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Comment by mapmap | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious about the technology they are using. Is it an actual mesh network or point-to-point wireless?

We are a hybrid of mesh, p2p and point to multi-point (sector antennas). Whatever is most appropriate to give the best connection for reasonable price.

Considering the 5100 to 5850 MHz band noise floor in metro NYC, it's a minor miracle that outdoor, roof mounted, PtMP 802.11ac based systems work at all. (Or Cambium PMP450i in the same bands, etc).

Yes the noise floor is bad, but we get about a 2 mile range which covers a huge amount of people in Manhattan. The Ubiquiti sector antennas use TDMA so it is not standard 802.11ac.

Screenshot of a UBNT p2mp at 2 miles in Manhattan please. The dashboard will show the distance. Please post.

https://nycmesh.net/panorama/1.7miles.png

That's a LiteBeam Gen1 installed in the east village on 5th St connected to 375 Pearl St downtown. The gen1 actually has a stronger signal than the gen2, so this is a bit better than our usual connection.

Seems to be an actual mesh network, based on the BMX6 mesh protocol [0].

[0] http://nycmeshnet.github.io/faq/

Here's a map of their network: https://nycmesh.net/map/ (uncheck everything except "Link" to see the network)

Down here in South Africa we have a similar network. We have had quite shite connections down here for so long that a mesh network was one of the few ways to get a good connection. Link for our map of Cape Town. https://wind.ctwug.za.net/index.php/nodes

"The network connects directly to the internet backbone, so we do not rely on an ISP."

That makes no sense. I doubt they're a tier-1 backbone themselves, they have to be purchasing transit from an ISP. It feels like lots of the docs are written by marketing-type folks. Also there's a weird diagram that insinuates NAT happens before bgp peering with the not-ISPs they buy internet from. Weird shit.

Looks like point to point in the video

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