Wirelesspt is a non-commercial open

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

initiative to support free

computer networks A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or ...

that is not dependent of central infrastructure, corporation or entity which is done by the ordinary citizen provide free, open and democratic access to the highways of information technologies helping people and organizations implementing wireless networks that will benefit their communities. The project also invests in investigating free, open source, digital, information and telecommunication technologies as well as to promote, educate and supply technological information to teach and educate its surrounding social environment about the importance of online privacy and security. WirelessPT is also part of an international movement for

wireless community network Wireless community networks or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives ...

s in Europe. The Project counts with local communities and was started in the community of Moitas Venda in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Goals

The main goal of WirelessPT is to build a large scale free wireless

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

network that is

decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

and owned by those who run it and to support local communication. The project is governed by its own agreement which was inspired in the ''Pico peering Agreement'' where participants agree upon a network that is free from discrimination and upholds

net neutrality Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...

. Among other communities like

guifi.net Guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly wireless community network, with over 37,000 active nodes and about 71,000 km of wireless links (as of December 2021). The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia and the Valencian Commun ...

and

freifunk Freifunk (German for: "free radio") is a non-commercial open grassroots initiative to support free computer networks in the German region. Freifunk is part of the international movement for a wireless community network. The initiative counts about ...

, WirelessPT has and shares similarities. Among several goals the project includes: * Development of mesh networks for communities built by the ordinary citizen * Foster free access to communication technologies * Establish wireless connectivity with other communities and regions * Sharing and developing technological communication resources with and for their communities * Promote, educate and provide technical information on wireless networks to communities environment about the importance of online privacy, security and democracy.

Technology

Like many other free community-driven networks, Wirelesspt uses

mesh Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. It serves as a thesaurus of index terms that facilitates searching. Created and updated by th ...

technology to bring up

ad hoc network An ad hoc network refers to technologies that allow network communications on an ad hoc basis. Associated technologies include: *Wireless ad hoc network *Mobile ad hoc network *Vehicular ad hoc network A Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a prop ...

s by interconnecting multiple Wireless LANs using

mobile ad hoc network A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as router (computing), routers or wireless acces ...

technology and a special routing

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

. If one of these routers fail, this special software automatically calculates a new path to the final destination. This software is called mvwrt

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

. It is based on

OpenWrt OpenWrt (from ''open wireless router'') is an open-source project for embedded operating systems based on Linux kernel, Linux, primarily used on Embedded system, embedded devices to Router (computing), route network traffic. The main components ...

and other

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

such as

LEDE OpenWrt (from ''open wireless router'') is an open-source project for embedded operating systems based on Linux, primarily used on embedded devices to route network traffic. The main components are Linux, util-linux, musl, and BusyBox. All com ...

and was specifically designed for the needs and challenges of the project. There are many different developed versions of the firmware depending on the hardware and protocols that local communities decide to use. Having previously tested olsr, WirelessPT decided to work with

Ad Hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...

and the

B.A.T.M.A.N. The Better Approach to Mobile Ad-hoc Networking (B.A.T.M.A.N.) is a routing protocol for Multi-hop routing, multi-hop mobile ad hoc networks which is under development by the German "Freifunk" community and intended to replace the Optimized Link ...

routing protocol A routing protocol specifies how routers communicate with each other to distribute information that enables them to select paths between nodes on a computer network. Routers perform the traffic directing functions on the Internet; data packet ...

as the firmware base

History

Founded in January 2011 in

after 2 years of planning the project was first started by its founder with a setup of 9 nodes and 5 gateways in 3 weeks to cover an area of 6 square kilometres using

ddwrt DD-WRT is Linux-based firmware for wireless routers and access points. Originally designed for the Linksys WRT54G series, it now runs on a wide variety of models. DD-WRT is one of a handful of third-party firmware projects designed to replace ...

firmware. In 2013 the project developed its own firmware and expanded their nodes count as well as coverage until today and became a registered national trademark in 2016 after participating in the Battlemesh v9 event. The project is currently active and stable also because it very easy to install the wireless kit specifically created for non-tech-savvy users and with the use of the self-managed and auto configured firmware on off-the-shelf wireless routers a node is fully functional without human interaction soon as the firmware is uploaded to a node. During its development of the project, it also created one of the best sources of dyi wireless documentation that can be found online offering solutions for small to large projects.

External links

Official website
also available on the Tor hidden service network]
Video clip on youtube that explains the project

Firmware Information
(Translation bar provided on the wiki)
Portuguese mesh network

Wireless presentation
at

University of Minho The University of Minho (''Universidade do Minho'') is a public university in Minho Province, Portugal. It is divided into the following campuses: * Largo do Paço (rectorate), in Braga * Campus of Gualtar, in Braga * Convento dos Congregados, i ...

Presentation Wireless Battle Mesh v9 2016
at

INESC TEC The Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) is a research & development institute located on the campus of the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Faculty of Engineering of the University o ...

Supporter on making regulation work community networks

Pico Peering Agreement

Wireless Networking in the developing world. A practical guide to planning and building low-cost telecommunications infrastructure, 3rd edition, Feb. 2013
{{Routing protocols Custom firmware Wireless Wireless networking Community networks