WLAN over GSM for IP access in African rural areas

• Main Author: Chatelain, D
• Other Authors: Van Wyk, BJ
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Tshwane University of Technology 2007
• Subjects: Wireless Local Area Network; Internet Protocol (IP)
• Online Access: http://encore.tut.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemViewPage.external?sp=1001076

In general, rural areas in Africa are seen as unprofitable by operators and hence these areas do not benefit from typical wired Internet access. Due to the cost involved, only a small number of people in Africa benefit from the Internet. On the other hand, the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) has thoroughly penetrated Africa and in many cases unutilized capacity exists in rural areas. Since the cost of GSM services is still extremely high when compared to the average income of African communities, many organizations are now considering alternative business models for the provision of Internet access to disadvantaged populations. To try to bridge the digital divide, the aim of this contribution is to show that basic but affordable Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity can be provided to rural communities by using spare capacity on GSM networks to carry Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) traffic. Since the main problem with WLAN in Africa is not the last mile, but rather finding a way to connect the wireless access point to an existing backbone network, a solution to integrate WLAN with GSM is proposed.