Evaluation of a single radio rural mesh network in South Africa

Abstract

This paper evaluates the ability of a low cost wireless mesh network to provide Internet access to a rural area in South Africa with limited broadband connectivity. The network was installed in a mountainous area with a wide range of distances between nodes ranging from long range 5.5 km links to short hops between buildings of only 30 to 50 m. Due to this combination of distances, a mix of unplanned node placement with omni-directional antennas and planned nodes using directional antennas was used. The current network consists of 9 nodes spread over an area of about 15 square kilometers. There is electricity at all the sites but power outages are common, occurring at average intervals of one outage in 7 days, lasting between 3 and 24 hours. The network provides a good service to the satellite based Internet with throughput rates ranging between 300 kbps for 4 hops and 11000 kbps for 1 hop and an average throughput rate of 2324 kbps. The paper evaluates the throughput and delay performance of the OLSR routing protocol being used in the mesh network as well as giving an overview of usage patterns and social behavioural patterns of the users. The users range from first time users in poorer areas of the network to fairly accustomed Internet users in wealthier farming areas.