From an RF point of view Open standards means nailing the network down with access control, WEP and trade off throughput and range. A proprietary over
Difference being Open Ethernet Pipe vs. using an Open standard over the air. Trade off being real throughput & range vs keeping it stable and secure for the authorized users usually stakeholders like schools, trusts etc who just want to know it works when they need it to work. the air Access (Delivery Layer) connection takes some of the stress out of the equation and then you deploy what you need to the Customer premises aka residential/ business etc Lumping it all into Local Loop Access and CPE connections does mean a lot more rf and Ethernet engineering to keep it stable. Aka Microtilk vs a Trango model and both work really well as do others. Horses for courses and the corner stone of a community business model are the funds, skills and resources available to the local person to a) get it started and b) to keep it going. In this there are so many levels of operator skills out there that no one size fits all. Scary thing is Kiwis usually find a way to make it work using what ever we can afford or have readily available to us. Hence hybrid networking in the first instance which then evolves into a comfortable level of technology for the operator and their local client needs. Then the operator gets a life or goes did not have one anyway... That or win the lottery and build it. Most community funded networks are run by their Local IT evangelist or radio ham who has been around for a while and will always value their local customers anyway. Hence win-win for the community anyway. It's more about the business model suiting the community than the technology being used to service it. This cuts through the radio Brand, freq of operation etc real quick if the business model cannot grow and no-one can reliably use it. Too simple means it's a free for all, to complex means it needs more rocket scientists to keep it going. As an example we are working on a network that has 17 communities of 30 to 300 people with maybe 5 PC's max per community. Do they care if the network is delivered as WiFi, WiMAX, Ethernet or powerline carrier? Maybe 2 of the five do and the rest don't care at this stage. Yet the network is not viable just servicing 34 Users. Although the only way to start it is to deliver using WiFi. Once the network is there and becomes of value to the community more will get on board. Usually the youth wanting further education, games or just to see more of the world via the Internet. (Both Good and bad). Regards Ian Hastie LINKIT Ph +64 (0)21 75-5465 Fx +64 (0)4 905-5465 Skype: ian_hastie_mob PO Box 1661 Paraparaumu NEW ZEALAND www.linkit.co.nz Flexible Access Networks Disclaimer: The information in this email (including attachments) is confidential and may be legally privileged. If an addressing or transmission error has misdirected this email, please notify the author by replying to this email and destroy the message. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure, copying or distribution is prohibited and may be unlawful