Editing FreedomTower (section)

[[File:deployed_tower_austin.jpg|thumb|x300px|alt=tower_in_austin|Tower deployed in Austin, 2011]]

FreedomTowers are owned and operated by those that benefit from them. They benefit entire neighborhoods – communities on the order of five to ten thousand individuals. FreedomTowers perform critical Layer 1 network operations, and help the neighborhood mesh run efficiently. In addition to improving the throughput of Layer 1 connectivity, FreedomTowers participate in the Layer 2 regional mesh. This means that neighborhoods can connect directly to one another, and that material peer-to-peer is not limited in scope to local communities.

Like all components of the Free Network Stack, the exact implementation and role of the FreedomTower is flexible; the currently pursued architecture is to have some towers connect "upstream" via high-bandwidth FCC-licensed 3.6GHz radio links to FreedomLink nodes in existing industry fiber connectivity sites, to route tower-to-tower over either the same licensed links or directional 5GHz WiFi links, and to provide "downlink" connectivity to a WiFi mesh of [[FreedomNode|FreedomNodes]] and [[FreedomBox|FreedomBoxes]].

FreedomTowers have so far been assembled and deployed for short periods independent of the rest of the stack by using retail "4G" wireless modem uplinks. See [[FreedomTower/ConstructionDocs|ConstructionDocs]] for a recommended bill of materials and assembly instructions.