Connectivity for Education

The ever-increasing numbers of mobile devices (laptops/tablets) in schools highlights the need for fast, secure and reliable connectivity. This enables teachers to focus on teaching while giving students the capacity and power to learn anywhere with access to a library of information.

 

Schools and tertiary institutions are increasingly reaping the rewards of having reliable connectivity. One such institution is Herschel Girls School, in Claremont, Cape Town. The school was founded in 1922 and is a leading, independent Anglican school. In 2012, the school decided to investigate alternate telecommunication mediums, in an effort to provide a more reliable and cost-effective method of connectivity.

Comsol was approached to connect the existing wireless LAN environment on campus to the TENET (Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa) network. There was a need for high-capacity connectivity, resulting in a 100Mbps wireless microwave link terminating into the closest TENET PoP (point of presence) at the Red Cross Hospital. Comsol provided this service to Herschel in partnership with ESN (e-Schools Network), a non-profit ISP that also provides services to 1 700 schools nationwide.

Costs were greatly reduced due to far greater capacities being offered for a fraction of the cost. The school’s primary breakout connectivity has now been increased from the existing 4Mbps using fixed-line alternatives, to 100Mbps. The connectivity is now fast and reliable with aggressive service level agreements in place to ensure maximum availability. The solution is scalable, meaning the opportunity exists to increase bandwidth, with relative ease, at a low cost.

A massive increase in breakout capacity allows the students to optimise their e-learning experiences by having access to the latest, up-to-date information. A similar solution was also provided to Bishops Diocesan College, also in Cape Town.

Comsol currently offers numerous schools, universities and colleges throughout South Africa with robust last-mile licensed band managed services. From deploying on-campus WiFi to last-mile connectivity, Comsol’s flexible commercial model assists in offering better learning to the learner.

How much bandwidth can wireless really provide?

When thinking of high bandwidth, users are inclined to think of fibre as the only real source of connectivity capable of delivering these speeds, but recent developments in wireless products have made it a worthy competitor for not only redundancy, but also a means of primary connectivity.

Pure RF these days can offer organisations of all sizes and across all sectors an effective and reliable means of connectivity reaching up to 4Gbps full duplex capacity within the point-to-point licensed band and as much as 130Mbps per sector in the  Point-to-MultiPoint space.  ISM band products offer lower bandwidth options, but can still reach up to 300Mbps aggregate capacity, which makes it a viable option for companies using application driven systems.

Another option is Free Space Optics (FSO), which in recent months have made extensive headway in providing high capacity communications over long distances.  Some products are able to reach multiple Gbps over distances of 10 kilometres, offering built-in redundancy to mitigate the effect of adverse weather conditions.  FSO connectivity is ideal for financial institutions and organisations with a need for highly secure communications as it can’t be intercepted.

Wireless connectivity also has the benefit of offering quick turnaround times and aggressive  service level agreements, which in certain instances makes it a seemingly better option of communication.

Is your wireless service legally compliant?

Many companies in South Africa have been left without connectivity due to a recent crack-down from ICASA on illegal spectrum usage, resulting in a loss of productivity, and more importantly, loss of revenue. The legal compliance of wireless services, networks and infrastructure have come under scrutiny, bringing to mind the question: Is my service at risk due to non-compliance? Comsol, a wireless specialist company, understands the legalities and processes involved in offering a service that is fully compliant while still being agile enough to meet the market’s demands.

Not all role players are aware of the legal requirements and processes that need to be undertaken before a wireless service can be deployed.  ICASA has a published  set of parameters outlining the “do’s and don’ts”, including which frequencies fall within the licensed exempt bands, how to apply for licensed spectrum and who has bulk national spectrum.

In today’s ever changing wireless landscape, the unlicensed band has become increasingly cluttered. The scarcity of available Freeband frequencies makes offering a reliable service within these frequencies virtually impossible. Comsol has invested in legally acquiring national spectrum through ICASA, allowing it to deliver carrier grade licensed wireless solutions to the market.

Comsol, a leading wireless solutions provider, boasts nearly two decades of servicing Africa; building and maintaining wireless networks across all vertical markets. Comsol offers its clients reliable, high capacity wireless access circuits. Comsol’s national bulk license enables it to offer aggressive Service Level Agreements, backed up by a national operational presence with offices throughout the country.

For more information on licensed wireless services, please visit www.comsol.co.za or call +27 (0) 87 316 1328. 

Google and Partners Announce TV White Spaces Trial in South Africa

Google and partners have announced today the launch of a TV White Spaces trial with ten schools in the Cape Town area.  White spaces are unused channels in the broadcast TV spectrum. They offer the potential to improve Internet connectivity where they are most needed - in the developing world.

The advantage of white spaces is that low frequency signals can travel longer distances, making the technology well suited to provide low cost connectivity to rural communities with poor telecommunications infrastructure, and for expanding coverage of wireless broadband in densely populated urban areas.  

Dr Ntsibane Ntlatlapa, Manager, Networks and Media Competency Area at CSIR Meraka Institute, added, “We believe that TVWS could help to bridge the digital divide, transmitting Internet data over long distances, opening up access to underserved communities and rural areas.  The evidence gathered from the trial show that TVWS can be used to deliver wireless Internet services without causing interference to primary users of the spectrum.”

The service will be broadcast from three base stations located on top of Stellenbosch University Medical School. Ten schools in the Cape Town area will receive wireless broadband equal to or better than their current level service. During the trial in Cape Town, the group of partners will attempt to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces without interfering with licensed spectrum holders. To prevent interference with other channels, the network uses Google’s spectrum database to determine white space availability. To confirm results, the CSIR Meraka Institute will take spectrum measurements and frequently report back to ICASA and the local broadcasters.

Arno Hart, Project Manager at TENET, said “This TVWS technology trial brings South Africa to the cutting edge of innovation in terms of improving internet connectivity, and is a very positive step towards bringing many more South Africans online.  This trial will be used to inform the regulatory process in South Africa”.

Google supported its first white space trial in the US in 2010, and Google.org recently launched its spectrum database for 45 day public comment period with the FCC. In October 2011, Google hosted a workshop in Johannesburg, along with partners, at which the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) lent support for an industry-led white spaces trial in South Africa. Google then worked together with the CSIR Meraka Institute, Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa, e-Schools Network, the Wireless Access Providers Association, Comsol Wireless Solutions, Carlson Wireless, and Neul to take up the challenge.  

Comsol Wireless Solutions (a WAPA member and vendor partner) has nearly two decades of specialist wireless solutions experience and is responsible for the system integration and in-field maintenance of the trial.

Luke Mckend, Google South Africa Country Manager said, “We are pleased to be part of this exciting new development – the first of its kind in South Africa – and look forward to opening discussions with policy makers around a regulatory framework that will support the wider use of TVWS to deliver wireless broadband Internet across the country.”

White Space technology is gaining momentum around the world. In the US, it is already available for licensed exempt uses. In the UK, regulator Ofcom is working on a model regulatory framework based on a licence-exempt or ‘managed access’ use of television white spaces spectrum. Partners hope the results of the trial will drive similar regulatory developments in South Africa and other African countries.

To read more about the trial background, please visit TENET’s website.

Comsol & Intracom Telecom Supply Point-to-Multipoint System in South Africa

Athens, Greece – 21 February 2013 – Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunications systems vendor, announced that it has partnered with Communication Solutions (Comsol (Pty) Ltd), a system integrator and distributor of wireless broadband infrastructure in South Africa, to supply Internet Solutions (IS), the leading ISP in South Africa, with Intracom Telecom's innovative Point-to-Multipoint wireless system for one of the largest next generation LMDS networks in the continent.

 

IS has initiated an ambitious network modernization program, investing in the capacity upgrade and traffic management improvement of its data network, aiming to provide superior services to its existing and future customer base. Internet Solutions after a thorough technical evaluation and extensive testing of the offered systems has selected Intracom Telecom’s WiBAS Point-to-Multipoint platform to enhance its network coverage and offer high-quality, reliable broadband services to its corporate subscribers in South Africa. The solution design and supply was undertaken by Comsol, a company with a proven track record that provides a comprehensive range of services, in wireless networking, from planning to high-level maintenance.  

 

WiBAS dramatically reduces deployment time and design complexity in the construction and upgrade of broadband networks, while allowing operators and ISPs to achieve significant savings in capital and operational resources. WiBAS efficiently utilizes the Point-to-Multipoint network architecture providing the highest capacity and the quickest connection activation for new customers in the corporate market today. This Carrier Class product fully preserves the service quality for demanding broadband data applications.

 

Mr. Stefanos Chatziagapis, General Manager of Wireless Network & Systems at Intracom Telecom commented: “WiBAS is becoming the solution of choice for many global operators for corporate access and 3G/4G backhauling. We are pleased to contribute to Internet Solutions’ business goals through our system’s unrivalled capabilities and look forward to further expanding our strong cooperation with Comsol”.

 

“Due to the delays with the releasing of viable ‘WiMAX ‘ or ‘LTE’ spectrum in South Africa, Comsol was mandated by Internet Solutions to come up with a workable alternative that could be used to effectively service Internet Solutions’ vast customer base” Darren Morgan Chief Commercial Officer of Comsol said.”Through this mandate Comsol’s design team came up with the plan to use ‘LMDS’ technology to provide symmetrical, high capacity connectivity to IS’ very large and bandwidth hungry customer base.  After testing many products Intracom’s WiBAS PtMP platform and feature rich UniMS were selected as the technology of choice. Comsol is proud to be associated with both Internet Solutions and Intracom Telecom”.

 

Ian Isenberg, Business Development Manager of Internet Solutions (Carrier Business Unit) says, "Internet Solutions and Comsol have a long track record of working together to develop and deliver solutions which meet our clients’ last mile connectivity needs. As a result of high incidents of interference found in the unregulated spectrum and a lack of WiMax or LTE spectrum, IS had to find an alternative to its existing WiNet offerings. Clients request additional bandwidth or connectivity into both heavily saturated and under serviced areas. IS and Comsol, utilising Intracom's WiBAS platform, developed the Wi-Band product, which addresses both issues. The service provides last mile un-contended connectivity ranging from 256Kbps to 10Mbps. Internet Solutions has already rolled out a number of Wi-Band sites and will continue with the countrywide rollout through 2013. The service is offered by Internet Solutions to its existing base of clients as well as through its wholesale channels".

Terrestrial Microwave vs Geostationary Satellite

Any radio frequency above 1 GHz (1 x 10⁹ Hz), is considered a “Microwave” frequency. These frequencies have been favourably used as transmission mediums for both terrestrial telecommunication- and satellite telecommunication links. In fact, a geostationary (GEO) satellite can be thought of as a sort of “Microwave repeater” in the sky.

The “microwave frequencies” used by GEO satellites can be classed as follows for commercial applications:

• C – Band (4/6 GHz)
• K_u – Band (10/14 GHz)
• K_A  - Band (18/31 GHz)

The best frequency to use as far as reliability/availability is concerned, is the C-Band as this band is the least affected by atmospheric conditions. Both the K_u and K_a bands suffer from system outages due to thunderstorms both at the local terminals and the remote hub sites (think about the outages experienced by satellite TV subscription services like DSTV).  Due to the large distance between the GEO satellite (36 000 Km) and the hub site and receiver sites, it becomes impractical to ensure enough system gain by using bigger antennas. The only justification for satellite links is the provisioning of a service that needs to be deployed quickly, anywhere and be of a temporary nature.

Something to consider when looking a satellite communications is the round trip delay of a GEO satellite system. A signal takes 250 milliseconds to traverse from a sending station via the satellite to the hub and another 250 milliseconds to get an acknowledgement back via the same route. This causes some difficulties with applications such as voice (delay) and data. Special protocol spoofing mechanisms and acceleration schemes are used to alleviate these issues but these mechanisms just add to the cost and complexity of the system and place protocol overheads on data to be sent via the link.

A typical Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system shares the available GEO satellite’s bandwidth amongst many VSAT users, limiting the useful bandwidth per site.  The monthly costs associated with a VSAT service are inhibitingly high and upgrades to more bandwidth can be costly and sometimes not even possible.

All the technical issues mentioned above are negated by terrestrial Microwave links. Insofar as cost is concerned, a simple calculation as to the price per Megabyte of bandwidth required will show terrestrial Microwave to be superior in most instances. Bandwidth upgrades are easily done with minimal financial or technical impact and “triple play” traffic is handled much better.

Matie Strydom (Chief Technical Officer)

Wireless in Africa – Survival of the fittest

There is a lot of activity going on across Africa to build fibre infrastructure to link to the undersea cables on the east and west coasts. The rule of thumb is that wireless infrastructure is initially deployed as the primary data connectivity medium until fibre is laid in an area, which can sometimes take years.

In extreme cases, wireless will continue to be the primary connectivity medium, and in other cases once fibre is laid it becomes the secondary, failover solution. But whichever the case, the wireless infrastructure continues to play a significant role in Africa.

Wireless connections to undersea cables

Undersea cables provide such huge capacity that ISPs across Africa are being forced to upgrade their wireless infrastructure to carry this through to their customers. This means increasing their spectrum requirements, and many cannot afford to do this. As a result a lot of smaller ISPs are being acquired by the larger players that have the spectrum.

Funding is another obstacle ISPs and telcos are facing in African markets, because the local banks do not have the resources to provide them with finance. So the only way to fund projects is to partner with an international investment company or make arrangements with suppliers to defer payment for the equipment they need to purchase.

Deep understanding of the local environment

Building any form of telecommunication infrastructure in Africa requires flexibility and a deep understanding of the local environment. For example, in Angola equipment has to be flown in because bridges have not been rebuilt since they were destroyed during the civil war. It is impossible to get from one end of Angola to another except by air, which can sometimes involve crossing borders in and out of the country several times.

The ability to build relationships with local partners and in some cases local government to get insight into the areas is also crucial. In some countries spectrum regulations do not comply with the guidelines set down by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). This means implementing wireless solutions that fit in with the spectrum allocations of specific countries.

It is also no good assuming that available spectrum is unlicensed because it says so in the ITU guidelines and finding out after the solution is implemented that it requires a license in that particular country.

Flexibility the name of the game

It sometimes happens that the spectrum allocated for a specific use is not ideal for the requirement, but there is no other choice. In addition, the policing of spectrum frequencies to reduce interference is not as efficient as it is in South Africa. Where this is the case, unlicensed spectrum is sometimes a better option because the equipment is designed to cope with a certain amount of interference whereas equipment for licensed frequencies is more sensitive.

Almost all connectivity infrastructure deployments in other parts of Africa require tailored power supply solutions. This might involve solar panels, generators, or wind turbines or a combination of these, depending on the solution, the location, the available space on the base station or high site being used, and weather conditions. Solar panels, for example, are not ideal in some tropical regions where there is a lot of rainfall. 

Physical access is generally a challenge across the rest of the continent, especially when transporting the equipment needed to implement any telecommunication solution. In Sierra Leone, for example, equipment has to be flown in to Lungi Airport and then taken across a small stretch of water to get to the capital, Freetown, which is only a few kilometers away as the crow flies.

Customs clearance is another issue, because tariffs vary from country to country, and different officials interpret the tariff codes on equipment documentation differently. This could have a significant impact on the duties that are payable and in some cases has been known to increase the cost of projects by as much as 50%.

 

Moral of the story? When doing business in Africa you need to know your environment because it truly is survival of the fittest, and if you don’t know what makes you fit, your revenue will be at risk.