Friday09 Group3
From School2007
By Michael Korimas, Papua New Guinea
Today is Friday and it is my turn to write the dairy activities as seen from group 3's eyes.
Session 1 was given by Prof R. Struzak. He gave an overview of the spectrum management and regulations. He talked about the use of radio waves in communications in the early days and how problems arouse as more organisations and applications were using the spectrum. This problem created the need to regulate the use of the spectrum. He gave plenty of analogies which made it easy for us to relate and understand what he was talking about. The analogy of the constrains faced by a herdsman and his growing cattle numbers in a limited grace land what very good to understand the challenges faced in sharing the spectrum.
Session 2 was given by Prof. Rob Flickenger. His presentation was on WiFi Networking architecture. His talk was mainly centred around the interference issues associated with Wireless communications. Potential sources of noises(interferences) were pointed out and some tools in both hardware and software forms were shown that can be used to detect radio signals that may or may not cause interference.
There were lots of interesting live demos. Tools used to detect and display radio wave signals included the spectrum analyser, WiSpy,Kismet, Eakiu. Signals were generated from Microwave oven, Bluetooth device, Cell phone, and of course from Linksys Wireless G Access Point.
Session 3 was a practical session which was a continuation of the set of activities( Activities 1..4) we started yesterday. We did activities 4 and 5 today. Activity 4 was to configure our WiFi network to connect to group1's Access Point assuming that they were our ISP and in turn provide internet connectivity to our clients connected to our WiFi system. The second part of this activity was to configure our WiFi system to become the Access Point (ISP) and groups 1,& 2 were supposed to configure their system to connect to our Access Point to connect to the Internet. The results of these activities can be viewed from the [Activities Results section of the AP exercises section.
Practical activities are always the most lively and interesting ones. We learn alot of things both from lecturers and fellow participants during practical sessions as we all come from differing work environments. It maybe blessing in disguise that group 3 has been always having problems in our activities. This is because we are learning a lot of things when trouble shooting these problems. We had been using Ubuntu Linux 6.0 as the platform for our WiFi system. We had also used Windows XP to test if WiFi cards are working or not. At the end we all managed to get everything up and running, thanks to our Linux Gurus Asif and Palabe(President of group3).
The last session was optional and not compulsory to attend but it was surprising to see over 95% of the participants turning up for it. This was also a practical session on RF signal measurements presented beautifully by one and only FONDA Carlo of ICTP. We were shown how to measure RF signal attenuations in cables and how to calibrate and use the machines. This lesson was in preparation for next weeks field work. We used different instruments such as spectrum analyzer (both analog and digital) and signal generator and wave guide cables. The lab run from 9pm to about 11.30pm? After that everybody was too tired and had to retire for the day after a long and interesting 1 week of "Wi-Fi-ing"
On behalf of group 3 I would like to thank all our instructors, directors, and support staff of the program, for a rewarding week. All of you were fantastic and Iam sure we all learned a lot and enjoyed the first week. Hope the second week will be as good as the first one.
