Abstract
Connecting the unconnected world is a challenging task not only in technological perspective but also economically. Providing a viable solution for a communication network in large rural areas such as parts of Africa or remote Lapland in Northern Finland, surprisingly, share similar challenges. The main criteria for such a network are energy-efficient, robust, and reliable operation even in harsh environment. Important aspects are also low-cost and easy deployment of such a network. Developing a network that would meet all the criteria requires theoretical studies as well as real-world testing and implementations. In this paper, we will present some early results and design highlights of a wireless mesh network testbed deployment that can be used to foster the research work. We also envision it as a base for an actual solution. We introduce some of the concepts and objectives behind the testbed and describe and rationalize the chosen hardware and architecture choices.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, “Laajakaista kaikille”, http://www.lvm.fi/laajakaista_kaikille (last accessed on October 3, 2012)
CIER project information, http://www.celtic-initiative.org/Projects/Celtic-projects/Call7/CIER/cier-default.asp
Celtic CIER project report D2.3.1 “System architecture specifications” (September 2012)
Ubiquiti Networks, Inc., http://www.ubnt.com
Ubiquiti Networks, Inc., http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#airMaxSoftware
Openwrt, https://openwrt.org
Fraunhofer, http://net4dc.fokus.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/net4dc/en/documents/110913_Whitepaper_Introducing_WiBACK.pdf (last accessed on October 3, 2012)
Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA), http://www.viestintavirasto.fi/en/index.html
Regulation on collective frequencies for licence-exempt radio transmitters and on their use (2011/337/FIN) issued by FICORA (last updated on April 20, 2012), http://www.ficora.fi/attachments/englantiav/673vVX0bw/FICORA_15AD2012M.pdf (last accessed on October 3, 2012)
European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, http://www.etsi.org/WebSite/homepage.aspx
Iperf site at SourceForge, http://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf/ (last accessed on October 3, 2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ruponen, S., Zidbeck, J. (2013). Testbed for Rural Area Networking – First Steps towards a Solution. In: Jonas, K., Rai, I.A., Tchuente, M. (eds) e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries. AFRICOMM 2012. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 119. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41178-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41178-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41177-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41178-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)