GCN Update October 2009

On October 3, 2009 Nathan Borson and Phoebe Vanselow of Corvid Computing, with help from GCN customers, replaced proprietary "Turbocell" radios up to six years old with breakthrough Open-Mesh wireless routers. The old Turbocell base station had become unreliable and was obsolete. The new mesh radios offer greater coverage, performance, and manageability at a lower cost. The new mesh network is a preview and essential building block of the forthcoming community-wide broadband network.

• Open-Mesh radios allow traffic to hop from router to router, so it isn't necessary for every radio to reach the base station directly. The network can be grown from the edge instead of the center because all that's necessary is to be able to see anyone who is already connected to the network. This mesh will allow us to cover a larger area at a lower cost than we could with the old point-to-multipoint technology.
• Any 802.11b/g or wi-fi wireless device can connect directly to any of the Open-Mesh routers, making installation easier and cheaper and reducing or eliminating the need for additional wireless access points.
• Dead spots and non-wireless devices like desktop computers can be covered and connected with very inexpensive indoor wireless routers.
• Open-Mesh routers are managed and monitored from a web-based dashboard. Individual radios automatically configure themselves and compute the best path through the mesh to the Internet making the network easy to install, self-configuring, and self-healing as routers are added and removed.
  

Additional areas of the Salmon River meadow are now covered by GCN's wireless signal. If you can see any of the nodes shown on the dashboard map  (click on satellite view) you may now be able to pick up the GCN wireless network with a laptop computer or other wireless device.

Expansion into new areas such as the west bank of the Salmon River and the DeBoer subdivision is now possible with relatively low investment. GCN is saving its last reserves to start construction of the communications tower needed by the community-wide broadband network so does not have funds to purchase and install new open-mesh radios at this time. GCN is seeking grant funding to build a community-wide broadband network. If awarded, the funding will completely cover the cost of expanding the network to the entire community, except Bartlett Cove. The latest rumor is that we could know as soon as November 7 or as late as sometime in December whether funding will be awarded.

Those unwilling to wait for public funding may be able to pay to obtain high-speed wireless service sooner. Five customers west of City Hall have already paid up to $1,000 each to connect to City Hall using 900 MHz radios from Tranzeo. Those within range could probably connect to the Open-Mesh network for considerably less; the radios cost less than $100 and a simple installation can be done for less than $400. Most of Gustavus is not in range so must continue to wait patiently for a community-wide broadband solution or install their own satellite dish.

For more information, contact GCN administrator Corvid Computing: help@gustavus.ak.us or 907-697-2810.