New mesh WiFi network provides increased bandwidth

A new company called BeWifi is hoping to increase Internet connectivity by letting you steal your neighbors’ unused bandwidth. Based in Barcelona, the idea behind BeWifi is simple. If your neighbors are sleeping, or otherwise not using the Internet, they can voluntarily lend you their connection, giving you a temporary speed boost for whatever you are doing. The system works by having users install the custom BeWifi router, which is specifically made for connecting to other routers and sharing their connections. Then all the routers in the area talk to each other and cooperate in order to give everybody as much Internet speed as possible. There are a number of security and usability issues with the plan, but throughout the pilot program the idea seemed to work out. If successful, BeWifi and other mesh network providers might help increase connectivity and provide better Internet quality of service.
Most Internet connections are part of what network engineers call a star network. As its name implies, the computers are hooked up like a star: your service provider, e.g., Verizon, is at the center of the star, and all of its customers have a single line connected to it. Of course the reality is a lot more complicated, but this simplified description is sufficient for describing the problem. The issue with star networks is that it does not allow the network to operate at full speed. If Verizon itself has a 10 Gbps connection to the outside Internet, and each user has a 50 Mbps connection to Verizon, there would have to be over 200 people using the Internet at full blast in order to fully exploit the connection. This is almost never the case. BeWifi introduces the idea of a mesh network, where each router is connected to Verizon as well as to every other router in the area. Mesh networks are not a new idea – most of the Internet is a mesh network already, and they’re are what allow the Internet to work the way it does. By using a mesh network, your router is not restricted to its single connection to the service provider. The router now can make choices of where to connect through. This is known as “internal gateway routing”, and provides the possibility of increasing your Internet speed by using the unused bandwidth of others.
During the pilot period for BeWifi, the company observed good results and feedback. At the very least, users still get the Internet speed they are paying for from their service provider. But in many cases, users experienced significant speed ups. On average, users in northern Barcelona, where the pilot program took place, experienced a 100% boost in Internet speed. Users who could not previously run Skype or even YouTube found it possible to do so with BeWifi, let alone with such great speed. In one case, a user’s Internet connection went down completely, and they did not notice at all since his connection was seamlessly routed through another user’s connection. “His Internet connection came down and he was going through another Wi-Fi router from a nearby home and he didn’t even notice it was happening.” [1] Right now only northern Barcelona has taken part, but over 1,000 signed up during the first week.
Despite the benefits, BeWifi raises a number of security and usability concerns. Obviously, by having your Internet go through somebody else’s router, there is the possibility they can listen in on your connection. Telefonica, the company running the BeWifi project, asserts that they offer “organisation-grade security”. [2] Additionally, as any cybersecurity student would tell you, if you are worried about somebody eavesdropping on your Internet connection, you should already be using additional security tools such as HTTPS anyway. The other issue is the fact that a custom BeWifi router has to be installed in order to participate in the program. Developers tried implementing BeWifi without having to do this, but it was not feasible. Right now, participating in BeWifi involves having engineers come to your house and install the router, much like what Verizon and other service providers do when installing your Internet in the first place. In the future, BeWifi will be plug and play, so the user can install the router themselves.
Telefonica seeks to expand BeWifi to over 200 million households in fourteen different countries throughout South America. They are targeting countries with still-developing economies, where Internet connectivity is more sparse. Whether they will attempt implementation in countries like the United States or the United Kingdom has yet to be seen. The idea behind the technology is sound, and it will be interesting to see how it works out in countries that already have decent Internet connectivity.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/01/bewifi-lets-you-steal-your-neighbors-bandwidth-when-theyre-not-using-it/
[2] http://www.bewifi.es/