AREDN Network

The Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, is a mesh network that uses re-purposed commercial transceivers in the 2.4 and 5.7GHz bands. It advantage is that can be easily deployed by purchasing a commercial unit and flashing it with custom AREDN firmware, however due to restrictions imposed by commercial regulations, it has low power output and is only good for a small coverage area, creating regional mesh islands.

A facility of the network is to be able to connect mesh islands together using a VPN on the commercial internet, which enables ‘tunnelling’ from one node to another, and connecting all nodes in different islands together.

Recently a new network topology has been adopted, create a two-tiered network consisting of a cloud network and a mesh islands. The cloud network is implemented with a network of supernodes, which join regions of mesh islands together.

AREDN in Alberta

In Alberta there are five mesh islands, covering the corridor from the US Border to the south and Edmonton to the North. From south to north, Cardston, Lethbridge, Calgary and area, Red Deer and area, and Edmonton.

To view a map of the network in Alberta, please click here.