About the network
Canal Row covers about 33 blocks of Newark’s northeast side, mostly garden apartments and duplexes. The network was built by a group of high school robotics students and their teacher after a tenants’ survey found that a third of households had no home connection.
Schematic
Uptime
99.96% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Canal Row Community Net
- Legal home
- Community land trust program
- Members
- 1,475 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Third Wednesday of each month, 6:30 pm, at the housing cooperative’s lobby
- Annual assembly
- Every October
- Maintenance fund
- $10 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Tomás I.Network steward · since 2024
- Alberto O.Treasurer · since 2017
- Angela L.Membership steward · since 2021
- Desmond G.Training steward · since 2022
- Rosa V.Rooftops steward · since 2023
- Ramón W.Secretary · since 2024
- Tariq C.Network steward · since 2023
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-03-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Newark internet exchange | 25% |
| LT-03-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Bridgeside | 35% |
Maintenance log
Annual assembly: 152 members attended and elected four stewards.
Mount on N-0050 re-secured after the host reported a loose mast.
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Storm damage. High winds knocked several dishes out of alignment. Stewards realigned them once it was safe to go up.
Heat wave: 7 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Grounding on N-0065 redone after an inspection found a corroded lug.
Hardware refresh: 25 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Mount on N-2383 re-secured after the host reported a loose mast.
Cable to N-0111 replaced; squirrels again.
Cable to N-1406 replaced; squirrels again.
Annual assembly: 94 members attended and elected two stewards.
Battery modules replaced at 4 hubs ahead of winter.
Installer workshop: 19 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
Rooftop agreements reviewed; 5 renewed with new building owners.
Hardware refresh: 3 nodes upgraded to Gantry H4 over the year.
Hardware refresh: 30 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2022, mostly in grids C3, C5 and E3.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Backhaul upgraded from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber.
New hub on the community health center roof: N-1560.
Firmware 3.0 rolled out to every node.
New hub on the former bank building roof: N-0500.
New hub on the church steeple: N-0194.
Network switched on: 14 nodes across the first few blocks.
Founding assembly: the Canal Row Community Net adopts its charter and elects five stewards.