Wireless Africa Home Page

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The Wireless Africa group is researching ways and means to develop sustainable information and communications technology in developing countries. This will be achieved through community-owned decentralized mesh networks built on open source technology

2 November 2007 - Building a Rural Wireless Mesh Network DIY Guide released

Access the

DIY Mesh Guide

A pre-release version of the DIY mesh guide is now available. We invite researchers, wireless network implementors and communities to review the guide and provide us with feedback.

"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."

Access the DIY Mesh Guide

25 October 2007 - Wireless Africa appears in iWeek

The CSIR - Meraka Institute's Wireless Africa project begins to make strides into mesh networking know-how that could help connect Africa's 850 million ...

Read the full article at iWeek:First inch in the last mile

17 August 2007 - Meraka Institute signs MoU with LinkNet of Zambia

(Front) Phil Hendricks (CSIR) and Gertjan van Stam (LinkNet) after the signing of the MoU
(Back) Karel Matthee and Kobus Roux (Meraka Institute)

The signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between LinkNet Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society Limited of Zambia and the Meraka Institute on 17 August 2007 is another significant step towards the creation of low-cost, wireless connectivity in Africa. LinkNet has as its objective to establish internet communication facilities in rural communities in Zambia to further holistic empowerment and capacity building of institutions and rural people. The Meraka Institute is a South African national research centre managed by the CSIR.

Read full article: Meraka Institute signs MoU with LinkNet of Zambia

1 May 2007 - Wireless Africa roadmap process underway

A number of workshops were hold with staff at Meraka to understand our vision and what our research, development and product offerings will be.

• The first workshop, held on the 18th of May 2007, helped us to understand where we've come from and what our vision is for the future. Our current vision statement is:

Make a significant contribution to connecting 450 million people sustainably in rural Africa through wireless mesh and other technology with a community grown philosophy

• The second workshop, held on the 8th of June 2007, helped us understand what our three main product offerings will be
  • Africa mesh node (Multi radio node with customized hardware and specialized firmware)
  • DIY mesh kit (Low cost single radio node available off the shelf with specialized firmware)
  • WISP in a box (Bandwidth and user management tool which makes it simple for somebody to set up a wireless business)
• The third workshop, held on the 14th of June, was a follow up on the second workshop which tried to define the milestones needed to improve the functionality of each of these product offerings over a 3 year period (See link below for more detail).

The plan is to have a first draft of this road map by the end of July

More information can be found here: Wireless Africa Roadmap . We strongly urge other researchers in the field to comment on this roadmap

10 December 2006 - Prototype 1 of fully self-contained solar powered SA mesh node

SA Mesh Node

The first prototype of a multi antenna self-contained mesh node was unveiled in December 2006. This nodes operates on a 45W solar panel to power the embedded computer and three 802.11 radios. The backhaul mesh is built in the 5GHz band using 2 radios which can be switched through a matrix of 4 antennas. This allows a full duplex connection on the backhaul. The Switachable antenna matrix consists of 4 5GHz panel antennas placed at 90 degrees to each other within a weather proof cylinder. An intelligent switching algorithm is used to switch through the four antennas and locate the other mesh nodes in the network. Switching happens as soon as traffic needs to be routed between mesh nodes. A 2.4GHz band radio connected to an omni is used to connect clients to the mesh node.

More Information on the SA mesh node

1 October 2006 - Tin can connects rural home to outside world

The Meraka Institute's first Cantenna installed in a rural setting was successfully mounted onto the house of Agnes Mdluli, a health worker from Peebles valley, near White River in Mpumalanga. This can-antenna is made from a metal can, such as a coffee tin, and a section of bicycle spoke soldered into a special connector which can connect to another point with a similar antenna up to 5km away. The project in Peebles Valley is one of 10 sub-projects in the First Mile First Inch (FMFI) project being funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

These small, self-constructed antennas, which are made from locally available material, are connected to a low-cost WiFi card plugged into a computer. A small wireless router is placed in a weatherproof casing on a pole to which several community members could connect and form a community mesh network. This mesh networking technology allows the wireless installations to automatically configure themselves to find the optimal routes through the network and very little configuration is needed to set them up.

More information can be found here: Mpumulanga Mesh and FMFI Mpumalanga Mesh

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NEW: Quick getting started guide for setting up an outdoor mesh node

Please use the discussion tag above to comment and provide suggestions! Please Email wa-admin(at)meraka.org.za if you wish to contribute or for further information.