DIY Mesh Guide: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:13, 26 May 2009

Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network

A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network

About The Guide

Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network

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 guide tries to simplfy the planning and building of a mesh network, using a step-by-step approach to setting up a infrastructure mesh node, or an access point using a Linksys WRT54gl and the Freifunk firmware or DD WRT firmware depending on the node type.

DIY Guide topics

Version 0.7_65 of the DIY guide covers the following topics:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Description of a wireless mesh network
Chapter 3: Important condsiderations
Chapter 4: Required Hardware and software
Chapter 5: Planning the wireless mesh network
Chapter 6: Building the wireless mesh network
Chapter 7: 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

Core Group

David Johnson - aka "kingdavid" is a research leader in the Wireless Africa group at the Meraka Institute. David is currently completing his PhD in California at UCSB.

Karel Matthee - Project manager.

Dare Sokoya - Dare is currently reading for his PhD at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His passion lies in being the best in his career path and contributing his quota to the evolving telecommunication industry.

Lawrence Mboweni - Developer

Ajay Makan - Ajay's passion lies in the development and implementation of wireless networks in communities, with a specific focus on health and education in the ICT4D domain.

Henk Kotze - Henk is a technical leader within the Wireless Africa development team. He is passionate about any technology, specially technology that can benefit people's essential needs.

Download

Download Icon

You can download the latest version of the guide in .PDF format here

Feedback

Please send us your feedback, comments and corrections to diymeshguide[at]meraka.org.za. We would like to know how you have used the guide, whether the guide was useful in setting up your mesh network and what topics should be expanded on or covered in the guide.

Read what comments have been received

Software & Hardware and Resources from the guide

A list of all the hardware & software requirements and resources listed in the guide

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license

This work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. For more details regarding your rights to use and redistribute this work, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{|align="right"
+| style="height:100%;width:20em;border:1px solid #D9D9D9;background-color:#F2F2F2;" valign="top" |
+*[[DIY_Mesh_Guide|'''DIY Mesh Guide Home''']]
+*[[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Download|'''Download Guide''']]
+*[[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Feedback|'''Feedback Received''']]
+*[[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Software_and_Resources|'''Hardware & Software requirements and Resources''']]
+|}
 <font size="3">'''Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network''' <br>
 A do-it-yourself guide to planning and building a Freifunk based mesh network</font>
-[[Image:DIY Guide_Cover_sml2.png|left|180px|DIY Mesh Guide cover]] <br clear=all>
+[[Image:DIY Guide_Cover_sml2.png|left|180px|DIY Mesh Guide cover]]
+__TOC__
+<br clear=all>
@@ Line 8: / Line 20: @@
 ==== Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network ====
+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 guide tries to simplfy the planning and building of a mesh network, using a step-by-step approach to setting up a infrastructure mesh node, or an access point using a Linksys WRT54gl and the Freifunk firmware or DD WRT firmware depending on the node type.
 ==== DIY Guide topics ====
@@ Line 16: / Line 28: @@
 Version '''0.7_65''' of the DIY guide covers the following topics:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
+* Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Description of a wireless mesh network
+* Chapter 2: Description of a wireless mesh network
- Chapter 3: Important condsiderations
+* Chapter 3: Important condsiderations
- Chapter 4: Required Hardware and software
+* Chapter 4: Required Hardware and software
- Chapter 5: Planning the wireless mesh network
+* Chapter 5: Planning the wireless mesh network
- Chapter 6: Building the wireless mesh network
+* Chapter 6: Building the wireless mesh network
- Chapter 7: Services on the network
+* Chapter 7: Services on the network
- Appendix A: Acronyms
+* Appendix A: Acronyms
- Appendix B: Configuration Steps
+* Appendix B: Configuration Steps
- Appendix C: Troubleshooting FAQ
+* Appendix C: Troubleshooting FAQ
- Appendix D: Wireless Regulations in Africa
+* Appendix D: Wireless Regulations in Africa
- Appendix E: How to prepare a CAT5 LAN cable
+* Appendix E: How to prepare a CAT5 LAN cable
- Appendix F: Resources
+* Appendix F: Resources
- Appendix G: Planning Sheet
+* Appendix G: Planning Sheet
 ==== Core Group ====
-(Comment - need to put a two liner description of the team members)
+'''David Johnson''' - aka "kingdavid" is a research leader in the Wireless Africa group at the Meraka Institute. David is currently completing his PhD in California at UCSB.
-David Johnson - aka "kingdavid" is a research leader in the Wireless Africa group at the Meraka Institute.
-Karel Matthee -
-Dare Sokoya - Dare is currently reading for his PhD.
+'''Karel Matthee''' - Project manager.
-Lawrence Mboweni -
+'''Dare Sokoya''' - Dare is currently reading for his PhD at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His passion lies in being the best in his career path and contributing his quota to the evolving telecommunication industry.
-Ajay Makan - Ajay's passion lies in the development and implementation of wireless networks in communities, with a specific foucus on health and education
+'''Lawrence Mboweni''' - Developer
-Henk Kotze -
+'''Ajay Makan''' - Ajay's passion lies in the development and implementation of wireless networks in communities, with a specific focus on health and education in the ICT4D domain.
+'''Henk Kotze''' - Henk is a technical leader within the Wireless Africa development team. He is passionate about any technology, specially technology that can benefit people's essential needs.
 == Download ==
-[[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Download|'''You can download the latest version of the guide in .PDF format here''']]
+[[Image:Download Icon.png|left|30px|Download Icon]][[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Download|'''You can download the latest version of the guide in .PDF format here''']]
@@ Line 61: / Line 69: @@
-== Resources from the guide ==
+== Software & Hardware and Resources from the guide ==
-[[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Resources|A list of all the resources used in the guide can be found here]]
+A list of all the [[DIY_Mesh_Guide_Software_and_Resources|hardware & software requirements and resources]] listed in the guide