Report from Final Project Presentations

Wednesday, June 29

Alberic Chimon - AVU

Projects of extending the network connectivity with wireless technology in few different AVU country centres

Benefits:

Financial aspects:

Training:

For the Bamako Training:


Questions and answers:

answer: that 2500 euro part is the one still to be financed, just for equipment for the wireless links

answer: yes

answer: before it was 128/256, now I changed to 256/256

answer: we have a long experience on distance education at AVU, we deliver courses via satellites, with live servers and mirror sites. Students at beginning weren't able to study in this way, we made some studies, last year we discovered that the best students in some african sites were students following the courses virtually via the satellite system, and they were leading on students from MIT, which were attending courses in the class directly.

answer: we made a small analisys there, after they installed fiber optic in the university because they had problems with UTP cables. And wireless is cheaper than fiber optics

summary (by struzak): presentation that fit time limites and topic, there were questions and satisfactory answers.


Chomora Mikeka - University of Malawi

Support rural community development in Malawi using wireless

Country profile:

Problem:

  1. high cost of VSAT
  2. limited access (42%)
  3. lack of extensions support
  4. inadeguate tech information
  5. poor market info

Proposal and design solution

Cost of investment

Financial aspects: formulae for initial investment and project expansion

benefits and project justification

Revenue model

results/impact of pilot phase

next phase

conclusions project initiated by the training at ICTP ARPL, motivated by the demand for access on chancellor college campus and triggered by compassion to steer a way to save or at least support 12 million people living on agriculture in malawi.

references and bibliography


Questions and answers:

answer: is for everything

answer: it's already there, but we pay the montly fee

answer: it is reported in the detailed budget (page number 2)

answer: students can handle this, without being paid

answer: I meant that it would be easy for me to monitor and supervise the project, being my region and where I lecture

answer: we considered that the served institution have this max number of client machines for each point-of-presence to be served by the wireless link

comments by struzak: I'm delighted to see that the projects have been improved a lot during this few weeks.


Precious Muyideen and Bassey Ekpangedoho - Teledom

Implementation of broadband wireless in frastructure for the public service network in 36 states of Nigeria

Introduction:

general description

aims and objectives

technical description

schematic diagram

experience gained during the ictp activities

further expectations

budget extimation for the project

conclusions


Questions and answers:

answer: this project is already in implementation phase, and the costs are reasonable for a governmental project

Iwara Arikpo - Univ. of Calabar

Univ of Calabar Wireless Project

introduction

objective

current state of project

RE-design of the project

major question posed during the training

achievements of the training

requests

conclusions


Questions and answers:

answer: the general discussion we had was very fruitful, and we also had demo of some applications (content filtering at the proxy, etc.). We touched also the problem of password protection and network protection. MRTG, Squidgard, chillispot were demonstrated

Thomas Ongeri Ombasa - Alldean Satellite Networks (Kenya)

Wireless as last mile connection for rural Kenya - extending ICT to rural schools

pre-amble

achievements/challenges so far

proposed project

scheme of the network

immediate beneficiaries

formulation and funding

schematic diagram

budgetary estimates

acknowledgements


Questions and answers:

answer: I considered 8 client PC, with a cost of 250 euro each

answer: 2 teachers will help me during the initial installation and they will be taught to teach other teachers after this

answer: just one eqpt manufacturer - GILAT, project implentation - ASNK

answer: for the pilot project we will choose commercial available power places, however for the VSAT we don't have grid power at every site, so we use solar power.

sebastian: it would be useful to do an estimation of the running costs: power consumption, network traffic costs, replacing equipment/spare parts.

marco: a question about computer literacy: do you have some figures on the usage of computers and internet on the post offices?

answer: I don't have precise numbers, may be on the order of 10% or less, but the average level of computer literacy on rural areas is surely very low (even in urban environment admittedly the computer literacy can be rather low)

marco: it would be very interesting to see how things change after introduction of this connection into the schools

arikpo: kenya is quite mountainous, it may be useful to design the pilot project considering this fact. Another comment is about e-learning and training of people, that may require more focus than the technological part.

carlo: may be useful to do a survey on computer literacy before and after the project. Also it is useful to have some entries in the budget for providing books and didactical material to schools.

sebastian: use of kiswahili and local language issues can be considered into the project

sebastian: sometimes mountain areas are easier than flat ones, for wireless communications, because you can use high altitude sites for repeaters (like nepal, venezuela, etc...)

comments by struzak: thanks very much to everybody!

Thursday, June 30

Elie Martial Mabo - University of Douala, Cameroon

Wireless Networking Project

Douala Univ in brief

actual situation

main objectives

who is in charge

phases

  1. phase: acquisition of equipment (1 month)
  2. phase: installation (2 weeks)
  3. phase: training of 2 net managers (5 days)

net topology

selected equipment list and costs

discussed issues and satisfaction percentage

budget of project

source of financing

conclusions

references

gratitude


Questions and answers:

answer: it's written in the map

answer: still to be decided

Rita MBAYIHA - Kigali Institute of Education, Rwanda

Wireless Networking of Hospitals in Rwanda

introduction

objectives

pilot project

estimated budget

expectations

conclusions


Questions and answers:

Dorothy Odhiambo and Albert Adams Yugi - KCCT, Nairobi, Kenya

demo project in wireless networking

existing network

building not yet networked

project objectives

technical summary

  1. wireless LAN at main campus
  2. interconnection of the 3 campuses

current physical layout at HQ

Ip addressing scheme

WLAN requirements and costs

2 phase: interconnecting campuses

requirements for the campus interconnection

discussion issues

training expectations

way forward we want to do immediately the following things:

project timeline


Questions and answers:

answer: the wiring inside the building is very difficult because of how they are constructed, we should probably use wireless even inside, or ethernet over powerlines

answer: it's wired in the building, and optical fibers between buildings

El Hag Huda Mohamed Ahmed - Khartoum University, Sudan

Phase one of the proposed university of khartoum wireless network

introduction

background

campuses

statistics

objectives of wireless networking

challenges

argument for adopting wireless technologies

strategy

plan - phase 1

plan - phase 2

benefits of wireless links

capital investment cost

device specs

schematic diagram of one link

acknowledgement


Questions and answers:

answer: we have already an infrastructure, many things are already available. what we miss are some interconnection links

Johnson I. Ejimanya - Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria

A proposal for an integrated wireless computer network for on-campus and off-campus communications and web access

background

academic stats

justifications

university strategy

priorities

choice of wireless solution

link budget

link budget

proposed network topology

project cost

funding

conclusions

acknowledgements


Questions and answers:

answer: they are already in place, etc...


Final considerations

answer: they are already in place, etc...


Final considerations