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Guifi.net

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
guifi.net
Installation of a "supernode" of guifi.net's network in Tarragona
TypeData
LocationCatalonia and Valencian Community, Spain
Established2004; 20 years ago (2004)
Current statusActive
Commercial?No
Websiteguifi.net/en
ASN
Peering policyOpen

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).[1] The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, in Spain, but the network is growing in other parts of the world. The network is self-organized and operated by the users using unlicensed wireless links and open optical fiber links.

The nodes of the network are contributed by individuals, companies and administrations that freely connect to an open telecommunications network and extend the network wherever the infrastructure and content might not otherwise be accessible. Nodes join the network following the self-provision model since the whole structure is explicitly open to facilitate understanding how it is structured, so that everyone can create new sections as required. That results in a network infrastructure commons that provides abundant connectivity.[2]

Growth curve of nodes in the guifi.net network by year. March 15th, 2011

Guifi.net is supported by the Guifi.net Foundation, which has been registered as an operator with the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) since April 2009. In August 2009, the first deployment of optical fiber was started, known as the Fiber From The Farms (FFTF) Broadband Initiative,[3][4] covering about 2 km and linking dozens of farms and farmhouses in the town of Gurb.

Since early 2011, guifi.net has been connected to the Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point (CATNIX),[5][6] which exchanges data with other international telecommunications operators such as Cogent Communications and Hurricane Electric. This Internet connection is used by several associations that offer their members high-speed Internet access at low cost,[7] which other Internet service providers currently do not offer. The model is oriented to cost sharing, the compensation mechanism.[8]

The basic principle of operation is based on the Wireless Commons License.[9][10]

See also

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  • Mesh networking
  • Freifunk
  • NYC Mesh
  • internet (lowercase "i"), a collection of interconnected computers and/or networks (companies, neighborhoods, villages, communities) that are set up to communicate with each other

References

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  1. ^ "What is guifi.net?". Archived from the original on 2021-12-17.
  2. ^ Baig, Roger; Roca, Ramon; Freitag, Felix; Navarro, Leandro (2015-10-29). "guifi.net, a crowdsourced network infrastructure held in common" (PDF). Computer Networks. Crowdsourcing. 90: 150–165. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2015.07.009. hdl:2117/105435. S2CID 15440366.
  3. ^ "Comunicaciones Electrónicas - CNMC - Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia". Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  4. ^ "My big idea for the Digital Agenda". Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  5. ^ "RIS Tools and Web Interfaces". Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  6. ^ "guifi.net connects to CATNIX". Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  7. ^ guifi.net EXO[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Baig, Roger; Dalmau, Lluís; Roca, Ramon; Navarro, Leandro; Freitag, Felix; Sathiaseelan, Arjuna (2016-01-01). "Making Community Networks economically sustainable, the guifi.net experience" (PDF). Proceedings of the 2016 workshop on Global Access to the Internet for All. GAIA '16. New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 31–36. doi:10.1145/2940157.2940163. ISBN 9781450344234. S2CID 3863159.
  9. ^ http://guifi.net/en/WCL_EN - The Wireless Commons License
  10. ^ Oliver, M.; Zuidweg, J.; Batikas, M. (2010-06-01). "Wireless Commons against the digital divide". 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society. pp. 457–465. doi:10.1109/ISTAS.2010.5514608. ISBN 978-1-4244-7777-7. S2CID 30819206.
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