From the article:
"The network connects directly to the internet backbone, so we do not rely on an ISP."
Their peering policy: https://nycmesh.net/peering/
"The network connects directly to the internet backbone, so we do not rely on an ISP."
Their peering policy: https://nycmesh.net/peering/
Is that a physical location somewhere? I've read on the peering link, are they saying there's an "internet ethernet port" at 375 Pearl St, New York, NY that they plugged their whole mesh network into? Where's the ethernet cable go from there?
I'm probably asking a bit too much here (how does internet work lol) but I don't understand how they've bypassed all ISPs... I just figured Comcast, being an ISP, also has a controlling stake in whatever means by which it gets data across the pacific ocean or whatever.
Yes, it is a physical location. Often called 'an exchange', there is usually a building in major cities that most networks connect together at. You rent from the building owner, and they provide a 'drop' which is basically a cable you can connect to your core router in your part of the datacenter you are renting (your 'rack' or 'cage')
From that point, you set up BGP sessions with your 'peers', other networks you have agreements with. Sometimes those agreements are for 'transit' (which means you pay per bit sent across the wire, but you can send all your traffic that way) or they are peers you don't pay (you might have other agreements, like we only send this much traffic or that hte inbound and outbound traffic has to match)
According to that peering link from the above poster, these guys will peer with anyone. They basically want as many peers as possible, and are hoping those peers agree to route as much of the internet as possible.
The way BGP works is that each side of the BGP session tells the other 'i will accept and route traffic for these subnets', for example "i will accept packets destined to any IP address in the 1.2.3.240/24 space" The /24 is what is known as a CIDR, and is a way of writing "all the ips between 1.2.3.0 and 1.2.3.255", 256 IP addresses.
So if the core router on my side gets a packet from my network destined to 1.2.3.123, I could send that packet on to the peer who is advertising that they will accept packets destined to 1.2.3.240/24. You need to have a peer for every IP address to be fully connected to the internet. If you don't, you would normally pay for transit, which will route for all IPs.
However, the backbone nodes require maintenance, so the fee to connect directly is expensive. You can't simply move next to a backbone node and plug in. I presume that backbone fee is the primary reason for the individual's fee for hosting an NYCmesh node.
No, the reason Comcast and other incumbents dominate is that they built out the last mile infrastructure. The backbone costs are a minor expense.