The Libre Router Project Will Allow Communities to Build Their Own Mesh Networks

It doesn’t surprise anyone that there are communities across the globe that don’t have access to the Internet or have localized access that doesn’t serve or can’t reach those that live in rural areas outside that access point. As a contrast — there are radio waves from a dozen or more different Wi-Fi routers in my apartment building alone, not to mention those from nearby cell towers that litter the city I live in, something all of us that reside in modern cities take for granted.

To help bring mesh networks to those in rural and disadvantaged areas around the globe, hackers from several different countries have formed a community initiative that is developing an open source hardware and software solution to help those in need. The Libre Router Project builds on existing satellite or a wired internet connection within a community and uses RF routers to expand the connection into areas where it’s needed, thus creating a mesh network anyone can use despite their location.

Those mesh networks will feature the Project’s LibreRouter (currently in Prototype 2 form), which is designed to be easily repaired using widely available hardware and is based on the AR9558 SoC and Atheros AR8327 Gigabit Switch. It also packs an on-chip 2.4Ghz 802.11bgn MIMO 3×3 Atheros radio, a pair of mPCIe slots to connect Wi-Fi radios or GSM cards, and a PIC10F200 hardware watchdog to handle failed flashes or hardware failures.

Supporting the LibreRouter is the project’s LibreMesh, which employs the OpenWRT software stack, and uses a two-layered architecture that features Freifunk’s B.A.T.M.A.N Advanced (Better Approach To Adhoc Networking), and BMX6 routing protocols.

The Libre Router Project is currently field testing their platform in Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and Canada, and there is enough interest to deploy the mesh network in Thailand, Singapore, and India in the near future.