Benefits of a Wireless Neighborhood ISP or NISP

The goal of building a wireless Neighborhood ISP or NISP is to build a hybrid wireless network that utilizes the roaming and near line of sight features of a Wi-Fi Hotspot, plus using the higher gain antennas used by WISPs to reach customers that are located far away from the NISP access points.

Most often, a NISP is started by a small group of neighbors will band together to purchase a T1 circuit, then build a broadband wireless network to deliver the bandwidth to each member of the NISP. If the group is interested in making money, sometimes they will sell the remaining bandwidth to neighbors outside the original group of investors for a profit.

Before we explain what a NISP is and how to set one up, it might be best to review a NISP diagram and review some NISP system definitions.

NISP Equipment Diagram

In this diagram, you'll see a T1 circuit delivering 1.544 Mbps of bandwidth from the Telephone Company. The T1 circuit plugs into a router mounted on the inside of the home that provides routing capability for packets to be sent and received from the Internet.

From there, an Ethernet cable comes out of the backside of the T1 router (1st picture) and plugs into a billing gateway (2nd picture). The gateway (PowerNOC calls it a BMU) is what collects billing information and allows the operator to manage certain aspects of the customer's account such as monthly charges and allocated bandwidth allowed. Another Ethernet cable goes from the gateway to the Power over Ethernet (PoE) injector. Power over Ethernet is very nice. It can carry a signal down 300 ft. of category 5 wiring with little or no loss. It also carries electricity to the antenna so you won't need an outdoor power supply.

From the POE injector a third outdoor certified category 5 Ethernet cable carries the data traffic to the outdoor access point, which is enclosed in a weather proof (NEMA certified) box that contains the 802.11b wireless radio from Sputnik that turns packets into a radio frequencies. The radio frequencies are then sent down a very short piece of coaxial cable that connects to the Antenna that actually sends the signal out over the airwaves.

In the diagram, it contains a picture of an omni directional antenna. In real life we used a 180-degree sector antenna. We did this because we lived on the edge of a neighborhood with nothing but a big field on one side of the neighborhood, and all the customers on one side. Sector antennas are good because you can use multiple radios and multiple sector antennas to add more and more customers.

It is a very simple setup. In other articles you'll read in the trade press, this setup closely resembles what most people call an outdoor hotspot. Outdoor hotspots are commonly used in RV parks, truck stops, campgrounds, marinas, shopping malls, golf courses and a lot of other big open area environments.

We could also call this set up a wireless base station. Our application was very simple and didn't include a generator or battery backup power supplies.

This means if our electricity provider has a power outage, the network goes down. In the neighborhood where we were testing this service, all 20 customers were subscribed for free so we didn't worry about customer service, but you should definitely make sure you have a well thought out strategy and backup plans in case your power goes out or your antenna gets hit by lightning. You definitely need to make sure you have a lightning suppression system in place. One bolt can take out $3,000 worth of equipment in a flash.

Once you have this equipment installed your NISP base station or access point is active and ready for customers.

One step we skipped was the setup of the BMU. We used a web browser to log on the Internet and set up all of the passwords, user names, logos, and design of the BWE landing page via PowerNOC's web site and billing server. Click on this link PowerNOC Admin Demo to see what the set up process looks like. Click on the Blue Use the Secure Server Link and use the word: admin for the username and password.

Please note that Neighborhoods can choose from lots of vendors that sell equipment that work in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz slices of spectrum. Lots of people sell access points, but at the time we started putting our solution together, hardly any equipment vendors provided a billing system together with an access point.

Not only did PowerNOC provide the billing and network management portion, they provided the whole starter kit for only $3,000. We highly recommend it. It was easy to set up and their technical support was superb.

PowerNOC's hardware, software and network management platform is a scaled down version of Digis Network's wireless ISP service in Orem, UT. (a sister company), which is one of the largest Wireless ISPs in the United States. This allows small start up companies to start out with a well thought out NISP design that will allow you to start signing up customers as soon as the base station is installed.