Students at the University of Southampton are developing a free wireless network for local residents, while researching Wi-Fi technology.

Southampton Open Wireless Project (SOWN) is run by staff and students in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

It aims to install wireless nodes in students' houses across the Southampton campus, allowing students to share bandwidth in each house, with excess coverage available to local residents.

The wireless network is easily accessible by members of the public by obtaining an account from SOWN free of charge, said the University.

ECS is working on research on several areas of wireless technology including: multicasting audio and video streams, 802.1x authentication, transparent mobility, wireless voice over IP, wireless location tracking, and deploying IPv6.

See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Wireless, a roundup of content related to wireless communications.