Sanjit Biswas, 25
Meraki Networks
Cheap, easy Internet access
Credit: Sanjit Biswas
Multimedia
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See images of Meraki’s routers and its network administration tools.
Sanjit Biswas worked on a system for connecting local residents to the Internet
wirelessly. In 2006, a nonprofit group asked if the technology could help
provide Internet service to the poor. Intrigued, Biswas took a leave of absence
to cofound Meraki Networks in Mountain View, CA, and create wireless mesh
networks that would link people to the Internet cheaply. In most mesh networks,
all the nodes that receive a particular data packet forward it on; but in
Biswas's version, the nodes "talk" to each other and decide, on the basis of
the packet's destination and their own signal strengths, which one of them
should forward it. The protocol also takes into account changing network
conditions, as users sign on or off, or, say, a passing truck blocks a node's
radio signal. Biswas's protocol, combined with commonly available hardware
components, allows Meraki to produce Wi-Fi routers that cost as little as $50.
(The routers Biswas used at MIT initially cost $1,500.) Here's how a Meraki
network works: a user plugs a router into a broadband Internet connection; that
person's neighbors stick routers to their windows, and a mesh network of up to
hundreds of people forms automatically. Users can give away or sell Internet
access to their neighbors. There are already Meraki-based networks in 25
countries, from Slovakia to Venezuela, serving more than 15,000 users.
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