[ rough outline of introductory statement. Copyright Scott Douglass. ]

WiFiCoop LLC - The Next Internet? The Next Telephone?

A global network of wireless Internet access points is both technically possible and desirable. The chief benefit of such a network is to lower the cost to consumers of Internet access by removing charges for fixed access lines. Further benefits include increasing the bandwidth available to consumers, and making access available from many more geographic locations.

While several well known corporations have recognized these benefits, and have made statements in the press that they are interested in building such a network, there are many entrenched and powerful interests that will demand to be compensated from, or just control, such a network. Further, the capital required to develop and deliver a wireless network on such a scale is quite large, and the market for such a service still very small. Thus there are economic disincentives that will prevent for-profit corporations from building such a network.

The mission of WiFiCoop LLC (WiFiCoop) is to build such a network from the bottom up. Not by one corporation or several, but by an unlimited number of individuals and businesses operating in concert with WiFiCoop providing overall coordination.

While it is possible that a bottom up approach as envisioned by WiFiCoop could be achieved without a central coordinating entity, a decentralized approach suffers from major problems:

1. Upstream Bandwidth - someone's got to pay.

Access point providers will naturally want to recover the cost of their upstream bandwidth (and perhaps attempt to make a profit too.) This will result in a plethora of authentication, authorization and billing schemes.

The cost of good (bidirectional 1.544Mbps or faster) upstream bandwidth is beyond the reach of the people and companies most likely to set up an open access point.

More affordable upstream connections (such as ADSL and cable modems) suffer from lack of bidirectional broadband connectivity, and usage restrictions that in many cases declare sharing of bandwidth to be illegal.

All of this means that the rate of spread of access points has been and will continue to be very slow as consumers will not be fully satisfied.

2. Coverage - ubiquity is the goal.

It is not economically sensible for an individual or company to set up an access point for an area with few consumers. Thus a decentralized approach will always lead to areas without coverage. However, the value to consumers of the network increases as the geographic area (and number of consumers) it covers increases. Thus to fully serve the interests of consumers, total coverage is most desirable.

WiFiCoop solves both the upstream bandwidth cost, and the coverage problems. By being the central agency for authentication, authorization and billing on the network, WiFiCoop can provide reimbursement of upstream bandwidth costs to all access point providers, and can thus subsidize access points in less populated areas with revenue from more populated areas. Thus the value of the network can be continuously increased as long as there is revenue available. Consumers benefit by having the broadest possible wireless coverage, and access point providers benefit by recovering the cost of upstream bandwidth.

In addition to providing systems for customer management, the WiFiCoop will provide detailed technical specifications for access point providers to enable them to get started quickly, and with minimum expense.

WiFiCoop will provide a governance mechanism that allows all access point providers to participate in the establishment of network wide technical and organizational procedures and policies.

[ rough sketch of articles of incorporation ]

Objective:

Create an international network composed of independent access point providers (APPs.) The network will be able to grow with community support and not be dependent on the capital markets or the interests of corporate behemoths. APPs can be individuals or companies, with no distinction made between the two for any purposes.

Organization:

WiFiCoop LLC will determine product pricing, specify membership requirements, manage collection of end user fees, specification of access point (AP) technology, network management, and dispersal of collected membership fees to APPs. After having met the technical and membership requirements, an APP will become a non-managing member of the LLC. Once per year, all APPs will vote to elevate nine (9) members to managing members of the LLC. The vote will be from among all APP members, those (9) receiving the most votes being considered elected. Managing members execute the functions of the LLC, and draft policies. Policies drafted by the managing members must be agreed to by seventy five percent (75%) of all members by direct vote before they become accepted. Voting shall be handled by software for which the source code is available freely from the WiFiCoop web site.

Revenue and Expenses:

Expenses of WiFiCoop must never exceed 1% of total revenue. 99% of revenue must be used to pay for upstream bandwidth. Any further expenses must come directly from the APPs. Thus is is expected that the members and managing members, will receive no compensation (other than bandwidth reimbursement) from WiFiCoop. All revenue, disbursements, and expenses must be shown in real time (as they occur) on the WiFiCoop website. Total transparency of operation is essential to the existence of WiFiCoop.

[ rough sketch of technology plan ]

Technology Blueprint

Access Point Provider Requirements

To be a member of WiFiCoop LLC, an APP must meet the following technical criteria:

1. 56Kbps or faster upstream Internet connection which can be legally shared.

2. access point hardware and software which provides NAT and DHCP server

3. battery backup for upstream equipment, and access point hardware.

4. omnidirectional antenna, or multiple directional antennas mounted in a highly visible location.

5. expertise with UNIX/Linux/GNU systems.

Network Architecture

WiFiCoop will provide a highly available master server located in a high quality commercial co-location facility with numerous Internet backbone connections. Customer authentication and authorization information will be stored in an LDAP server using OpenLDAP. Data on this master server will be replicated to slave servers elsewhere on the Internet, possibly hosted by the APPs. Customer billing data will be restricted to the master server and several special purpose slave servers, not located at any APPs. All LDAP communication will be done using Secure Sockets Layer (STARTTLS/SSL) protocols.

WiFiCoop will provide IPSec VLAN termination at various points throughout the Internet, enabling all APs to be on one ore more secure and encrypted VLANs. In this way, WiFiCoop will be creating a global, encrypted, network on top of the existing Internet. This will have wide ranging implications for future uses of the WiFiCoop network (e.g. IP telephony.)