PWN

Patras Wireless Network (PWN) is, historically, the first city-wide, wireless community network in Greece. It is run and maintained by the users of the network. It serves 150 people, covering a mountainous area of 60 km².

Patras Wireless Network was established in 2001 after a company of 4 friends put together the money to purchase an Orinoco Wireless Access Point. The AP was installed on a TV tower in Aroe which has a vantage point of the whole city of Patras. The first private, city-wide wireless connection in Greece was established then.

Claim to fame for PWN was that members on the network solved the hidden node problem, by designing and implementing the Wireless Central Coordinated Protocol (WiCCP), a protocol booster for 802.11b DCF based wireless networks, that provides cyclic token-passing medium access, and scheduled allocation of the available network resources, eliminating the hidden node problem.