TFA-Wireless 

TFA-Wireless is a high speed wireless Internet service that is part of the Technology For All (TFA) research and innovation strategy that uses technology as a tool to empower low-income and under resourced communities.

 

The initial service area for TFA-Wireless covers approximately two square miles of the Pecan Park neighborhood in Houston's East End. The service area is bordered by Griggs Road on the northwest, Lawndale Street and State Highway 225 on the northeast, Loop 610 on the southeast and I-45 South to the southwest.

 

 

 

Any resident of Pecan Park with wireless knowledge or who attends an orientation class at TFA's community technology center at Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, 2220 Broadway may be eligible to receive free or reduced-rate Internet services from TFA-Wireless.

The TFA-Wireless network is a collaborative project designed and built by Rice University faculty and students in the Rice Network Group , a research group within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The lead scientist on the project is Professor Ed Knightly, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Professor of Computer Science. Joseph Camp, a 2009 Rice University Ph.D. graduate, initially provided direct guidance for the project and assisted in writing several journal articles on the project. The project received even more attention when it deployed "Super Wifi", a long-range, barrier-piercing network that had yet to be seen in residential homes.

The Houston Public Library is also collaborating on the project. Its Melcher Branch library is centrally located in the Pecan Park neighborhood, making it an ideal TFA-Wireless network access point.  In reviewing the network plans, library officials immediately recognized the benefit that the network would provide their patrons, who can now log in from Melcher's wireless computers.

Need more information? Try:

Rice University's TFA-Wireless website

FAQs

Or contact Phil Cayton, Information Technology Manager, at 713-454-6413

Journal Article - "Measurement-Driven Deployment of a Two-Tier Urban Mesh Access Network"

Technology For All
2220 Broadway - Houston, Texas 77012
713.454.6400


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