-

Abstract: Deploying and maintaining an Internet service in remote rural and mountainous areas
is a challenging task specifically in developing countries. In this paper, we present a study to
realize a low-cost sustainable Wireless Internet Service Provider (ISP) built for rural areas of
developing countries. There was no Internet access in the area prior to this project. The
solution consists of a Wi-Fi based networking system that covers three remote far away villages
(Koi-Barmol, Piple and Baboozo) in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. The
contributions of this study include the details of step-by-step design, implementation and the
issues faced to the rural WISP during long-term operation with recommendations to mitigate
these issues. Apart from sharing practical insights we also make technical contributions in the
form of throughput and latency analysis of IEEE 802.11n with the proprietary TDMA MAC
protocol called airMAX over long-distance point-to-point links. We hope that the study will help
people to quickly built and deploy a low-cost sustainable Internet service in the remote rural
areas using off-the-shelf devices.

Cite this article as : Hameed, A.; Mian, A. N. & Qadir, J. Low-cost sustainable wireless Internet service for
rural areas, Wireless Networks, 2016, 1-12, DOI: 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8, Springer

View original article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

Hameed, A.; Mian, A. N. & Qadir, J. Low-cost sustainable wireless Internet service for rural areas,
Wireless Networks, 2016, 1-12, DOI: 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8, Springer
Wireless Networks manuscript No.
(will be inserted by the editor)

Low-cost Sustainable Wireless Internet Service for Rural Areas

Abdul Hameed · Adnan Noor Mian · Junaid Qadir

the date of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later

Abstract Deploying and maintaining an Internet ser- clude the details of step-by-step design, implementation

vice in remote rural and mountainous areas is a chal- and the issues faced to the rural WISP during long-

lenging task specifically in developing countries. In this term operation with recommendations to mitigate these

paper, we present a study to realize a low-cost sustain- issues. Apart from sharing practical insights we also

able Wireless ISP (Internet Service Provider) built for make technical contributions in the form of throughput

rural areas of developing countries. There was no Inter- and latency analysis of IEEE 802.11n with the propri-

net access in the area prior to this project. The solu- etary TDMA MAC protocol called airMAX over long-

tion consists of a Wi-Fi based networking system that distance point-to-point links. We hope that the study

covers three remote far away villages (Koi-Barmol, Pi- will help people to quickly built and deploy a low-cost

ple and Baboozo) in the Pakistani province of Khy- sustainable Internet service in the remote rural areas

ber Pukhtunkhwa. The contributions of this study in- using off-the-shelf devices.

Abdul Hameed · Adnan Noor Mian · Junaid Qadir

Department of Computer Science, Information Technology

University (ITU)

Arfa Software Technology Park, Ferozepur Road, Lahore,

Pakistan

Keywords Long Distance Wi-Fi · Internet Con-

E-mail: abdul.hameed@itu.edu.pk nectivity · Internet for All · Wireless ISP · Rural

adnan.noor@itu.edu.pk · junaid.qadir@itu.edu.pk Internet

2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

1 Introduction The bandwidth and range of Wi-Fi based technol-

ogy is much improved in the recent years. The IEEE

802.11ad for instance provides 6.75 Gbps data rates

to stations [4]. Long-distance Wi-Fi can provide point-

Internet access is a vital part of the todays modern
to-point (P2P) connectivity up to hundreds of kilo-
world and plays an important role in the development
meters with directional antennas. For instance UBNT
of the society. Wireless communication technology is
(short for Ubiquiti1 ) Rocket AF-5X devices operating
preferred as a last mile when the users are dispersed or
on 5GHz is marketed to provide P2P connectivity up to
far away from the core or when it is not feasible to lay
200 km with throughput up to 500 Mbps. The world’s
down a fixed cable service to the distant users. A vari-
longest broadband P2P link with off-the-shelf devices
ety of wireless communication technologies exist which
is recorded to be 304 km in length. This link provides
can be used for providing wireless Internet access. Ma-
a throughput of 354 Mbps and latency of only 3.5 ms
jor technology types include satellite broadband (e.g.,
with 5GHz UBNT radio devices [5]. The range of IEEE
using VSAT or very small aperture terminals); cellular
802.11bgn access points (APs), which was originally less
broadband, e.g., using GPRS (general packet radio ser-
than 100 meters, can now be increased to kilometers
vice), HSPA (high-speed packet access), and LTE (long
with externally installed omnidirectional and sector an-
term evolution); and other wireless technologies such
tennas.
as Wi-Fi, WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for mi-

crowave access), and TVWS (TV white spaces). Most Pakistan is amongst the most disconnected region

of these technologies—with the exception of TVWS and in the world with an offline population of about 165

Wi-Fi— require a license for operating on the RF (ra- million [6]. Despite the growth of 5.8% of Internet ac-

dio frequency) spectrum [1][2]. The TVWS is a new cess from 2010 to 2014, there are still many rural areas

technology and many developing countries like Pakistan in Pakistan that are lacking Internet facility [7]. In this

have not defined any frequency bands for it. We select work, we have focused on such three distant villages—

Wi-Fi since it is a standard commodity technology and Koi-Barmol, Piple and Baboozo— which are located

has clearly defined frequency bands that is available in the Mardan district of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa

worldwide. Moreover, it is cheaper for Internet access province of Pakistan. These three villages have a to-

1
and is easily available in the markets worldwide [3]. https://www.ubnt.com/
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 3

Fig. 1 An aerial view of the area; Source: Google Earth, eye alt @7902ft

tal population of 32000 approximately, with the major- level and also the distances in kilometers between each

ity of inhabitants working in foreign employment. Thus site. The only option to provide upstream connectivity

voice and video calls are among their obvious commu- to these sites is by connecting to a nearby Western city

nication needs. With the youth of this area becoming that has Internet access.

more educated, there is an increased demand for email The motivation behind this study is to design and

service and increased access to educational materials on build a low-cost Internet service for the three distant

the web. Some of the inhabitants also require Internet villages where the users are dispersed over a large area.

access for their online jobs like tutoring and freelanc- There were no Internet services in the area before this

ing, using which they can avoid cumbersome travel to project. Although many wireless technology exists for

the nearest main city that is 35 km away from the area. Internet access like WiMax, GPRS, 3G etc., mostly

The terrain of the area is illustrated in Fig. 1. The area used by cellular operators, all these requires a license

is surrounded by hills from three sides and only one for operation. Our aim was to select a wireless tech-

side from the West is open. The three villages under nology that does not require license for operation, is

consideration—Koi-Barmol, Piple and Baboozo— are cheap both for the operator and consumer and is avail-

labeled in Fig. 1 as Site1, Site2 and Site3, respectively. able in the commodity hardware. The quest ultimately

Fig. 1 shows the relative height of the hills to the sea stopped at Wi-Fi. The proposed WISP system uses a
4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

Wi-Fi based solution. The client side consists of an ex- – The step-by-step design and implementation details

ternal Wi-Fi USB (Universal Serial Bus) device with of a low-cost WISP in a remote rural area of Pak-

a low-cost rooftop antenna. For Wi-Fi access points, istan.

UBNT M2 (i.e. 2.4GHz radio) devices are used. Both – The throughput and latency analysis of IEEE

omnidirectional and directional antennas are deployed 802.11n and airMAX TDMA protocol for long-

with access points depending on the required coverage. distance P2P links.

The UBNT NanoBridge M5 devices are used for P2P – Identification of issues that can throttle down a sus-

links. The NanoBridge M52 is a 5GHz radio device for tainable service and their treatment under limited

long-distance P2P links that comes with directional an- resources, based on our experience of three years of

tennas. With these 5GHz radio devices, we were able to operation.

establish a link over more than 17 km with a throughput

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section
as high as 115 Mbps. For fault tolerance purposes, two
2 discusses the network planning and analysis. Section
different cities are chosen for acquiring upstream con-
3 provides the rationale for the hardware selection and
nections to the Internet. A Mikrotik3 router board is
implementation process. Section 4 provides a perfor-
used for user account management, bandwidth control
mance evaluation in such settings of the IEEE 802.11n
and hotspot creation. The final implemented system is
MAC protocol and the proprietary TDMA protocol
expected to provide Internet access to more than 150
called airMAX. The issues we encountered are reported
users with at least 60 simultaneous online users. More
in section 5. An overview of related work is provided in
users can be served in the future by installing additional
section 6. In section 7, we provide directions for future
access points and acquiring more upstream bandwidth
work and conclude the paper in section 8
when required.

In this paper, we have documented our experience

of designing and building a low-cost Internet service

2 Network Planning and Analysis
with a limited budget in an unprivileged rural area.

The contributions of this paper are: This section discusses different types of analysis we car-

ried out before converging on, and implementing the

2
https://dl.ubnt.com/nb5 datasheet.pdf
3
http://routerboard.com/RB750GL final solution.
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 5

Fig. 2 Initial survey in Google Earth, eye alt @11.23mi

2.1 Site Analysis for Upstream Providers broken lines indicate that the LoS is obstructed inside

the area identified by broken circles. There are four hilly

The first step is to identify the list of possible remote
areas obstructing LoS paths which are labeled as O1 to
locations from where Internet connection can be ac-
O4 . Please note that the hill that creates obstruction at
quired. Once the providers are identified, the next step
O1 is small and therefore not clearly visible in Fig. 2.
is to identify the locations for P2P radio installation in
This obstruction O1 is blocking all LoS paths from the
the acquisition sites. One option is to use the provider’s
Site1 and Site2 to ISP-C and ISP-D. Moreover, we see
tower facilities and pay the cost of sharing. An alter-
that other LoS paths from Site3 to ISP-C and ISP-D are
native solution is to find out some places (like taller
also obstructed at O2 and O3 . We thus drop these two
buildings, municipal water tanks, etc.) that is within
ISPs from further consideration in the initial analysis.
the operator’s coverage having enough height for a clear
Only Site1 and Site2 have non-obstructed LoS paths to
line-of-sight (LoS) path to the remote serving site. In
both ISP-A and ISP-B. Although upstream connection
4
our case, Fig. 2 shows a Google Earth image of the four
can be acquired from a single ISP, we chose both (ISP-A
nearest locations (i.e. ISP-A, ISP-B, ISP-C and ISP-D)
and ISP-B) for avoiding a single point of failure.
having the Internet service. The area marked in white in

Fig. 2 shows the serving area of the ISPs. The solid lines

in Fig. 2 show non-obstructed LoS paths whereas the

4
https://www.google.com/earth/
6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

2.2 User Analysis Otherwise a location within the range of operator’s cov-

erage is required as discussed in subsection 2.1. A non-

A short survey is always useful to identify the minimum
obstructed LoS path for the required P2P links should
user requirements and thus plan accordingly. We did a
also be possible.
random survey in each serving site identifying the res-
A terrain analysis is required to know the geographic
idents who have computers. These persons were asked
characteristics of the serving area. These characteristics
few questions like the nature of their jobs, time and pur-
include the density of stations, elevation gain or loss,
pose of usage, favorite applications and any critical re-
obstructions to wireless signals like abundance of trees,
quirements. During the interviews, we found that there
lakes, hilly terrain etc. A virtual survey (through soft-
are 60 residents who showed willingness to subscribe to
ware like Google Earth, UBNT airLink etc.) followed
our service. The average bandwidth required per user
by a physical survey of the area is thus recommended.
was estimated to be 900 Kbps —considering a moderate
The distance between APs and the farthest possible sta-
user application profile including web browsing, Skype
tions are needed for calculating the maximum required
video calls, video streaming, social media usage etc. On
coverage. Knowing these characteristics of the required
the basis of estimated bandwidth required per user, the
coverage help in deciding an appropriate set of equip-
estimated total bandwidth required was calculated to
ment and its configuration.
be between 26 to 31 Mbps (using an online bandwidth
Considering the area shown in Fig. 1, all the three
calculator5 ).
sites cannot be covered from a single location; however,

Site1 and Site2 can be served from point B as shown

2.3 Analysis of Installation Locations
in Fig. 3. We divide the entire area of the two serving

The next step was to analyze and chose the location of sites into four regions, i.e., Region A through Region D.

installations for wireless devices in both the serving and The required coverage is marked with triangles in Fig.

the acquisition sites. The selection of a location in the 3. The distance highlighted in Fig. 3, i.e., 1.72 km for

acquisition site is simple. If sharing with the operator Region A and 2.5 km for Region B indicate a farthest

is possible then the operator will point out the exact possible station from AP. The dense client’s area for

location of installation for radios and other equipment. both regions is within 1.4 km from the installation point

5
http://bandwidthpool.com/bandwidth-calculator/ B. We also noted that there would be some dispersed
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 7

Fig. 3 Coverage required in Site1 & Site2

users around point B (marked in circle) at an average installed at 1644 feet will be able to see its station’s

distance of 500 meters. antenna at 1640 feet.

Next we estimate the required height for P2P links.

Our system requires three P2P links. The first two links
2.4 Estimating the Height for Antennas
connect point B with the two upstream providers i.e.

Considering the area shown in Fig. 3, there is a small ISP-A and ISP-B. A third link is required to connect

elevation loss from Region A to point B and then to point B with the third serving site i.e. Site3. We use

Region B. So the height of the AP at point B needs both Google Earth and UBNT Airlink for estimating

to be selected according to a possible taller station in the height. Fresnel zone analysis like the one shown in

Region A. During analysis of Region A in Google Earth, Fig. 4 is also carried out. The blue colored area in Fig. 4

we estimated that antenna of a station at height can be shows obstruction to the link. For the P2P link between

at 1640 feet relative to the sea level. Point B is at 1554 point B and ISP-A, there is no clearance of the first

feet and is a 30 feet taller building. A 60 feet taller tower Fresnel zone and 60% of first Fresnel Zone (also known

once installed at B will thus have a total height of 1644 as 60% clearance zone) even when the height of the

feet (1554f t location height + 30f t building height + radio at ISP-A were 20 meters above the ground (Fig.

60f t tower height) relative to the sea level. An AP thus 4(b)). For a stable link, the radio in ISP-A needs to be
8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

installed at least 30 meters above the ground as shown decided to use UBNT 5GHz devices—NanoBridge M5

in Fig. 4(c). (Model. NB-5G25)— that are available with directional

antennas. We preferred 5GHz radios for P2P links to

3 Equipment Selection & Implementation avoid interface with 2.4GHz devices. The P2P link to

the second upstream site, i.e., ISP-B also required the

This section discusses the equipment selection process
same set of equipment.
based on the information collected during the analysis
The serving site B also needed two 5GHz radios for
phase. The sequence of steps carried out during the
connecting with the two ISPs. A load balancer was used
implementation and the evaluation and testing details
at point B for spreading incoming LANs traffic over
of the final implemented system is also discussed in this
the two P2P links. A MikroTik router board (Model
section.
RB750GL) was selected for this purpose, since it also

provides some extra features needed at point B. These

3.1 Equipment for Upstream Sites features include bandwidth control, easy package man-

agement, user management, programmability, hotspot,

The objective of this step is to select an appropriate set
etc.
of equipment for connecting the upstream site with the

serving sites. In our case, both the upstream providers

3.2 Equipment for Serving Sites
are ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber lines) oper-

ators. We decided to initially acquire a total of 26 Mbps The equipments required in serving sites depend on dif-

bandwidth for supporting the 60 users identified in sec- ferent factors like the type of coverage required (90o or

tion 2.2. The decision was to acquire four 4 Mbps con- 360o ), the maximum distance, the density of users, etc.

nections from ISP-A and three such connections from As shown in Fig. 3, there are three dense areas. Region

ISP-B. A TP-Link6 load balancer was used to merge A can be covered with a 90o sector antenna. The maxi-

multiple ADSL connections in each upstream site. The mum users in Region A can rise to 60 requiring the AP

distance between point B (the installation point at serv- to support at least 30 simultaneous stations consider-

ing site) and the installation point in ISP-A is nearly 17 ing a 0.5 probability for each user to be online. We se-

km and thus required long-distance Wi-Fi devices. We lect a high-gain Lanbowan7 90o sector antenna (Model
6 7
http://www.tp-link.com/ http://www.lanbowan.com/
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 9

(a) 10m Height (b) 20m Height

(c) 30m Height

Fig. 4 Fresnel zone clearness between point B and ISP-A

ANT2327D16T-90DP) with UBNT Rocket M2 AP for mated users in this region. Secondly, a pair of TP-Link

this region. The high-power AP coupled with the high- 5210g devices cost only $90 while a Lanbowan sector

gain sector antenna having a range of 3 km will reach antenna with UBNT Rocket M2 cost at least $200. For

the far end stations and will also help in minimizing the the dispersed users shown in circle in Fig. 3, a UBNT

shadow fading effects. Bullet M2 AP with a $30 TP-Link omnidirectional an-

tenna (Model TL-ANT2415D) was selected. The details

The second triangular coverage in Fig. 3, consisting
of the third serving site (i.e. Site3 in Fig. 1) are omitted
of Region B and Region D, is slightly more than 90o .
for brevity.
We can use the same set of equipment as that of Region

A, but we decided to use two low-cost TP-Link 5210g

3.3 Tower and Pole Selection
devices mainly because of the following two reasons.

Firstly, these devices have a 60o built-in antenna and a It is possible to install a small set of Wi-Fi equipment

pair of such devices could serve the 30 maximum esti- in low-cost homemade poles if the required height is
10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

less than 40 feet. Such poles can be made from pipes – Installation of the radios for P2P links.

like steel water pipes, strong fiberglass pipes, aluminum – P2P antenna alignment and quality testing.

tubes, and even from wood like from bamboo plants. – Installation of APs and outdoor sector and omnidi-

Different design of poles and mounting bases can be rectional antennas.

found at Antenna Engineering blog8 . Care must be – Service testing at random customer locations in the

taken during installation especially in case of steel poles serving areas.

for avoiding contact with the nearby power transmis- – Final configuration of the devices like routers, fire-

sion lines. A more scalable approach is to use tower for walls, load balancers etc.

outdoor equipment installation [8]. We decided to use – Securing the cables in public places.

homemade poles in Site3 and ISP-B because the instal- – Training users and relevant persons.

lation location provides the required height. A 60 feet

Our final implemented system looks like the one shown
taller guyed mast tower installation is required at point
in Fig. 5.
B.

3.4 Installation

3.5 Evaluation and Testing

The estimated total cost of the proposed system with

new equipments including the 60 feet guyed tower was All the three P2P links are tested for throughput and

$2430. This can be contrasted with the cost of build- all are found to satisfy the requirements identified in

ing a single cellular tower which is approximately in section 3.1. For minimizing the chances of interference,

the range of $23000 in Pakistan. With second hand de- each P2P link was configured with the smallest channel

vices, we were able to lower the cost to $1500. This cost width that provides enough throughput for the esti-

does not include installation cost, labor cost, the cost mated traffic load on the link. With a channel width of

of equipment in the customer premises and the cost of 20MHz, the P2P link provides more than the required

acquiring the ADSL links from upstream providers. Fol- download throughput of 26 Mbps on the longest link

lowing steps were carried out in the installation phase. as shown in Fig. 6(c) (discussed in more detail in sec-

tion 4). The load-balancers at each acquisition site were

– Tower and poles making.
8
http://antennaengineering.blogspot.com/ evaluated for different load-sharing methods.
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 11

Internet Internet

ADSL MODEMS

LOAD BALANCERS

P2P RADIOS

ISP-A P2P LINKS ISP-B

WATER TANK

Site3 Site1&2
(B)
TP LINK 5210G

OMNI ANT

SECTOR ANT
WAN
PORTS
GUYED TOWER
POLES

MikroTik RB

LAN
ETHERNET PORT
CABLES

ETHERNET
SWITCHES

Fig. 5 The final implemented system

The Wi-Fi APs are also evaluated and it is found 4 Comparison of 802.11n with airMAX TDMA

that with a clear line-of-sight, even at a distance of for P2P Links

3.8 km, a Wi-Fi station is able to get a throughput

of 5 Mbps. A station at Site3 that is approximately

The MAC layer of 802.11 technology is based on
a kilometer away from AP, downloaded a shared file
CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision
stored in point B with a throughput of 25 Mbps. This
avoidance). The legacy IEEE 802.11b MAC protocol
shows that the requirement of minimum 900 Kbps per
that operate on 2.4GHz have inherent limitations for
user identified in section 2.2 is clearly met. After the
long-range P2P links, including longer delays, ACKs
testing phase, the service is charged with a flat rate
timeout and interference with home held Wi-Fi devices
equivalent to approximately $10 per month for 1 Mbps
[9]. The IEEE 802.11n is an amendment to the old stan-
rate.
dard that supports operation on 5GHz band. The high

data rate, low latency and support for 5GHz band make

802.11n more suitable for long-range P2P links [10]. In

12 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

this paper, we compare the IEEE 802.11n MAC with ten in the default configuration of the equipment. The

a proprietary TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) common practice among WISP operators is to use the

protocol called airMAX (Ubiquiti’s propriety TDMA) default configuration (i.e. TDMA protocol) for all types

for the P2P links. The airMAX protocol is known for of setups including for the P2P links. We, on the other

its performance and support of large number of stations hand, argue to use 802.11n MAC instead of the TDMA

connected to a single AP [11]. Unni et al. evaluate air- for P2P links in rural areas. The intuition is that, de-

MAX for PTMP (point-to-multi-point) links but the vices with 802.11n MAC will put data directly on the air

results for P2P links are still missing [12].This gap in compared to the TDMA devices that have to wait for

literature is covered in this section. its time slot to reach (as required in TDMA). Assuming

a less congested RF in rural areas of a developing coun-

4.1 Motivation for Selecting Appropriate MAC
try, the 802.11n protocol can thus achieve slightly bet-
Protocol for P2P Links
ter throughput than the TDMA protocol for the P2P

links. Such an analysis is supported by our results. In

In P2P links, there are only two radios operating on the
this section, we analyze this aspect of MAC protocols
channel compared to the PTMP setup where a num-
for P2P links in rural areas.
ber of radios are sharing the same frequency channel.

So in P2P links, the chances of co-channel interference

4.2 Experimental Details
are much smaller than in a PTMP setup. The 802.11-

based MAC protocols are known for their inefficiency in We evaluated the two MAC protocols for four differ-

handling large number of radios operating on the same ent channel widths. The aim was to select the smallest

channel. The TDMA-based MAC protocols overcome channel width (since it reduces interference) that pro-

this deficiency of 802.11-based MAC protocols. TDMA vides the required throughput on the P2P link with

protocols assign time slots to each device and a device better latency. Our single latency test involves 20 ping

is allowed to transmit and receive only in its respec- packets. For each channel width and MAC protocol, 10

tive time slot. Off-the-shelf radio equipments for long latency tests and 10 throughput tests were performed

distance communications often have both the 802.11- between the AP and the station on the P2P link. The

based MAC as well as the vendor’s proprietary TDMA P2P link is 17.3 km in distance. The weather conditions

protocol. The proprietary TDMA protocol is most of- remained similar throughout all tests. The spectrum is
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 13

also monitored repeatedly to make sure that there is no RX throughput also increase but this increase is not

transmission on the nearby channels. symmetric for 802.11n, which become the cause of fluc-

tuation in throughput ratio (Fig. 7). The fluctuation in

4.3 Results Discussion
throughput ratio also causes fluctuation in queuing de-

lays incurred by ping packets at the station and hence

The mean values of the 10 tests for each protocol and
in its RTT (Fig. 6(a)).
channel width are plotted in Fig. 6. Fig. 6(a) shows
The bandwidth tests are also performed from the
the results of mean latency in terms of round trip time
AP side of the P2P link. The mean total TCP through-
(RTT) of ping packets. The ping tests are performed
put is plotted in Fig. 6(b). Fig. 6(b) shows that 802.11n
from the AP side of the P2P link. In our case, ping
result in a slight better throughput than airMAX. The
RTT mainly includes the queuing and transmit delays
difference is more visible for larger channel width. We
of AP plus the queuing and transmit delays at the sta-
also noted that 802.11n gives more consistent through-
tion required for echoing back the packets.
put between successive tests than airMAX. On the
The smaller bars for 802.11n in Fig. 6(a) shows that
other hand, airMAX gives more symmetrical RX and
it provides lower RTT for the same channel width com-
TX throughput than 802.11n as shown by Fig. 6(c).
pared to the airMAX. We note that there exists small
Thus airMAX should be preferred for P2P links only
fluctuation in RTT for 802.11n with increasing chan-
when symmetric RX and TX throughput is required.
nel widths. This fluctuation is due to the variation in
We opt for 802.11n because we do not require symmet-
queuing delay for different channel width. In a P2P
rical bandwidth on the P2P link. We required a max-
link, there are two radios where one radio is config-
imum of 31 Mbps download throughput, i.e., the TX
ured as an AP and the other as a station. The transmit
throughput of the AP identified in Section 2.2. This
(TX) throughput of one radio is equivalent to the re-
amount of TX throughput can be achieved with 802.11n
ceive (RX) throughput of the other and vice versa. If
with a channel width of only 20MHz.
the AP’s TX throughput is greater than its RX then

the queuing delay incurred by ping packets at the sta-

5 Issues and Suggestions
tion is proportional to the ratio of AP’s TX and RX

throughput. Such a ratio is shown in Fig. 7 for our P2P Our WISP service is operational since last three years.

link. With the increase in channel width, the TX and The issues discussed in this section reflect the major
14 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

6 120
802.11n airMAX 802.11n airMAX

100

Mean Total Throughput(Mbps)

5

80
Mean RTT (ms)

60

3
40

2
20

1 0
5 10 20 40 5 10 20 40
Channel Width (MHz) Channel Width (MHz)

(a) Mean RTT (b) Total Throughput

100
802.11n_RX airMAX_RX
802.11n_TX airMAX_TX
Mean RX/TX Throughput(Mbps)

80

60

40

20

0
5 10 20 40
Channel Width (MHz)

(c) Mean RX/TX Throughput

Fig. 6 Evaluation of IEEE 802.11n and airMAX for P2P link

8 insights that we have developed during these three years

7

6
of operation.
Throughput Ratio

4
– Low-cost Bandwidth Acquisition: The cost of dedi-
3

2 cated bandwidth is 100$-200$ per Mbps. ISPs often

1
do not allow their shared bandwidth to be further
0
5 10 20 40
Channel Width (MHz) shared by users. On the other hand, rural users are

unable to support the cost of dedicated bandwidth.

Fig. 7 Ratio of transmit and receive throughput of the AP
In such a case, the solution is to convince the man-
with 802.11n MAC
agement of the ISP for allowing the only mean of
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 15

shared bandwidth for connecting the rural inhabi- – Traveling Between Remote Points: To minimize

tants. travel time, a technical person having some basic

– Long-term Successful Operation: Proper billing and troubleshooting knowledge is deputed in each far

management is required for a long-term successful away site. Remote desktop management software

operation. Billing and user management can be done like TeamViewer12 and Chrome Remote Desktop13

either manually or automatically through a Radius can be used for remote assistance and troubleshoot-

server like FreeRADIUS9 and Radius Manager10 . ing. Configuring the APs and routers to be accessi-

With Radius server and Wi-Fi Hotspot, the users ble on the Internet through port forwarding would

could recharge their accounts using top-up cards. also lower the traveling cost. Dynamic DNS or static

– Power Management: Power management is one of public IP addresses on the gateway routers can be

the main issues faced by WISP operators in rural used for easy access.

areas of developing countries. The proposed system – Handling Weak Signals: The first step towards the

use alternative sources for power i.e., UPS (Unin- solution is to view the station’s link statistics at

terruptible Power Supply) and solar panel with bat- its AP. If any of the station’s uplink or downlink

teries. As the network equipment generally consists rate in its AP statistics is shown as 1 Mbps or less,

of low power devices, the UPS itself can become the the user will suffer from broken connections. The

main source of power drain. We thus powered-up the remedy includes checking the station’s antenna and

devices directly from batteries. For instance, a series cable for physical faults, increasing the height of

configuration of two 12V batteries could power up antenna, changing its position, and using a higher

devices requiring either 12V or 24V DC power. An power transmission device with a high-gain antenna.

adjustable DC step-down circuit (like LM25961011 ) If none of the solution helps, P2P link or cable con-

can be used for low power devices that require volt- nectivity for the user should be considered as a last

age less than 12V . To prevent batteries from full resort.

discharge, a charge controller should be used. – Mitigating Radio Frequency Interference in P2P

Links: In cases of interference with other devices,

9
http://freeradius.org/
10 12
http://www.dmasoftlab.com/cont/docs https://www.teamviewer.com/en/
11 13
http://www. ti. com/lit/ds/symlink/lm2596. pdf https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps
16 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8

the link quality is dropped. The solution is to do 6 Related Work

RF spectrum analysis (often built in the devices)

on regular basis and select less crowded channels. The Wi-Fi technology is one of the key components in

This is also required at the time of installation. rural WISP systems. The IEEE 802.11b has inherent

With a channel width of 20MHz for instance, se- limitation for long-distance P2P links [9]. The 802.11n

lect a channel that has no transmission in the upper is an amendment to the legacy 802.11b that solves some

and lower 20MHz range. Narrowing down the chan- of the issues with the old technology making it more

nel width will also decrease the chance of interfer- suitable for long distance P2P links [10]. We use the

ence. Other solutions for mitigating RF interference new 802.11n standard for P2P links. Community based

includes channel shifting, shielding the devices and wireless network is an emerging model of Internet ac-

lowering the transmission power. cess in rural areas. A community wireless network is a

– Not Violating the Territory Laws: Most countries self-organized, decentralized, open-to-everyone network

require a license for selling services over wireless. managed by the local community members [13]. The

The cost of purchasing such a license and the taxes guifi.net is one of the largest community based network.

payable by both the consumer and provider may Researchers are also interested in different aspects of

make the service impossible to operate. Sharing an the community networks. For instance, Bart et al. de-

existing license with an ISP operating in the nearby veloped a testbed for wireless community based Inter-

areas can minimize this cost. Keeping the activity net access [14]. The lack of technical knowledge of the

logs of each user for past few months and connecting local population and the low chances of survivability of

only the known residents of the area will also helps a free community based network in a developing region

in any legal problems. are among the few reasons we do not follow this model

– Resolving Conflict with the Upstream Providers: of Internet connectivity.

The upstream providers were sometime unhappy

Wi-Fi based meshed network is another cost effec-
with the new service. The concerned persons in
tive mean of rural connectivity [15]. The Wi-Fi MAC is
upstream providers were ensured that the service
however not originally designed for mesh networks and
would be only provided in the area where the up-
suffers from many issues when used in mesh networks
stream provider has not established its business yet.
[16]. The main issues are low throughput and increased
DOI 10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8 17

interference in RF spectrum for increasing network size. the solution with the IEEE 802.11n technology. In this

These issues can be mitigated by modifying the MAC work, we have not only developed a WISP solution with

protocol [17] and by having more granular control on a new set of tools, but we have also outlined the selec-

channel assignment [18]. Making changes to the MAC tion of a better MAC protocol for long-distance P2P

protocols, and incorporating new channel management links and reported some issues specific to our context.

methods into the off-the-shelf devices, is however not A major challenge for rural WISPs, which we also

the subject of this work. We thus avoid using Wi-Fi encountered in our work, is the limited (and inter-

based mesh networks. mittent) availability of power supply. The lack of un-

interrupted power supply in rural areas of developing

Although standard Wi-Fi technology is an easy and
countries poses a real threat to WISP operation. Colin
cost-effective mean of building a privately owned ru-
et al. [22] have proposed some alternative solutions for
ral WISP, it still incurs many challenges in the long
power management in rural WISP operations. Proper
run. According to Surana et al., remote management
planning and optimization are required to minimize the
and limited knowledge of the local staff are among the
resource consumption in such conditions [23]. Interested
main challenges faced by WISP operators in develop-
readers are encouraged to look further into the survey
ing countries [19]. New research however shows that
[24] for more information on rural connectivity.
the challenges faced by WISP operators in the devel-

oped countries are not exactly the same as those faced

7 Future Work
in the developing countries [20]. The desire of rural

WISP operators for extended coverage and users sup- The proposed system requires mounting the station’s

port are often hardened by the availability of limited external antenna at some height like on the rooftop

resources. Subramanian et al. provides a more detailed so that the AP and station’s antenna can see each

list of challenges faced by the rural WISP operator in other. This is required because of the low penetration

developing countries [21]. Some of the technical chal- characteristics of 2.4GHz band. Installing station’s an-

lenges reported by the authors like MAC layer issues, tenna at sufficient height is not always possible, for

packet losses, ACKs retransmission etc. are related to instance when there exists a taller structure that ob-

the older 802.11b technology. Due to these challenges structs the station from its AP. This makes the 2.4GHz

with the older 802.11b technology, we have developed wireless link either impossible or result in a weak unsta-
18
ble link. In future, we are considering deploying Wi-Fi
using license-exempt TVWS technology such as IEEE
802.11af or White-Fi that also support sub-GHz oper-
ation (i.e., frequencies less than 1GHz—specifically in
the 54–790 MHz range [25]). This range of RF spec-
trum has much better penetration characteristic than
the 2.4GHz band. There is also ongoing research on
cognitive radio that will allow TVWS devices to trans-
mit on the unused frequencies and avoiding interference
with the primary users of the spectrum i.e. Analog TV,
FM radio etc. [26][27]. The use of such technology will
allow us to connect users who are otherwise unable to
reach via the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.
8 Conclusion
In this paper, we have documented our experience of
designing and building a low-cost Wi-Fi based wire-
less ISP for rural areas of Pakistan. The service is pro-
vided to inhabitants of three different villages. The ser-
vice is operational since the last three years. The issues
faced during the last three years are reported with the
assumption that these might be common in many ru-
ral areas of developing countries. We have also evalu-
ated the performance of IEEE 802.11n and proprietary
TDMA protocol called airMAX for long-distance P2P
links. The results suggest preferring IEEE 802.11n over
airMAX for P2P links if symmetric throughput is not
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-016-1415-8
required on the P2P links. We hope that the experience
reported in this paper would help anyone interested in
building a low-cost sustainable Internet service in un-
privileged rural areas.
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