All good questions. I know this all seems a bit crazy. Honestly, the only reason I'm involved is that my father was just named president of the college and wants something up and running for the spring semester starting in January. He'll be there for the last three weeks of January and wants to fly me in the final week to install the network. Let me address some of the questions:
Internet access is possible almost anywhere, if there is money for the equipment and the service costs. Satellite Internet services exist, costs vary.
True. An the plan is to eventually find a good solution and bring internet in. The campus is extremely remote (
google map ). The problem is they they want a network of some kind setup at the beginning of the semester so I've got just a couple weeks to whip something together. I'm going to try to get someone to get at least a SIM card with a data plan. Then if I get in a jam, I can climb Mt. Kazemba, and I can get a signal
Local labor is not possible for creating shallow trenches for the cable?
Good point. I have a ready supply of labor from the local villages as well as the students. The ground is quite rocky and won't be easy to trench and the only tools available will be shovels. I'll check and see if I can have someone track down some network cable in Lusaka and bury it before I arrive. That said, at least one of the runs is over 800 feet and across an ( admittedly unpaved ) road with unknown power availability along the run. For at least the longer runs, for now wireless is the best option.
Are you also constrained on budget and equipment costs?
Yes. Very much so. I plan to bring at least a couple spares of whatever I bring. Professors fly in from the US regularly to teach the students compressed courses so they can bring replacements if the spares get put into service.
How much data traffic is this network supposed to handle?
Minimal. Mostly database updates for administrative data, print jobs, moving files around. Honestly I don't think there's even an expectation of extremely high availability. Even the power is pretty unreliable. For now, I think they just want the capability to administrate the place without running paper all over the campus. They can then build the network out over time for more reliability and capacity.
Do you have direct line of sight between buildings or will the radio signals have to get around obstructions?
Yes, line of site won't be a problem. Possibly a few tree branches, but minimal. Interference from other radio signals definitely WILL NOT be an issue. They are way far from civilization and didn't even have power until recently. The neighbors live in grass and mud huts.
John, I'd definitely like to help you where I can with this project.
I'll PM you what I have for the site plan. It's possible to measure the approximate distance between buildings using Google Earth as well.
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