About the network
North Clay covers about 26 blocks of Trenton’s east side, mostly brick rowhouses. The network was built by the community garden committee after a subsidized broadband offer expired and prices doubled overnight.
Schematic
Uptime
99.97% uptime over the last 90 days, with no days of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- North Clay Community Network Cooperative
- Legal home
- Tenants’ association, incorporated as a nonprofit
- Members
- 1,185 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Last Wednesday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the housing cooperative’s lobby
- Annual assembly
- Every July
- Maintenance fund
- $5 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Ashley W.Network steward · since 2020
- Duc D.Treasurer · since 2020
- Amara M.Membership steward · since 2021
- Cedric V.Training steward · since 2016
- Azadeh H.Rooftops steward · since 2019
- Chanel L.Secretary · since 2025
- Luis D.Network steward · since 2024
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-07-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Trenton internet exchange | 18% |
| LT-07-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Tower site, Trenton | 26% |
| LT-07-BH3 | Fiber, donated by the library system | 1 Gbps | Public library network | 26% |
Maintenance log
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Annual assembly: 88 members attended and elected two stewards.
Hardware refresh: 19 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Cable to N-1780 replaced; squirrels again.
Heavy rain: water ingress found and fixed in 2 enclosures.
Heat wave: 4 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Annual assembly: 89 members attended and elected two stewards.
Installer workshop: 11 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
Cable to N-1642 replaced; squirrels again.
Spare parts inventory counted and restocked.
Hardware refresh: 22 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Backhaul upgraded from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
New hub on the former bank building roof: N-1831.
Hardware refresh: 10 nodes upgraded to Stoop R4 over the year.
Firmware 3.0 rolled out to every node.
New hub on the public housing tower roof, under a housing authority agreement: N-0236.
Expansion: six new nodes in 2012, mostly in grids A4, A5 and B4.
Network switched on: nine nodes across the first few blocks.
Founding assembly: the North Clay Community Network Cooperative adopts its charter and elects five stewards.