# Building a Community Mesh-Network ISP

## Why Mesh Fit the Neighborhood

Our community ISP started with a simple constraint: the incumbents could serve most homes, but not reliably, affordably, or with any local accountability. Instead of trenching fiber on day one, we built a wireless mesh using rooftops, small towers, and cooperative host sites. Each participating building became both a customer location and potential relay point, which let the network grow block by block instead of waiting for a large capital buildout.

## Network Design

The backbone uses 60 GHz point-to-point links where we have clean line of sight, with 5 GHz fallback paths for resilience during heavy rain or maintenance. Customer installs terminate into small outdoor CPEs, usually powered by PoE from an indoor router. We keep routing simple: OSPF inside the mesh, VLANs for subscriber isolation, and a few upstream BGP sessions at the fiber-fed gateway sites.

```ini
/interface vlan
add name=subscribers vlan-id=120 interface=bridge-mesh

/routing ospf interface-template
add networks=10.42.0.0/16 area=backbone
```

## Operations in Practice

The hardest part has not been radio alignment; it has been documentation and repeatability. Every roof mount has photos, GPS coordinates, azimuth, elevation, cable path notes, and emergency contact details. We also monitor signal strength, modulation rate, packet loss, and UPS runtime, because a “slow internet” complaint is often really a wet connector, a shifted antenna, or a power strip someone unplugged.

## Governance and Support

The ISP is run as a member cooperative. Monthly fees pay for upstream transit, replacement hardware, insurance, and a small stipend for trained volunteers who handle installs and outages. Support is intentionally local: members can see maintenance windows, vote on expansion priorities, and understand why one relay site matters to service several streets away.

## Lessons Learned

A mesh-network ISP is not a shortcut around engineering discipline. It works when the community treats rooftops as shared infrastructure, designs for failure, and budgets for boring things like spare radios, weatherproofing, and monitoring. The payoff is a network that is legible to the people who depend on it, and flexible enough to improve as the neighborhood invests in it.