A neighborhood Internet service provider (NISP) is a small scale
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
targeted at a single subdivision or neighborhood. They are built in a
neighborhood to provide Internet access to residents in the community, often using rooftop antennas in a hub-and-spoke arrangement to bridge the last few hundred feet to the residences (or possibly businesses).
Such a network requires a local network engineer (often a volunteer) to maintain network integrity and monitor the
quality of service
Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitat ...
.
There are firms that will install and maintain such a network, but there are other options. For instance, loosely knit communities across the world connect access points (which are owned by private citizens or local institutions) into
wireless mesh network
A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. It can also be a form of wireless ad hoc network. Chai Keong Toh Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks, Prentice Hall Publishers, 2002.
...
s, to set up
wireless community network
Wireless community networks (WCNs) or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, NGO's and cooperatives in order to provi ...
s targeted at the public.
Advantages
With the right number of subscribers a NISP can easily cost less than the traditional
DSL
Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...
and
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
lines.
NISP offers greater speed in connectivity for larger groups of people compared to a
Wi-Fi hotspot
A hotspot is a physical location where people can obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local-area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an Internet service provider.
Public hotspots may be created b ...
but at a cheaper price than
wireless community network
Wireless community networks (WCNs) or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, NGO's and cooperatives in order to provi ...
. NISP can use software such as P2P (
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
) in order to function efficiently with high performance neighbors. This can lead to the greatest amount of bandwidth being used by all. At the same time traffic can be kept within the network.
Disadvantages
There are some legal disadvantages to having an NISP. For example, if the Internet connection being provided is secured by only one username and password, this makes the connection less secure since more than a few people have access. Another disadvantage is if a person has a stronger wi-fi transmitter they can use a particular frequency even if it causes the other neighbors connection to weaken.
Alternate options
In smaller areas it can be beneficial to use Wi-Fi Hot Spots since it can provide more security, fewer legal repercussions, and cheaper and faster connectivity.
For bigger groups it can be beneficial to use a
wireless Internet service provider
A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open ...
instead.
See also
*
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
*
Wireless Internet service provider
A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open ...
References
{{reflist
External links
True Internet
Internet service providers