All technologies
Mesh Networks
Community-scale WiFi meshes that provide local IP networking without an ISP, using open-source firmware on commodity hardware.
Community WiFi Mesh
Neighborhood-scale IP network. Open-source firmware.
range100m–5km/node
bandwidth10–300 Mbps
cost$30–200/node
licenseNone
power5–15W/node (PoE)
OpenWRT + batman-adv or similar on commodity hardware (TP-Link CPE, Ubiquiti NanoStation, GL.iNet). Self-healing routing — if a node fails, traffic reroutes. Used by NYC Mesh, Freifunk, and Guifi.net at city scale.
Best for: Post-disaster local infrastructure; community internet sharing; neighbourhood-scale connectivity
Limits: Power required at each node; 2.4/5 GHz doesn't penetrate buildings well; technical expertise needed