The .public network is a design for creating a scaleable, low-cost replacement for the carrier networks which currently connect most consumer to the internet. The proposal consists of radio reference designs, mesh, presence and identity protocol requirements as well as business plans for the rapid deployment of wireless distribution networks.
The goals of the .public project are to establish Universal Internet Access, by producing reference implementations of an Open Mesh Network with Open Identity Services to regulate usage and access to the network in order to support multiple entities in a Distributed Business Model responsible for designing, deploying and maintaining the physical network infrastructure and internet interconnects.
In order to support this network several institutions are proposed to deal with various aspects of network design, deployment and management. .public Labs is a non-profit educational entity which runs the .public Schools where franchise owners are trained in network deployment and identity management. Graduates of the school license marketing material and usage rights from .public Brands, the for-profit promotional entity which provides a consistent user facing brand with an international presence. Franchise owners can then establish a .public Store where they sell hardware and identity services necessary for creating .public Spots.
The .public network is intended to scale up to providing pervasive multi-gigabit service in dense metropolitan settings using advanced UWB radios and scale down to providing daylight megabit services in rural areas using cheap solar powered commodity hardware with limited internet connectivity. Strong identity services open the door to a new breed of secure applications and mesh topology creates opportunities for high bandwidth local information where the existing distribution network throttles communications at the switch. The .public network creates opportunities to enliven community and provides a blueprint of the next stage of the internets growth to global pervasiveness.
The .public White Papers are a series of position papers describing the concepts behind the network.