Brooklyn built a disaster-proof mesh Wi-Fi network just in time for Hurricane Sandy. What happened

Metadata

• Author: Justine Calma
• Full Title: Brooklyn built a disaster-proof mesh Wi-Fi network just in time for Hurricane Sandy. What happened?
• Category: articles
• Document Tags: #tech
• URL: https://www.theverge.com/c/features/23700677/wifi-mesh-network-disaster-hurricane-sandy-brooklyn

Highlights

• As New Yorkers coped with the aftermath of Sandy in 2012, Red Hook’s mesh network quickly attracted funding and media attention. It became a go-to example of how communities could buck big utilities and build their own disaster-proof infrastructure (View Highlight)
• Wireless mesh networks are a distributed, community-oriented approach to getting internet service. A traditional Wi-Fi network is top-down: an internet service provider lets each customer hook a router to its network, and individual devices connect to that router. A mesh network, by contrast, is a connection of nodes. A service provider offers a connection to the wider internet, but each home or business installs a router and shares the connection. Together, they create a system that’s not dependent on a single point of failure. If a conventional router loses access to power or an ISP connection, the network it supports goes down. But in a mesh network, another router can pick up the slack. (View Highlight)