Municipal wireless network
A municipal wireless network is a citywide wireless network. This usually works by providing municipal broadband via Wi-Fi to large parts or all of a municipal area by deploying a wireless mesh network. The typical deployment design uses hundreds of wireless access points deployed outdoors, often on poles. The operator of the network acts as a wireless internet service provider.
LinkNYC was announced by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014 and will eventually replace the city's network of payphones.
A municipal Wi-Fi antenna in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Wireless security cameras on a lamp post deployed by New York City Police Department. They are connected to the municipal NYC Wireless Network (NYCWiN).
A volunteer installing a "supernode" of guifi.net. In July 2018 guifi.net had over 35,000 active nodes and about 63,000 km of wireless links.
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic region of the size of a metropolitan area. The term MAN is applied to the interconnection of local area networks (LANs) in a city into a single larger network which may then also offer efficient connection to a wide area network. The term is also used to describe the interconnection of several LANs in a metropolitan area through the use of point-to-point connections between them.
Looking west over northern San Jose and other parts of Silicon Valley technology hub. Between 2002 and 2003 the Sprint Corporation built five Metro Ethernet rings to connect the metropolitan areas.
Stealth Fiber Crew installing a 432-count dark fibre cable underneath the streets of New York City.
An optical fiber photonic switch at the AMS-IX
