Melbourne Wireless
Encyclopedia
Wireless community network
Wireless community networks or wireless community projects are the organizations that attempt to take a grassroots approach to providing a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for consumers....
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and end recurrent telco fees. The project uses widely-available, license-free technology to create a free, locally-owned wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
backbone.
This metropolitan area network
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...
is detailed well on the organisation's website, which features dynamic mapping systems to show the current development of the network, and a wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
is used for collaboration on technical documents.
Melbourne Wireless made significant contributions on the regulation and future of wireless broadband technologies, as well as the legality of community wireless networks within Australia during 2002.
Backbone Network Upgrades
During 2010 and 2011 Melbourne Wireless have undertaken a backbone routing and equipment upgrade programme. This has involved identifying new and potential sites for the placement of dedicated backbone routing equipment. From an equipment perspective this primarily involves replacing radio equipment which operates on the now congested 2.4GHz frequency range with more advanced radio equipment which operates on the less cluttered 5.8GHz frequency band. A further advantage of using equipment in the 5.8GHz frequency band is data speeds or throughout. 5.8GHz equipment provides for much higher speeds.Much of this project is completed with work remaining to install additional node sites between Melbourne and the Geelong and Ballarat regions.
Bunbury Street Railcam Project
Melbourne Wireless resources and expertise has assisted in the design, development and installation of the Bunbury Street Railcam Project a platform to digitally record all train movements through the Bunbury Street Railway Tunnel which forms part of the South Kensington and West Footscray Railway Line. The project was completed and fully operational by June 2011. The project is connected to the Melbourne Wireless network by way of a radio communications link which is operating in the 5.8GHz frequency range.The radio link allows users connected to the Melbourne Wireless IP Network to watch the IP Cameras live. Internet users can access a video portal which provides an image which is refreshed every 60 seconds and pushed out to the user.
Four current Melbourne Wireless Committee Members and one regular member of the club were involved with project. Peter Buncle, Rob Britt, Mark Detering, Brian Evans and Tim Hogard. This project is the first of its type to use Melbourne Wireless as a means of gaining high-speed IP Network access to a media recording and archive site on the network.
Given the success of the project, planning has commenced to use further railcam projects undertaken by the Railpage and Melbourne Wireless teams as a catalyst to further expand the Melbourne Wireless network. Melbourne Wireless is jointly exploring the possibility to connecting further sites in the Geelong region to accomdate railcams west of Geelong.
Future Projects
These projects including extending the network into the Western Region between Melbourne and MeltonMelton, Victoria
Melton is an outer-suburban city of Melbourne Victoria, Australia located 35 km east from Melbourne's central business district. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Melton Local Government Area. At the 2006 Census, the Shire of Melton had a population of 35,490...
, extending the network north over the ranges into the Seymour area and adding capacity and reach to the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas.