Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Wireless ISP Using 802.11?

Posted by Cliff on from the an-idea-whose-time-has-come dept.

netheadglenn asks: "I'm trying to set up a small ISP using wireless delivery in a developing country. I'm considering 802.11 as the protocol. Our available spectrum is from 3.7 to 4.2 Mhz. My understanding is that this works fairly well without perfect line-of-sight. We aren't limited by enforced regulation of power output - and in any case regulations here are as flexible as currency. Over here, 64kbps shared between 10 users is considered broadband. The isps simply don't offer anything better than that over dial up connections. Believe it or not, we plan to have 6 users per 64kbps. At $1000/month for 64 kilobits per second, you can see why sharing such limited bandwidth is common. We will start with serving an area within 10 miles of our server. Later we'd like to service two cities that are each about 20 miles away. What is the the absolutely least expensive solution for this?" While the idea of a wireless ISP is a good one, is 802.11 the best protocol for this kind of service?

2 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. What country? by forkspoon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is a fascinating story. I wonder what country the writer is from.

    Secondly, I have researched this idea at some length for use here with my company. Some pretty decent range can be squeezed out of long range antennas (20 miles, $2000 for the antenna) and there are cheap antennas ($200) that will provide around 10 miles of connection in a spherical shape to other high gain antennas. The catch with all these is that the antenna on the other side has to be high gain as well, so you double your costs, but it will work. 802.11b is the current and cheapest standard, and also quite fast at 11Mbps. 802.11g will replace it with higher speeds (50Mbps, and there's some talk of 2X mode at 100Mbps) but backwards compatability. I am not familiar with any other protocols that have such wide industry acceptance, so 802.11b would be my suggestion.

    Thanks,

    Travis
    forkspoon@hotmail.com

  2. Wireless ISP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I own a WISP on a developing country :-).

    We use standard 802.11 equipment on the 2.4 Ghz band. Here is some information I can share with you:

    We have operational clients up to 5 km from us ( a little less than 3.5 miles ). More than that, we start to get important signal loss. But we use one omnidirectional antenna on our HQ, so I guess you could increase range by using directional ones. You would need one per client though.

    In order to minimize cost, we offer our service mostly to appartment buildings. We install one server with NAT and offer access to all tenants through wired ethernet connection. We even give the network card for free ( if needed ).

    We have a 1Mb link serving about 250 clients, 50 of each are commercial. in order to save bandwidth, we run a transparent proxy SQUID server for all our clients. Our average load on the link is about 67%, but it is almost 100% during daytime hours. However, I would say our service is good during all times, with sufficient bandwidth to play streaming audio and video.

    So far we have been quite successfull. We are instaling one new building per month with an average of 20 to 25 new clients. We just don't do more because of lack of financing.

    Good luck to you.