computer science

Guifi.net

Guifi.net is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Guifi.net rather than just read about it. In short: Guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly wireless community network, with over 37,000 active nodes and about 71,000 km of wireless links (as of December 2021). The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, in Spain, but the network is growing in other parts of the world.

Key takeaways

Guifi.net belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Guifi.net to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Guifi.net from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly wireless community network, with over 37,000 active nodes and about 71,000 km of wireless links (as of December 2021). The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, in Spain, but the network is growing in other parts of the world. The network is self-organized and operated by the users using unlicensed wireless links and open optical fiber links. The nodes of the network are contributed by individuals, companies and administrations that freely connect to an open telecommunications network and extend the network wherever the infrastructure and content might not otherwise be accessible. Nodes join the network following the self-provision model since the whole structure is explicitly open to facilitate understanding how it is structured, so that everyone can create new sections as required. That results in a network infrastructure commons that provides abundant connectivity.

Guifi.net is supported by the Guifi.net Foundation, which has been registered as an operator with the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) since April 2009. In August 2009, the first deployment of optical fiber was started, known as the Fiber From The Farms (FFTF) Broadband Initiative, covering about 2 km and linking dozens of farms and farmhouses in the town of Gurb. Since early 2011, guifi.net has been connected to the Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point (CATNIX), which exchanges data with other international telecommunications operators such as Cogent Communications and Hurricane Electric. This Internet connection is used by several associations that offer their members high-speed Internet access at low cost, which other Internet service providers currently do not offer. The model is oriented to cost sharing, the compensation mechanism. The basic principle of operation is based on the Wireless Commons License.

See also Mesh networking Freifunk NYC Mesh internet (lowercase "i"), a collection of interconnected computers and/or networks (companies, neighborhoods, villages, communities) that are set up to communicate with each other

References

External links What is guifi.net? Services on guifi.net guifi.net Autonomous System Number guifi.net + EXO Guifi.net on GitHub guifi.net documentation wiki Guifi.net presentation Archived 2019-12-13 at the Wayback Machine (in Catalan)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Guifi.net

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Guifi.net claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Guifi.net before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Guifi.net ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Guifi.net

In research: Guifi.net appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Guifi.net in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Guifi.net is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Community networks, Guifi.net, Internet service providers of Spain, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Guifi.net outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Guifi.net in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Guifi.net means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Guifi.net out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guifi.net in simple terms?

Why does Guifi.net matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Guifi.net?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Guifi.net.