FabFi
Encyclopedia
FabFi is an open-source, city-scale, wireless mesh networking system. It is an inexpensive framework for sharing wireless internet from a central provider across a town or city. It was developed originally by FabLab Jalalabad
to provide high-speed internet to parts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and designed for high performance across multiple hops.
Community members who used the fab lab received training and experience with the system for a month, after which they were given control and maintenance of it. Many locations began to join the initial nodes, expanding the mesh over the coming months. The longest link in the system was set up early on, between the FabLab and the water tower at the public hospital in Jalalabad.
The materials needed to make an endpoint link are $60US, and are available locally. An endpoint node that provides 360-degree coverage of the area near it might use more hardware and cost closer to $150US.
Additional sites in Afghanistan are being considered.
This system is designed to get wifi directly to people's homes, and manages users and billing - a feature not yet rolled back into the global codebase or that used in Afghanistan.
Fab lab
A fab lab is a small-scale workshop offering digital fabrication.A fab lab is generally equipped with an array of flexible computer controlled tools that cover several different length scales and various materials, with the aim to make "almost anything"...
to provide high-speed internet to parts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and designed for high performance across multiple hops.
Background
In January 2009, the Jalalabad FabLab wanted to bring high-speed internet to a village, hospital, university, and an NGO in the city. It used this low-cost design, building on a system designed to track sheep in Norway. The system could be easily extended to other villages and towns, and was designed to work consistently through heavy rain, smog, and trees.Community members who used the fab lab received training and experience with the system for a month, after which they were given control and maintenance of it. Many locations began to join the initial nodes, expanding the mesh over the coming months. The longest link in the system was set up early on, between the FabLab and the water tower at the public hospital in Jalalabad.
Afghanistan
Jalalabad has 45 remote FabFi nodes, with the longest link spanning 6 km. The total data throughput is 11.5Mbps. The system is extensible by anyone without getting central permission, simply by adding a node and pointing it in the right direction.The materials needed to make an endpoint link are $60US, and are available locally. An endpoint node that provides 360-degree coverage of the area near it might use more hardware and cost closer to $150US.
Additional sites in Afghanistan are being considered.
Kenya
Kenya has 50 remote FabFi nodes deployed across three sites. The longest link among them is 3.5 km. The data throughput across roughly 2.5 km, with up to 6 hops, exceeds 30Mbps.This system is designed to get wifi directly to people's homes, and manages users and billing - a feature not yet rolled back into the global codebase or that used in Afghanistan.
Future sites and testbeds
As of mid-2011, FabFi systems are also being tested in the United States.External links
- A technical summary of how FabFi works
- FabFi code wiki
- How to build: a server | nodes | reflectors