Wi-Fi Community Area Networks Enable a Connected Community

The authors propose a Community Area Network (CAN), which is an all-wireless network connecting a community or a metropolitan area. This is a multi-hop network consisting of many Wi-Fi supernodes, each of them serving a number of resident homes and/or mobile users. Users in the covered area are able to communicate with each other through the Wi-Fi network while connecting to the Internet. This provides an independent community network that connects every household to local government and organizations.