Cost Tables

From WirelessAfrica

Scenario 1: Indoor USB Wireless solution (distance < 50m)

A simple cheap wireless LAN USB device can be bought and the mesh software can then be loaded on the computer. This setup is ideal for short range communication between a distrubuted cluster of houses that you find in a town house complex.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 11Mbps Wireless USB Adapter MIRO SL2511UB4 EACH R262.20 1 R262.20
TOTAL 262.20

Scenario 2: Outdoor USB Wireless solution (distance < 3km)

Using a stick USB WiFi adapter, it is possible to plug a USB cable extender into a computer at one end and the USB WiFi adapter at the other end. The maximum distance allowed on such a USB cable is 5m unless a hub is used in between the devices. The USB adapter can then be mounted inside a tin can to help boost the gain.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 USB WiFi Stick Adapter - b/g MIRO SUB316 EACH R222.30 1 R222.30
2 USB Type A Fem to Type A male 5M Active Extender XX XX EACH R120.00 1 R120.00
3 Tin can (free - just drink lots of coffee first) XX XX EACH R0.00 1 R0.00
TOTAL R342.30


Scenario 3: Outdoor: Use old PC as dedicated Wireless router (distance depends on antenna and power of wifi card - can be up to 30km)

If you have an old unwanted Pentium lying around in the garage - this is an attractive option to build a low cost outdoor wireless router. You will need to purchase a PCI WiFi card, plug it into the old PC, place the old PC in the roof and then run an RF cable from the PC to an external Antenna.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 Old PC >= Pentium I with >=200Mb HD >=64Meg ram (hopefully you have one of these) xxx xxx EACH R0.00 1 R0.00
2 Sonoa PCI Adapter b/g - 108Mbps MIRO SL3065PCI EACH R456.00 1 R456.00
3 PCI Ethernet adapter PC Palace xxx EACH R78.66 1 R78.66
4 SMA to N-Type pigtail MIRO JACK-N-SMA-M EACH R85.50 1 R85.50
5 RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) MIRO CUSTOM EACH R182.40 1 R182.40
6 Antenna (12dBi Yagi) MIRO PAE-12-YAE EACH R273.60 1 R273.60
7 Ethernet cable (20m) Compu Cable xxx METERS R2.80 20 R63.84
8 Ethernet connectors Compu Cable xxx EACH R1.48 2 R2.96
TOTAL R1142.96

Scenario 4: Indoor Wireless router (distance < 300m)

A wireless router is a dedicated WiFi box which is capable of handling all the routing and networking issues of the mesh network. They usually come with an internet port, a built in switch with extra LAN ports and an external antenna. Once the mesh software is uploaded to the device, all that is required is to connect your PC to one of the LAN ports to be linked into the mesh network. We use the Linksys WRT54G becuase there is a lot of opensource software available for it.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 Linksys WRT54G wireless router MIRO LS-WRT54GL EACH R515 1 R515
TOTAL R515


Scenario 5a: Outdoor Wireless router under eaves (distance depends on antenna - can be up to 30km)

If you want to extend the range of scenario 4, you will need to mount an external antenna. Simply running a long RF cable from the wireless router antenna connector to the roof of your house will incur large RF losses on the long RF cable that will be required. The solution is to move your wireless router to a point as close as possible to the position where your mast will be mounted on the side of the house under the eaves. The power to the wirless router can be injected into the ethernet cable using a power over ethernet injector on one side and extracted using the same device on the other side.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 Linksys WRT54G wireless router MIRO LS-WRT54GL EACH R515 1 R515
2 TNC(RP) to N-Type pigtail MIRO JACK-N-F-TNC-M EACH R70.00 1 R70.00
3 RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) MIRO CUSTOM EACH R182.40 1 R182.40
4 Antenna (12dBi Yagi) MIRO PAE-12-YAE EACH R273.60 1 R273.60
5 Ethernet cable (20m) Compu Cable xxx METERS R2.80 20 R56.00
6 Ethernet connectors Compu Cable xxx EACH R1.48 2 R2.96
7 POE injectors MIRO 12V-POE EACH R90 2 R180
8 Power jacks XX XX EACH R2 2 R4
TOTAL R1283.96

Scenario 5b: Outdoor Wireless router in waterproof box (distance depends on antenna - can be up to 30km)

If you can't find a waterproof spot for your wireless router in your eaves (for example, people with flat roof houses), then you will need to mount your wireless router in a waterproof box which you moun on the mast. You will need to run the ethernet cable through a waterproof gland on the outside of the box and run a pigtail from the wireless router to a N-Type bulkhead connector on outside of the box.


× Item description Supplier Supplier Stock Code Quantity type Cost Quantity Total
1 Linksys WRT54G wireless router MIRO LS-WRT54GL EACH R515 1 R515
2 TNC(RP) to N-Type pigtail MIRO JACK-N-F-TNC-M EACH R70.00 1 R70.00
3 RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) MIRO CUSTOM EACH R182.40 1 R182.40
4 Antenna (12dBi Yagi) MIRO PAE-12-YAE EACH R273.60 1 R273.60
5 Ethernet cable (20m) Compu Cable xxx METERS R2.80 20 R56.00
6 Ethernet connectors Compu Cable xxx EACH R1.48 2 R2.96
7 POE injectors MIRO 12V-POE EACH R90 2 R180
8 Power jacks XX XX EACH R2 2 R4
9 Weatherproof box MIRO ENCL-IP65 EACH R90 1 R90
10 Weatherproof gland MIRO GLAND EACH R15 1 R15
TOTAL R1388.96