This visionary keynote illuminates the role of the university in the digital age, especially in the connected space. Education is no longer only in the classroom or library, and wide ranging infrastructure and engagement spaces need to be designed to inspire future youth.

1. Wireless Mesh Network for
Campus Radio, eLearning &
Communication in a Tertiary
Institution
By
Nasir Faruk BSc, MSc, Ph.D (In view)
Department of Telecommunication Science
Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Email: faruk.n@unilorin.edu.ng
Mobile: +2348032428141
Presented at Youth Engagement Summit on ICT 5th December, 2013

2. Outline















Introduction
Overview of the technology
Why WMNs?
Application of WMN
Project Target
Sponsors, AFRINIC
The team
Main Mission of AFRINIC
What is FIRE
FIRE Grants
Why deploying in University area?
Project Implementation
Workshop Gallery
Impact and sustainability
Conclusion

3. Introduction





A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a multi-hop wireless
network that consists of mesh clients and mesh routers.
Mesh routers form the backbone of WMNs.
Some of mesh routers are called gateway nodes and connected
with a wired network.
Each node can communicate directly with one or more peer
nodes
The host nodes (typically stationary) can also serve as routers
to forward the clients’ traffic in a multi-hop fashion to the
destination

4. Overview
Node
Types

Wireless routers

Gateways

Printers, servers

Stationary clients
Intra-mesh
Types
wireless links
Mobile clients

Link
4
Stationary
client access
Mobile
client access
Internet
access links

5. Why WMNs?





easy deployment
greater reliability
self-configuration
self-healing, and scalability.
the nodes in the network are able to establish
and maintain mesh connectivity automatically

6. Applications of WMNs







WLAN hotspot multi-hopping
citywide surveillance systems
wireless sensor networks (WSNs)
broadband home and office Indoor
networking
intelligent transport system networks
community and neighbour networking
micro base station backhaul and many
others

7. Project Target



Innovation on access provision
E-Development
Workshop and training for students, local
technicians and staff members in some
aspects of the setup, installation and
maintenance of the SECN

8. Sponsors





AFRINIC/FIRE (Major sponsor)
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Cape Peninsula University of Technology,
South Africa
Asmic Computers
VT community members (Hackers, South
Africa)

9. The team





Nasir Faruk (Dept of TCS,University of Ilorin)
Olayiwola Bello (Dept ICS,University of Ilorin)
Dr. Michael Adeyeye (Cape Peninsula University of
Technology, South Africa, Asmic Computers)
Thomas Gone, Steve Song, Antoine Van Gelder
and the VT community members (Hackers, South
Africa)
Undergraduate students (TCS dept University of
Ilorin)

10. Main Mission of AFRINIC



To serve the African community by providing
professional and efficient management of
Internet number resources
Supporting Internet technology usage and
development,
Promoting a participative and multistakeholder approach to Internet selfgovernance.

11. What is FIRE?




The Fund for Internet Research and Education
(FIRE) is an initiative of AFRINIC, the regional
Internet registry for Africa
In existence since 2007
Aims to encourage innovation and find creative,
accessible and acceptable solutions to Africa’s
ICT challenges.
Support
activities
promoting
Internet
development in the African Region, with
particular emphasis on the role of the Internet in
social and economic development in the

12. FIRE GRANTS
A Grants programme aimed at stimulating creative solutions to ICT
development needs in the Africa Region
Small grants allocated to new initiatives:
looking for seed funding for research or implementation
looking to scale up, expand coverage or develop new components
Implementation period: 6 to 12 months
Grant: USD 10,000
Application period for 2014 Grants closed on November, 30 - 2013

13. 2013 FIRE programme Grantee
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Dr Viv PADAYATCHY (Cybernaptics Ltd ,Mauritius)
Jayson JOHANNES ( South Africa)
Dr Gary BROOKING (University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe)
Lillian NALWOGA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East
and Southern Africa (CIPESA) , Uganda)
Jane Ngima MURIUKI (Network of Non Formal Education
Institutions, Kenya)
Peter KAAYA (Arusha Technical College ,Tanzania)
Richard MUGATA (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI)
Kenya)
Nasir FARUK (University of Ilorin, Nigeria) (Me & My team)
Dr Jean CHAMBERLAIN (Uganda Christian University )
Jean-Robert HOUNTOMEY (ISERVICES SARL)
Dr Julius OKELL (SYNERGY INFORMATICS, Kenya)

14. Why ?






There are over 35,000 students and 5000s of staff
(academic and non- academic).
Unilorin provide for studies, training research and
development of techniques.
Reliability and availability of the existing networks.
The use of cellular phones for voice communication
amongst Staff and students.
No infrastructure for the legacy Plain Old Telephone
System
Recurrent cost.

15. Project Implementation




The network is made up of Mesh Potatoes (MP).
Each MP features a wireless transceiver, telephone and RJ45
interfaces as well as industry standard PBX controllers in a robust
simple weatherproof package.
The telephone interface provides voice (telephony) services with the
use of traditional analog telephone boxes, while the RJ45 interface
provides connection to the corporate local area network (LAN) for
data and computer based services.
The wireless interface provides support for WiFi enabled devices
such as laptop computers, tablets and mid-to-high end mobile
phones. Multiple MPs are setup to form a resilient mesh network

16. Architecture
Accomplished
On process

17. Hardware Architecture

18. Fig 3. Interior View of the faculty

19. Fig 4. Showing complete set of MP and
battery backup

20. Fig. 5. Showing MP for Department of ICS

21. Fig.6. MP for department of Computer
Science

22. Phone Number Distribution
Offices
Dean’s Office
Department of Telecommunication Science
Department of Information and
Communication Science
Department of Computer Science
Department of Mass Communication
Department of Library and Information
Science
Number
01
02
03
04
05
06

23. WORKSHOP PHASE
2-DAY WORKSHOP ON WIRELESS MESH NETWORK PROJECT
FOR CAMPUS RADIO, eLEARNING, COMMUNICATION AND
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER ACROSS AFRICA


Design of wireless mesh networks
 Over view of wireless communication
 Overview of WMN structure, client infrastructure
 Overview of Mesh routing protocols
 Scalability Recovery
 Addressing, routing and domain name resolution
 Interference with external networks (single homed and multi home
WMNs)
WMNs for internet access
 Design
 Authentication, Authorization and accounting
 WMN visualization and monitoring
 WMN security

24. 
Demonstration
 Introduction to OpenWRT/embedded linux
 Configuration and flashing of devices
 WMN Troubleshooting

WMN installation
 Installation of APs in the faculty
 Testing
 Monitoring
 Evaluation

25. Lectures delivered during Workshop



Dr A. O. Issa LIS
 Information and knowledge transfer
Dr A. Tella (Mass Communcation)
eLearning









African Academy of Languages
Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA),
Computer Aid International
Computers for African Schools (CFAS)
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
eGranary Digital Library
eLearning Africa, Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa
(FOSSFA)
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) of e-learning in
Africa
Open source e-learning tools; Wiki, Online Forum – yahoo/google, etc,
Dropbox, Blog, Social Networking Sites – Facebook, Twitter, ToGo, etc.

26. Thomas Gone from Nairobi





WMN installation
Installation of APs in the faculty
Testing
Monitoring
Evaluation

27. Some Workshop Pictures

28. Dean of Faculty and Chief host of the workshop.
Prof L.O Aina

29. HOD Telecommunication. Prof. A.Ayeni
and HOD ICS, Dr. (Mrs) Mejabi during the
workshop.

30. Mr. Thomas Gone: Explaining the
procedure for monitoring the WMN

31. Cross section of participants
during the workshop

32. Workshop Registration desk

33. Photo of students of the faculty at the
closing

34. External participants from
various institutions

35. Results
Exit Knowledge
Frequency Count
60
50
40
30
YES
20
NO
10
0
Awareness
of WMN
Before
Practical
Knowledge
of WMN
before
Awareness Practical
of WMN
Knowledge
After
of WMN
After
Fig 8. Exit Knowledge
About
2,300 calls was made in a month
Fig 7. Distribution of Participants by Gender 6,000 calls was recorded for 3 months
Coast Saving about N 180,000 for 3 months
N 700,000 per year

36. Impact





Provision of alternative, reliable and easy means of
communication for staff
-Intranet
Sharing files admin ?
Course materials-Lecturers?
- At the end of the workshop, this project deliver the
following:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Awareness
Knowledge transfer and acquisition
Training
Platform for research
Donation of some WMN equipments (VT, Serval and FAbfi) for
communication and research

37. Dissemination of project activities




Project Website:
http:kwaraproject.ngportal.com.
University of Ilorin Bulletin of July 22nd,
2013.
Unilorin FM radio station
Village Telco website, http://villagetelco.org/

38. Sustainability





Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC)
National University Commission (NUC)
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) and
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
As awareness and uptake into the programme
increases, it is hoped that participants will be
levied to sustain the continuous spread of the
knowledge and latest developments in related
areas.

39. Further work





Connecting MPs to the internet grid
Planning a fully mesh communication network based on extensive use of
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) clients (e.g. Elastix or Trixbox) and closely
following any new developments of the Firefox OS / Firefox phone as we
presume this will be dominant technologies in the future.
Implementation of PSTN/GSM gateway & the billing system (software
purchase, application development and Integration) designed by Ernesto
Gomez Tagle G (Violetta Platar) and Abdel Wahid Sabre Ousman (Ben
Sabre Fils) in South Africa. so that calls can be made from the facility to
mobile stations (GSM) and other public switched telephone networks
outside the University.
Software Development and installation of Automatic call logs which would
provide information on the frequency of use of the telephones
Deploying TV white space solution for last mile connectivity

40. Other case studies

Nyandeni, South Africa
The Nyandeni telco was initiated with the support of the University of the
Western Cape which has provided the initial funding to acquire the
hardware and the training for its installation. It is now operated and
maintained by the local community.

Ibadan, Nigeria
Michael Adeyeye has been a member of the Village Telco community since
its earliest days. Working through his own company, Asmicom, Michael
partnered with colleagues in Ibadan to set up the Ibadan Wireless User
Group.

Fusagasugá, Colombia
Jorge Gomez is building a Village Telco in the hills around Fusagasugá
where phone and Internet coverage is not available.

Orocovis, Puerto Rico
Jose Soto is the President of CoquiTel, a small WISP whose goal to provide
equal access to Internet and phone service to underserved areas of Puerto
Rico.

41. Case studies cont…

Kranshoek, South Africa
Wayne Abroue has lived in Kranshoek, 15km outside of Plettenberg bay in
South Africa for the last 20 yrs. Kranshoek is a Griqua community. Through
the wireless mesh project, Wayne’s goal is to transfer my many technical
years of experience to the young generation.

Bo-kaap, Cape Town, South Africa
One of the first pilot sites for Village Telco was the community of Bo-kaap in
Cape Town. We chose Bo-kaap partly because of proximity but more
importantly because the Bo-kaap community is well known for the strength
of the community ties that bind it together. Village Telcos are most likely to
thrive where people have already have strong reasons to communicate with
each other locally.

Piracanga, Bahia, Brazil
When Mike Jensen moved to an EcoVillage on the north-eastern coast of
Brazil, he brought Village Telco with him. He has since expanded access
into the local town through a WiFi hotspot and cybercafe.

42. Way forward for a better Africa

Collaboration amongst Universities in Africa








Knowledge transfer
Student exchange programme
Staff exchange
Postdoctoral opportunities
Scholarships for post graduate studies
Industrial-Academic links
Research Africa: http://www.researchresearch.com
Funding


Government
NGOs

43. Acknowledgements

AFRINIC/FIRE for funding and travel grants







Attend AIS in Lusaka
Attend YES Summit in Mauritius
University of Ilorin and FCIS
University of Cape Peninsula, SA (Dr. Michael
Adeyeye, Asmic Computers)
Government of Mauritius and Extensia ltd
WaveTek Nig LTD for TV white space project
Ernesto Gomez Tagle G (Violetta Platar) and Abdel
Wahid Sabre Ousman (Ben Sabre Fils) in South Africa
and so of my undergraduate students who are currently
working on the further work of the project

44. Useful references
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Adeyeye. M and Gardner-Stephan P (2011),”The Village Telco Project: A reliable and Practical
Wireless Mesh Telephone Infrastructure. EURASIP Journal of Wireless Communication and
Networking, available on http://jwcn.eurasipjournals.com/content/2011/1/78
E. Hossain, K. Leung “Wireless mesh networking Architecture and Protocols” 2008 Springer
Science Business Media, LLC 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA
I. Akyildiz, X. Wang, and W. Wang, (2005)“Wireless mesh networks: A survey,” in Computer
Networks’ vol. 47, no. 47, pp. 445-487. Retrieved on 31 Feb, 2010 from
http://www.sciencedirect.com
Mihail L. Sichitiu” Wireless Mesh Networks Challenges and Opportunities” Electrical and Computer
Eng. Dept. NC State University,Raleigh, NC, USA
J. Jun and M. Sichitiu (2003) , “The nominal capacity of wireless mesh networks,” Wireless
Communications, IEEE Vol:10 Issue: 5 pp): 8 – 14 Retrieved on 29 Feb, 2010
http://wwwieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/7742/27826/01241089.pdf
M.I Gumel, N. Faruk and A.A.Ayeni,( 2011)” Investigation and Addressing Unfairness in Wireless
Mesh Networks”, Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences, Vol. 2 No.
10, October 2011, Page 514-524
Mohammed .I Gumel, Nasir Faruk and A.A Ayeni “Routing With Load Balancing in Wireless Mesh
Networks” International Journal of Current Research, ISSN 0975-833X Vol. 3, Issue, 7, pp.087092, July, 2011
P. Ball “Broadband Wireless Networks (2010)” Unpublished Lecture notes Oxford Brookes,
University, UK
S. Hethley. “Essentials of Wireless Mesh Networking” Cambridge Wireless Essentials Series, 2009
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Y. Zhang and J. Luo, H. Hu “Wireless mesh networking Architecture, Protocols and Standards,”
Wireless Networks and Mobile Communications Series Auerbach Publications, New York