WISP
Encyclopedia
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s with networks built around wireless network
Wireless network
Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment...
ing. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz
ISM band
The industrial, scientific and medical radio bands are radio bands reserved internationally for the use of radio frequency energy for industrial, scientific and medical purposes other than communications....
, 4.9, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8 GHz bands or licensed frequencies in the UHF band (including the MMDS frequency band).
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) released Report and Order, FCC 05-56 in 2005 that revised the FCC’s rules to open the 3650 MHz band for terrestrial wireless broadband operations. On November 14, 2007 the Commission released Public Notice (DA 07-4605) in which the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau announced the start date for licensing and registration process for the 3650-3700 MHz band.
History
Initially, WISPs were only found in ruralRural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas not covered by cable
Cable
A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
or DSL. The first WISP in the world was LARIAT, a non-profit rural telecommunications cooperative founded in 1992 by Brett Glass in Laramie, Wyoming. LARIAT originally used WaveLAN
WaveLAN
WaveLAN is a brand that describes two completely different families of wireless network solutions:* Pre-IEEE 802.11 WaveLAN, also called Classic WaveLAN* IEEE 802.11-compliant WaveLAN, also known as WaveLAN IEEE or ORiNOCO-History:...
equipment, manufactured by the NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
, which operated on the 900 MHz unlicensed radio band. LARIAT was taken private in 2003 and continues to exist as a for-profit wireless ISP.
Another early WISP was a company called Internet Office Parks in Johannesburg, South Africa that was founded by Roy Pater, Brett Airey and Attila Barath in January 1996 when they realized the South African Telco, Telkom could not keep up with the demand for dedicated Internet links for business use. Using what was one of the first wireless LAN products available for wireless barcode scanning in stores, called Aironet
Aironet Wireless Communications
Aironet is a maker of wireless networking equipment currently operated as a division of Cisco Systems. It was started by ex-Marconi Wireless employees in 1986 as Telesystems SLW in Canada, right after the United States Federal Communications Commission opened up the ISM bands for spread spectrum...
(now owned by Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
), they worked out if they ran a dedicated Telco link into the highest building in a business area or CBD they could wirelessly "cable" up all the other buildings back to this main point and would only require one link from the Telco to connect up hundreds of businesses at the same time. In turn each "satellite" building was wired up with Ethernet so each business connected into the Ethernet LAN and could instantly get Internet access. Due to the immaturity of wireless technology, security issues and being forced constantly by Telkom SA (The government Telco in South Africa) to cease its service, the company closed its doors in Jan 1999.
There were 879 Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
based WISPs in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
as of May 2008, making it the country with most Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
access points in the whole EU. The providing of wireless Internet has a big potential of lowering the "digital gap" or "Internet gap" in the developing countries. Geekcorps
Geekcorps
Geekcorps is a non-profit organization that sends people with technical skills to developing countries to assist in computer infrastructure development...
actively help in Africa with among others wireless network building. An example of a typical WISP system is such as the one deployed by Gaiacom Wireless Networks which is based on WiFi standards. The One Laptop per Child project strongly relies on good Internet connectivity, which can most likely be provided in rural areas only with satellite or wireless network Internet access.
Overview
WISPs often offer additional services like location based content, Virtual Private NetworkVirtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
ing and Voice over IP
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
. Isolated municipal ISPs and larger state-wide initiatives alike are tightly focused on wireless networking.
WISPs are predominantly in rural environments where cable and digital subscriber line
Digital Subscriber Line
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ,...
s are not available. WiMax
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
is expected to become mainstream in the near future, bringing with it dramatic changes to the marketplace by increasing the number of interoperable equipment on the market and making mobile data transmission feasible, increasing the utility of such networks in rural environments. However, high-bandwidth wireless backhauls
Backhaul (telecommunications)
In a hierarchical telecommunications network the backhaul portion of the network comprises the intermediate links between the core network, or backbone, of the network and the small subnetworks at the "edge" of the entire hierarchical network...
are already common in major cities, providing levels of bandwidth previously only available through expensive fiber optic connections.
Typically, the way that a WISP operates is to pull a large and usually expensive point to point connection to the center of the area they wish to service. From here, they will need to find some sort of elevated point in the region, such as a radio or water tower, on which to mount their equipment. The WISP may also connect to a PoP (Point of Presence
Point of presence
A point of presence is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities. It may include a meet-me-room.In the US, this term became important during the court-ordered breakup of the Bell Telephone system...
) and then backhaul to their towers, reducing the need to pull a point to point connection to the tower. On the consumers side, they will mount a small dish or antenna to the roof of their home and point it back to the WISP's nearest antenna site. When operating over the tightly limited range of the heavily populated 2.4 GHz band, as nearly all 802.11-based WiFi providers do, it is not uncommon to also see access points mounted on light posts and customer buildings.
Since it is difficult for a single service provider to build an infrastructure that offers global access to its subscribers, roaming between service providers is encouraged by the Wi-Fi Alliance
Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a trade association that promotes Wireless LAN technology and certifies products if they conform to certain standards of interoperability. Not every IEEE 802.11-compliant device is submitted for certification to the Wi-Fi Alliance, sometimes because of costs associated with...
with the protocol WISPr
WISPr
WISPr or Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming - Pronounced "whisper," WISPr is a draft protocol submitted to the Wi-Fi Alliance that allows users to roam between wireless internet service providers, in a fashion similar to that used to allow cellphone users to roam between carriers...
is a set of recommendations approved by the alliance which facilitate inter-network and inter-operator roaming of Wi-Fi users. Modern wireless services have comparable latency
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
to other terrestrial broadband networks
Technology problems
- Line-of-sightLine-of-sight propagationLine-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line...
and non-line-of-sight propagationNon-line-of-sight propagationNon-line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight is a term used to describe radio transmission across a path that is partially obstructed, usually by a physical object in the innermost Fresnel zone....
See also
- Wireless local loopWireless local loopWireless local loop , is a term for the use of a wireless communications link as the "last mile / first mile" connection for delivering plain old telephone service and/or broadband Internet to telecommunications customers....
- ConnectKentuckyConnectKentuckyConnectKentucky is a partnership of private firms and the Commonwealth of Kentucky that aims to make broadband Internet access available throughout the state...
- GeekcorpsGeekcorpsGeekcorps is a non-profit organization that sends people with technical skills to developing countries to assist in computer infrastructure development...
- Neighbourhood Internet Service Provider (NISP)Neighbourhood Internet Service ProviderA neighborhood internet service provider is a small scale broadband internet service provider targeted at a single subdivision or neighborhood...
- Satellite Internet accessSatellite Internet accessSatellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The service can be provided to users world-wide through low Earth orbit satellites. Geostationary satellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world...
- Motorola Canopy
- MikrotikMikrotikMikrotīkls Ltd., known internationally as MikroTik, is a Latvian manufacturer of computer networking equipment. It sells wireless products and routers. The company was founded in 1995, with the intent to sell in the emerging wireless technology market. As of 2007, the company had more than 70...
External links
- WISPA - a trade association for WISP owner/operators
- Wireless ISP FAQ
Media
- Daily Wireless – Wireless ISP news
- Want Wireless Broadband Today? Try a WISP