What are base stations and how can I make one myself?

A base station is the brain behind a wireless network. It is responsible for creation and management of data transmission lines,authentication, routing,computing.

Although it looks much different, a base station is simply a desktop computer packaged in a way that it can be placed outdoors.

So that if you can build a gaming pc that can play Metal Gear Solid V on max settings you can build a very powerful base station.

Now of course there are some differences. For one instead of a graphics card you would go with a network card. Instead of an ssd you might want to get the latest wifi card.

You may ask, is this how the base station for 5G and 4G is created?

Yes but they use different wireless chips and the software to control these chips are proprietary.. for now. But inside the components are the same. A motherboard, RAM, processor, peripheral components.

Luckily there are alternatives. WiFi that can work on both 2.4 and 5 GHZ bands is quite open.

Coupled with the advantage that you don't have to pay anything to use wifi spectrum, a wifi base station becomes a very promising investment.

In fact there is a full open source operating system that allows you to customize your wifi network to your heart's content -- openwrt

Link aggregation,quality of service, dual band networks, VPN,DHCP, ssh, custom web services. Anything that you can do with linux you can do with openwrt.

Openwrt is linux, complete with its own package management. So that you won't have to use an outdated firmware on your router ever again.

With openwrt you can turn a base station into a full blown application server.

Besides it has an appealing web interface that you can use to configure your networks without getting into the terminal at all.

With advancement in single board computers you can even create an embedded router that can distribute your network to 10s of Kilometers.

Gigabit speeds without having to deal with installation of fiber optic networks is a big win. It slashes your infrastructural investment by 1/10,maybe more. Giving you faster returns.

If you are a small ISP or WISP looking for cheap ways to reach more customers, build your own wireless base station,install openwrt and you're ready to go.

Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Mobile:+919654119771

email:getellobed@gmail.com

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Notes by Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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