant Park. The director of the park has installed a free 802.11b network with complete coverage of the park with help from NYC Wireless. From the article: 'With some clever engineering and hardware from Cisco Systems and Intel, the wireless park was born. Just as park users could sit wherever they liked, so too could they gain access where they liked. The eight-megabytes-per-second connection was as free as the sunshine and the green grass.' NYC Wireless is currently working with the Parks Dept. to put similar networks in Madison Square and Tompkins Square Parks. If they could do Prospect Park (3 blocks from my house) life would be perfect." NYCwireless helps those who help themselves...

Comments

Unacountable bits?

[LostCluster]

I'd love to see a wide-open WiFi access system installed at my local park, but I'm concerned that the network might be abused for use in spamming, DOSing, or other hacking. What logical restrictions should be put on a public WiFi center so that the majority of good people can enjoy the system while the small number of people who would do the Internet harm are foiled?

Sustainability?

[Mannerism]

NYCwireless looks like a great initiative, but I have to wonder how sustainable not-for-profit wireless networks like this are. Even if sponsorship covers the initial infrastructure (and I can see a "give 'em the network, sell 'em the network adapters" strategy perhaps working for Lucent, Cisco, et. al.), there must be a substantial ongoing operational cost. Does anyone know whether NYCwireless or any similar operations have announced their long-term strategies?

Re:Sustainability?

[NickV]

In most areas of the US, I would say you have a valid point, but it's pretty easy to make a non-profit sustainable wireless zone over Manhattan because of the sheer density of the island.

The key is having enough wireless routers out there to provide a signal for a bunch of radii of coverage so that there are no "dead zones." In a place like LA, you'd need 100s and 100s of routers spread over relatively sparse sprawl. The nice thing about Manhattan is you can have one or two people put up a router and that router will theoretically cover hundreds to thousands of people.

This is exactly why (if you look at the map found at the wireless map) you'll see that Manhattan is ridiculously well covered, but the other boroughs (which are sparser) are not.

Will this work in all of America? Keep in mind that after Manhattan -- The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens are the three densest counties in America (with SF as #5.) And it's not really working in any borough outside of Manhattan...

Eight Megabyte

[Rosonowski]

The eight-megabytes-per-second connection was as free...

Ok, am I the only one who caught this? I'm hoping (not really) that it's a terminology error, because a 64mbps connection sounds real, real nice, especially when it's free.

The project as a whole, though, sounds very cool. I think I would like to try that out when I go this summer.