Innovative expertise helps urgent projects
Wireless technology is being applied in some interesting areas where it is more practical or where fixed-line infrastructure is lacking, including the mines, construction sites, once-off projects and remote control.
For example, the Gautrain project required high-capacity voice and data connectivity to support communication between site offices and allow project managers to access central databases and applications.
“But there was no fixed-line infrastructure and construction sites need to be moved to new locations as the project progresses,” says Iain Stevenson, CEO of Comsol.
The Gautrain is under extreme time pressure and there is a need to access survey information, geographical data and project scheduling and management systems, he says.
Comsol has built a high-speed wireless backbone network that delivers speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to support this type of project. It consists of radio masts and antennas mounted on top of buildings. The network is based on the OFDM technology standard using Motorola equipment.
“We are connecting 31 sites for the Gautrain project to our backbone network at speeds up to 8Mbps.”
He says two years ago the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Council in Port Elizabeth set up a microwave-based wireless backbone network around the city to support the delivery of services such as electricity and sewage. More recently it has set up Wi-Fi wireless access points to control traffic lights remotely, for example to change the sequence of the lights to suit changing traffic patterns.
With wireless access points at every intersection there is a lot of spare capacity for possible future applications, such as CCTV to monitor activity in the community.
The network could also be used to deliver data and voice services to the community, he says.
“We are involved with wireless implementations at 16 different metros, but Nelson Mandela is the furthest ahead.”
He says another example is Australian owned Lumwana Copper Mine in the remote western part of Zambia.
The project involved designing and building a Wi-Fi wireless mesh network across the entire 10km of mine and included supplying laptop computers and phone handsets to connect 3000 users to it.
“New users can be added to the network by giving them a phone handset and a laptop computer.”
The Lumwana network supports CCTV surveillance security cameras. A satellite dish is connected to the network to provide communication between the mine and the company’s head office in Australia, he says.
He says that a wireless project is also on the go in Lusaka, Zambia, to collect live data from community clinics for an international study on the transmission of HIV/AIDS in infants. It involved installing wireless access points and mobile communication at 50 clinics around Lusaka connected to Comsol’s network over high-capacity microwave and satellite links.
Sisters at the clinic were trained to collect the data using a computer that can be wheeled around, he says.
“This project was funded by Bill Gates,” says Stevenson.
He says clever techniques allow high-speed throughput of up to 1 gigabit per second to be achieved with microwave, using a limited amount of spectrum, which is important because this is a scarce resource.
Governments in other parts of Africa are a lot more liberal in the allocation of spectrum than in SA, says Stevenson.
“We are planning to purchase blocks of wireless spectrum in African countries and deliver high-speed voice and data services,” he says.
Wireless technology discussion
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