Bridging the Community Network gap with FOSS & Mobile ISPs

Community networks intrinsically rely on being able to deploy large scale projects with an explicit focus on cost effectiveness. As such, they often leverage not only open-source software, but also some proprietary solutions which, although closed source, may not command a licence fee. This paper briefly discusses an undergraduate project addressing a hardware solution integrating several open-source software projects into a cohesive structure. The platform, tentatively dubbed as a "Mobile ISP" - or mISP is a natural extension on the established Wireless ISP concept with a practical bent towards wire-free deployment and gateway connectivity. In addition it justifies a split micro-architecture approach and depicts further usage schemas for the device afforded by virtue of the extensibility it offers.