PROJECT TITLE: 4 VILLAGE WIRELESS COVERAGE AND LOCAL VOIP SOLUTION FOR HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, AND POLICE STATION IN NJIMOM DISTRICT
PROJECT LOCATION: NJIMOM A VILLAGE IN THE RURAL AREA OF OUEST CAMEROON
OVERVIEW:
CAMEROON IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY AND THERE IS STILL QUITE A FEW AREAS WITHOUT THE MINIMUM NEEDS SUCH AS HEALTH, ACCESS TO POTABLE WATER, ELECTRIFICATION AND OTHER THINGS. NJIMOM IS ONE OF THOSE VILLAGE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY AND WITH JUST VERY LITTLE HEALTH SERVICE AVAILABLE.
OBJECTIVES:
1- The project purpose is to facilitate communication between the most important sectors of activities within and between the 4 neighbours villages. 2- Allow health centers to communicate and exchange emergency information and easily transfer emergency cases to Foumban Central Hospital, which is the nearest big hospital with more infrastructures. 3- Save people life in this village and contribute to education and development of the village.
QUESTIONS:
1- What technology to use? 2- There is no electricity. Where to find the necessary electrical Energy to run this technology ? 3- What about the maintenance of the system after implementation? 4- How to connect the system to Foumban the nearest city? 5- Where to find funding?
ANSWERS:
1- What Technology to use?
- To build a LAN or WAN network in that area, the cheaper and the more adequate technology we decide to use is Wireless to build our LAN connection - VoIP is the main technology that is going to be used by the population because they are not computer literate and it’s easier for them to pick up a phone and dial a number than typing on a computer. - Village 1 would be the central point where we will put a base station which will feed all the other village. - Village one is selected as central point because it’s on the top of a hill and it’s the highest and more central point - There is a range of wireless equipment provider we have contacted to sponsor the project but very few of them got back to us so we have decided in collaboration with YTECHNET LLC. Young Technicians Network to build our own antennas using simple wireless routers and recycling metallic equipments. You can find more information about it here www.ytechnet.com/project.pdf
- We plan to put one Omni-directional antenna in village 1 at the highest point which is the village Hall.
Note: Also exploring the case of using two directional antennas for - 1 directional antenna in village 2 at the small nursery - 1 directional antenna in each village 3 & 4 at the chief of village house for urgent medical assistance needed.
2- There is no electricity. Where to find the necessary electrical Energy to run this technology ?
The source of energy we are planning to use is Solar. In fact, Cameroon is a tropical country and there is sun 99% of the year even during rainy season.
They are 2 possibilities: a- Solar Panels + DC Batteries + DC to AC converters. b- Solar Panels + DC Batteries (this is to use equipments with DC energy directly.)
3- What about the maintenance of the system after implementation?
- We will train one Computer literate person working in Foumban and he will go to the village1 once a week for regular maintenance and control - The maintenance will also be done remotely when we will be able to establish a WAN link between Foumban and village1. - we are planning to offer 1 PC to the school to train students to understands the basics of computer.
4- How to connect the system to Foumban the nearest city?
For the connection to Foumban the nearest city with more medical infrastructures and personnel, we are planning to:
- We are planning to put a Point to point link, a kind of Backhaul Using still 2.4Ghz antenna to establish the connection as there is no interference in the area. (They are no wireless link in the area) - We will then install ATAs in Foumban and give an extension 105 to the Main hospital reception.
5- Where to find funding?
This is one of the main difficulties of our project. We need fundings to achieve the project goals. Due to the limitation of sponsors we have planned to:
a- build our own antennas just to boost the power of wireless
- routers and extend it further. for more details have a look here www.ytechnet.com/project.pdf
b- We need Electricity solar panels and all the DC to AC batteries and accessories necessary to generate our own electricity in the villages in order to run our technology.
1)4 Solar Panel Rated power (Pmax) 85W Power tolerance ± 5% Nominal voltage 12V Limited Warranty1 25 years 2) 4 samples of 24 V DC to AC inverter, 900 Watts 3) 4 racks of DC backup batteries 4) 4 Petrol generator providing 230Volts AC. Power 1.1KVA
c- We need for Voice over IP system installation
1- 1 PC minimum requirement ( 512Mo of RAM, 10 Gb of HDD, 1Ghz of processor)running Centos 4.4 with Asterisk PBX running on it. 2- 4 ATA and 4 Analog Telephones that are going to be connected to the ATA to provide connectivity to the Asterisk PBX
d- For our Wireless network we will need:
1- A 2.4Ghz AP + 1 omni-directional antenna (or 2 directional antennas) + PoE 2- 3 Directional antennas 3- 2 boxes of Rj45 cable 4- 4 Switches 5- All the tools for networking (spanners, crimpers, RJ45 connectors, RJ11 connectors...)
e- We need volunteers to facilitate the installation
1- We thanks YTECHNET for providing us all the technical support and providing us technians to help studying and realizing the project. 2- We thanks SUNNYCYPRUS in advance as they promissed to provide us some solar panels and electrical devices and also some wireless CPEs that we can use for our base stations.
We have applied for some government funding and up to now we have no success with it as there is a lot of administrative procedures. We have also prepared a financial documentation to request for support from UNESCO and other international organisation and NGOs.
We are still expecting any kind of technical or financial suggestions concerning the project organisation and I hope to meet with many experienced people in GRAZ during the Wireless Community Weekend who will advice more on how to achieve this project.
Thanks Roland Mfondoum