On 3/7/06, Ian Howard wrote: > Such an analysis does not exist from an independent organization that I > know of, nor for projects in a developing world context. There are of > course a number of considerations. WiMAX and newer equipment do offer > many advantages, though are much more expensive and still not as widely > available. Most practitioners developing smaller networks, or smaller > commercial networks, are using 802.11 equipment.
I think it is important to realise that in developing world contexts, scalability is not the issue that it might be in a municipal network, for instance, in a very connected country. In the latter, the wireless network is often a convenience, or a saving in cost, compared to other, existing, channels of communication, whereas for the former, this may well be the first installation of modern distance communications. The need for multiple point to point connections between the same towns or villages barely exists, since there will only be a handful of computers at either end. Within the nodal area, 802.11b/g is sufficient to meet almost any need in the foreseeable future, and between nodes it also works excellently, and most importantly, cheaply, thus making the possibility of rolling out more such connections rapidly. Arguably, using mesh networking also removes the issue of control of the communication channel, which can often fall into the wrong hands from a development perspective, if POTS paradigms such as client server, or circuit switching, are going to be the price of higher bandwidth and reliability. Some of us are planning a major summit on wireless networking in Dharamsala, India, in late October 2006. We are working on the final dates and I will keep this list posted. The summit will comprise workshops aimed at sharing among techies as well as teaching rural acolytes the basics. We expect a major part of the summit will be visits to rural nascent networks in India to upgrade configurations, using mesh and tweaked firmware on routers etc, which will be a chance for both Indian and foreign enthusiasts to hone their skills, as well as allow representatives from other developing regions who want to have similar networks deployed, to get hands-on experience. We will post the dates on the summit web site very soon, as well the session programmes, as these freeze over the next few weeks. I think that one very useful lesson that we can expect to emerge from this summit will be the kind of comparison that Patrick originally sought. -- Vickram ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
