Taking technology to the hills, literally

Monday, 06 November 2006, 20:30 IST
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New Delhi: Wireless networks and mountain goats? Strange though this combination may seem, a series of innovative attempts across South Asia is currently working to make just this happen and take connectivity to places where people are otherwise badly deprived of it. Techies from India and abroad who joined an unusual technology meet in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, in Himachal Pradesh, have spurred enthusiasm and shared ideas on what's possible to "empower communities through wireless networks". Called the AirJaldi Summit 2006, this event was held in the remote and hard to access Dhauladhar mountains during Oct 22-25. But, as the ideas resonate, the possibilities are being felt, and not just in India. Nandasiri Wanninayaka of the HorizonLanka Foundation asked via the BytesForAll network: "We are also trying to see if we can replicate this (AirJaldi mesh network) in a small village in the Hills in Sri Lanka. I just want to know if mesh works in a hilly area. We are testing internet through a mesh in Mahavilachchiya these days." Replied Mumbai-based engineer and former journalist Vickram Crishna, explaining possibilities: "You can see pictures taken in Dharamsala at www.tibtec.org and also at summit.airjaldi.com. McLeodganj is situated around 2,000 metres above mean sea level and the network extends around the hills and down to the valley below." Earlier Mumbai-based techie Warren Brian Noronha, who attended the AirJaldi workshop, commented: "The AirJaldi mesh network is located in and around Dharamshala. The network can be considered as one of the largest mesh networks in the world. It covers over a hundred km of rough terrain with a number of mountains and hills." Most of the network is situated in the foothills of the western Himalayan ranges. The network has already provided internet access to over 2,000 computers. The backbone is composed of 30 nodes. This network is maintained by the Tibetan Technology Center, also known as TibTech. It was developed in cooperation with other institutes such as the Dharamsala Information Technology Group and the Tibetan Computer Resource Center. Most interesting, as Noronha pointed out, the network is built using cheap and off-the-shelf hardware. The networks run software known as OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing) to create a peer-to-peer mesh between computers. The systems will move to a much more stable and robust platform called B.A.T.M.A.N. (Better Approach to Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking). In the October-end meet, some really big names showed up to look at what was being done and suggest what more is possible. There were keynotes by University of Limerick professor Roger Downer, University of Berkley's Eric Brewer, and Vic Hayes who is regarded as the father of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a brand originally licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to describe the underlying technology of wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. It was developed to be used for mobile computing devices, such as laptops, in LANs, but is now increasingly used for more services, including internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as televisions and DVD players, or digital cameras. Vic Hayes, who was the primary inventor of Wi-Fi and has been named the father of Wi-Fi, was involved in designing standards such as IEEE 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. Joining the Dharamsala event was the father of the Free Software Richard "RMS" Stallman, Dave Hughes who created the worlds highest cybercafe in the Himalayas, and Mahabir Pun who, as the father of the Nepal Wifi Networks Elektra, is seen as a brain in the Wi-Fi and radio technologies field, besides one of global networking major Cisco's pioneering engineers Jim Forster. Meanwhile, Pakistan is looking out to possibilities too, in a technology that may not spell huge profits but could surely enhance the common man's ability to communicate, in tough remote terrain. "I was unable to attend the AirJaldi Summit in Dharamsala but it did indeed inspire me to plan the rural connectivity conference in Lahore," commented woman entrepreneur and Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) president Jehan Ara. Among the speakers were Bjarke Nielsen, educational leader at Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband, one of the world's biggest non-commercial rural wireless networks, connecting rural schools, institutions, firms and over 5,000 rural households to the Internet in Denmark.
Source: IANS