Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network: A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network.pdf
Introduction: In rural Africa the penetration of telecommunication services, for example telephony and internet access, is low and in some regions non-existent. The telecommunication operators in Africa consider rural Africa as uneconomical due to the nature of these regions – remote, often inaccessible, lacking in infrastructure, sparsely populated, low income households and people with low skills levels. Yet, reliable, affordable and easy access to telecommunication services for all has been identified as key to social and economic development in Africa.
Self-provisioning and community ownership of low cost, distributed infrastructure is becoming a viable alternative to increase the penetration of telecommunication services in rural Africa. The recent emergence of wireless mesh network technology (based on IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standards) can help to improve the delivery of telecommunication services in these regions.
The network design for a wireless mesh network will depend on the geographic landscape and distances between the points to be connected. A combination of point-to-point long distance links (using directional antennas) and local point-to-multipoint links (using omni-directional antennas) between mesh nodes can create a reliable mesh network.
In rural Africa a satellite link (VSAT) often provides the only possible way to connect a local mesh network to an upstream network provider offering global connectivity. Satellite links suffer from higher than normal latency and affect latency sensitive services such as telephony.
A number of pilot mesh projects across the world (Freifunk OLSR Experiment in Berlin, Germany, the Dharamsala mesh in India and Peebles Valley in South Africa) have demonstrated that a community can establish and maintain a wireless mesh network and have access to a range of modern information and communication services. These services include telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol), instant messaging, electronic mail, web access, multimedia services and service delivery (e.g. telehealth and e-learning).
Contents:
- INTRODUCTION
- DESCRIPTION OF A WIRELESS MESH NETWORK [ ~ Wireless Mesh Network ~ Wireless Mesh Node ~ Wireless Access Point ~ Advantages of Mesh Networking ~ Wireless Mesh Networking Principles ]
- IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
- REQUIRED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE [ ~ Hardware Requirements ~ Software Requirements ]
- PLANNING THE WIRELESS MESH NETWORK [ ~ Map the network ~ Select the network topology type ~ Do the channel allocation for the backbone and mesh network ~ Do channel allocation for home / office users ~ Plan the IP address allocation (wireless mesh, LAN, hotspots) ]
- BUILDING THE WIRELESS MESH NETWORK [ ~ Where to Start ~ Prepare a Wireless Mesh Node ~ How to configure OLSR to join two distinct mesh networks ~ How to configure a gateway ~ Linking a Mesh Node and an Access Point Back-to-Back ]
- SERVICES ON THE NETWORK
- APPENDIX A: Acronyms
- APPENDIX B: Configuration Steps
- APPENDIX C: Troubleshooting FAQ
- APPENDIX D: Wireless Regulations in Africa
- APPENDIX E: How to prepare a CAT5 LAN cable
- APPENDIX F: Resources
- APPENDIX G: Planning Sheet
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