Broadband-Hamnet™ – (formerly called HSMM-Mesh™) is a high speed, self-discovering, self-configuring, fault tolerant, wireless computer network that uses wireless routers commonly found on home computer networks. Each router is reprogrammed with new software and is then called a node. The nodes communicate with each other on a frequency of 2.4 GHz. Each node can communicate with all other nodes within range. This scheme of communicating between each other rather than through a single, central control point is why this network is called a mesh. Computers, network storage, phones and other devices are connected to a node through an Ethernet port.
Computer Network – a highway that data travels over between computer devices.
Router – a computer device that directs (or routes) data from one connection to another. The wireless routers were originally programmed to move data between an Internet connection (WAN port) and your computer, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, or other devices attached to a wired or wireless connection (LAN port).
Node – a router that has been reprogrammed so that the wireless radio connects to other nodes outside of your home. The node located at your home (local node) routes traffic between the computer devices inside your home and those other nodes (remote nodes).
OpenWRT – a computer operating system based on Linux that is primarily used on embedded devices to route computer network traffic.
Embedded Device – a specialized computer device programmed for a specific purpose.
Operating System – a program loaded onto a computer device that coordinates the operation of all hardware and software functions residing on that device.
Linux – a specific brand of operating system. Microsoft Windows and Apple OS-X are other familiar brands of operating system.
OLSR – “Optimized Link State Routing” protocol. Specialized software used to automatically discover and link the nodes with each other. OLSR runs “under” OpenWRT.
Fault Tolerant – the property of a system that allows it to keep functioning after the failure of some of its components. If a node fails the other nodes will re-route data through any other available node.
SSID – a name that identifies the network similar to your amateur radio call sign.
Tunneling – a special means of routing data where a node is programmed to communicate with another part of the network over the Internet rather than over a radio connection.