National Defense University of Malaysia Goes Wireless with Altai Technologies’ Super WiFi Solution
The National Defense University of Malaysia has chosen Altai Technologies’ Super WiFi solution for providing 100% indoor and outdoor wireless coverage. Phase one of the WiFi network is now in operation, it covers 9 campus buildings including the lecture halls and residence halls.
The National Defense University of Malaysia is a public university located in Sungei Besi Camp, Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia. The initiative to deploy next generation wireless broadband network throughout the campus helps enable interactive learning and uplift the university image. Prior to the implementation of the wireless network, the internet access was only available in the IT Center.
Campus is a challenging environment for wireless network because of the huge campus size, high user capacity and high network security.
Altai’s ground breaking long range WiFi technologies has significantly improved the WiFi signal coverage area by 10 times per base station to provide 100% indoor and outdoor coverage. Altai’s solution provided coverage, user density, security and bandwidth that the National Defense University required for not only today, but can also scale to accommodate its future growth.
Altai offers an ideal wireless solution to learning campus, the application has been proven effective in many schools and universities in Hong Kong (Lutheran Theological Seminary), China (NanJing SanJiang University, Sichuan Mian Yang Southwest Technology University) and Malaysia (College Yayasan Melaka).
Product Update
World’s First All-in-One Outdoor 11n Product - A3 Smart WiFi
Altai’s newly launched product - A3 Smart WiFi is the world’s first gigabit 802.11n multi-radio WiFi product with built-in controller for deployment in both indoor and outdoor environments. Combining the Altai patented smart antenna technology, MIMO and multi-radio hardware design, the A3 Smart WiFi is not only configurable as an access point, but also as a CPE, repeater or bridge for different deployment scenarios.
The A3 Smart WiFi provides flexible, multiple backhaul capabilities including 3G/HSPA/WiMAX/LTE in addition to its standard backhaul interface. Furthermore, with the all-in-one integrated authentication control and bandwidth management function, the A3 Smart WiFi provides a turnkey solution for hotspot, hotzone as well as other public WiFi services such as recreational parks, public transport etc.
Apart from the advanced features offered by the A3 Smart WiFi, the weatherproof IP67 design makes it possible to withstand harsh outdoor environments. The aesthetic casing with all antennas embedded is suitable for installation in indoor environments.
The A3 Smart WiFi offers unprecedented performance, rapid deployment and scalability to users, providing a cost-effective wireless solution for Internet connection. It enables service operators to turn the gas station, convenience store, billboard, bus station etc. into a hotspot overnight.
Success Stories
Suriname in South America Goes Wireless with the Altai Super WiFi Solution
Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname in South America deployed its’ first citywide wireless network using Altai‘s Super WiFi solution. The network was jointly built and is operated by United Telecommunication Services Inc. (UTS) in Curaçao, N.A., and Elephant Talk Communications, Inc. (OTCBB: ETAK) powered by Altai’s super WiFi solution.
The internet usage rate is around 10% of the population in Suriname, hence there is an urgent need to rapidly deploy a wireless broadband network to increase the internet penetration rate. The initiative to deploy the wireless network in Suriname is to create a knowledge-based economy, enabling the economy to be competitive internationally by using the latest information technology. Commercialization of the network in Suriname is done by Uniqa, a subsidiary of UTS, as the service provider.
The wireless network provides a platform for supporting the needs of converged voice, data and video communications; this will help facilitate different multimedia applications and therefore stimulate the e-Commerce in Suriname.
The first phase of deployment covers the major areas of the city, such as the conference & convention center, municipal buildings, shopping districts and the commercial areas. The Altai A8 Super WiFi base Stations have been installed on the radio towers/poles to provide reliable and high speed wireless broadband access.
The leading edge wireless technologies of the Altai Super WiFi base station make it an ideal solution for large area coverage. Altai A8 base station has significantly improved the outdoor WiFi signal coverage area by 10 times per base station to achieve non-line-of-sight radius of up to 500m. Besides, the flexible antenna array design of the A8 base station allows for effective installation on buildings and structures in addition to light poles.
Many local residents have already signed up for the WiFi Internet service; this is an indication that there is a significant market for Internet services of superb quality.
Deployment Tips/Case
A platform for supporting the need of converged voice, data and video communications
The wireless network provides a platform for supporting the need of converged voice, data and video communications; this will help facilitate different multimedia applications and therefore stimulate the e-Commerce in Suriname.
The first phase of deployment covers the major areas of the city, such as the conference & convention center, municipal buildings, shopping districts and the commercial areas. The Altai A8 Super WiFi base Stations have been installed on the radio towers/poles to provide reliable and high speed wireless broadband access.
The leading edge wireless technologies of Altai Super WiFi base station make it an ideal solution for large area coverage. Altai A8 base station has significantly improved the outdoor WiFi signal coverage area by 10 times per base station to achieve non-line-of-sight radius of up to 500m. Besides, the floating antenna array design of the A8 base station allows for effective installation on buildings and structures in addition to light poles.
Many local residents have signed up for the WiFi Internet service, this is an indication that there is a significant market for Internet services of superb quality.
Too many a times, we find that a base station’s performance is not meeting our expectations. However, more often than not, further investigation reveals that the poor performance is a direct result from the site’s physical or RF constraints, and in some cases, both.
Physical constraints are limitations imposed by the physical environment of the antennae-mounting location, such as the height of a building. RF constraints are limitations imposed by the nearby out-of-band and in-band noise sources like GSM, 3G, WiMAX, and other WiFi base stations.
We can often work around physical constraints by increasing the antennae height or moving the antennae to another location on the roof. On the other hand, RF constraints are not as easy to circumvent - in a heavily-interfered environment with many in-band and out-of-band noise sources, even with sophisticated noise mitigation, a base station will still be expected to suffer from smaller coverage area and reduced throughput.
Now that we have established site selection as the one of the more important criteria in determining a base station’s performance, we should look at the key factors that affect the “quality” of a site, namely, location desirability and RF environment.
Location Desirability
For optimal coverage in a suburban environment, the height of the antennae should be no more than 50m, preferably in the 20 – 30m range. Moreover, the antennae should have at least 10 – 15m clearance over the surrounding buildings, foliages, and obstacles; this is to provide more LOS and near-LOS paths within the coverage area.
The best antenna-mounting location is at the corner of a roof area. The centre or the ridgeline of a roof is the worst location to mount the antennae. From the roof, note any nearby obstacles in the direction that the antennae will point, such as nearby buildings or trees. If the obstacles are higher than the antennae, you must either move the antennae to a less obstructed part of the roof or raise the antenna until it is above the obstacles. As mentioned before, the higher you can raise the antennae, the better the coverage will be.
If the roof has industrial equipment such as air conditioners or ventilation equipment, mount the antennae in a location which the equipment is behind them. Furthermore, if power lines run along the side of the building near the roof, you must choose an antenna-mounting location far enough away from the power lines, usually, a meter or two will do.
RF Environment
The SNR is the single most important condition that must be met before a wireless signal can be successfully received and decoded. Simply stated, the level of the received signal must be high enough and the noise level low enough to allow the receiver to separate the signal from the noise. If the signal level is too low or the noise level is too high, incoming data will be lost. The more often that incoming data is lost, the slower the base station throughput and performance are. On the other hand, the higher the SNR, the better and faster the base station performs.
Thus, a desirable RF environment would have no or a few obvious noise sources. Typical noise floor would be around -90 dBm or below. An acceptable RF environment would have a few strong out-of-band interference sources, and only a couple of strong in-band noise sources. Typical noise floor would be around -80 dBm. A poor RF environment would have many in-band noise sources, with noise floor above -70 dBm. Sites with poor RF environment should be avoided at all cost.
In order to evaluate whether a site is suitable for an installation, two types of site surveys should be performed: physical site surveys and RF site surveys. Without a proper site survey, the risk of having your new base station not work properly is just too high. Do not take a chance; do the site survey and maximize the likelihood of installing a reliable, large coverage, and high-throughput base station.
Stay tune for the next issue where site survey procedures, as well as ways to minimize noise and interference will be discussed.
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The recently launched Coal City Super WiFi in Enugu, Nigeria, is a perfect example in showing the significance of site selection. Using Altai Technologies’ Super WiFi solution, the network is a collaboration between Zinox Telecoms and the Enugu state government.
During the early phase of deployment, the coverage of the network was found to be less than optimal: typical cell radius was around 300 – 400m, with some shadow areas. The relatively poor coverage was due to the hilly terrain in Enugu: even though the heights of the first sites were around 15 - 20m, they did not provide enough clearance over surrounding buildings, trees, and other obstacles. After the problem was identified, tall masts were erected at the newer sites, with the A8 base stations being installed at a higher elevation. The resulting improvement in coverage is drastic: cell radius is increased to 500 - 700m (in some cases, more than 700m), with good indoor penetration within the 500m radius. Moreover, most of the coverage holes are eliminated.
White Paper
Disaster Recovery and Network Redundancy
1) Common Causes of Network Failure
No matter how well maintained a network infrastructure is, fiber and broadband cabling running through public spaces can be, and at any time, damaged and rendered temporarily inoperable by accidents or disaster. A typical network structure of an enterprise or campus network is shown below. Four types of damage to the network can be seen, namely cable damage, equipment failure, last mile fiber breakage and Internet outage. The cause of network failure and the frequency of occurrence vary from region to region, and can be summarized below:
Region
Causes of Failure
Cable Damage
Equipment Failure
Last Mile Breakage
Internet Outage
Tropical Region
Flooding
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Lightning & Power Outage
Yes
Yes
Fault Line Region
Earthquake
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fire
Yes
Yes
Island or Seaside Region
Flooding
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Power Outage
Yes
Typhoon & Hurricane
Yes
Yes
Cold Region
Snowstorm
Yes
Yes
Power Outage
Yes
Yes
2) Disaster Recovery Network from Altai
To reduce the risk of damage due to all types of failures mentioned above, Altai has designed a wireless disaster recovery solution as shown below. This solution will not only backup the original network, but it also backups itself in terms of either an access or backhaul side failure. Link integrity checks will monitor the path status and an automatic protective switching feature will switch between the default and backup path automatically.
3) Advantages of the Altai Backup Network Solution
Redundancy on access connections – while legacy terrestrial backup solutions usually do not provide backup to horizontal wiring, Altai’s solution provides redundancy on access connections not only to the building level but down to the user level.
Wireless is non-terrestrial – as the Altai backup solution is designed to completely bypass the terrestrial network including both the in-house cabling and last mile connection, this means that the Altai backup network is completely insulated from breaks in the optical fiber and copper networks which are often caused by civil works and other unexpected activities.
Remote sites are less likely to be damaged – as both wireless access and backhaul equipment are installed at a distance away from the service building and are usually installed at rooftop in most cases, they are much less likely to be damaged in cases such as building fires, floods, road damage etc.
Saves redundancy equipment cost – in case of an Ethernet switch or router failure, the backup network allows users to bypass the equipment and connect directly and wirelessly to an alternative backhaul and therefore a 1+1 redundancy on switching and router equipment is not required.
Saves fiber upfront cost – routing and laying a secondary fiber for backup in a separate trench is prohibitive expensive. The costs are not just the glass itself but also the costs of laying the fiber, especially the cost of trenching or other methods of protecting the strands. The cost of laying a fiber ranges from US$3,000 to US$100,000 whereas the installation cost for a base station can be just few a thousand.
Rapid deployment – wireless backup connections can be done just within hours, whereas laying an optical fiber takes anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months.
Ease of relocation – as the networking structure is always subject to change, especially for temporary locations or enterprises that relocate frequently, Altai’s backup solution can take advantage of the inherent flexibility of wireless and relocations are simple and inexpensive.
Scalability – backup connections can be started from the most critical path and extended to other paths as required with ease. Multiple backups can be upgraded easily.
4) Ensures Network Connectivity in Disasters
With good network redundancy planning, Altai’s solution ensures connectivity in different disaster scenarios:
Flooding – since Altai equipment is usually placed high above ground, it is not affected by flooding at all. With redundant power backup, it can operate even if the areas below are flooded and without power.
Lightning and power outage – with redundant power backup from alternative power source, Altai equipment can keep on working in the event of power outage. All Altai equipment is designed with lightning protection circuitry and is unlikely to be damaged by power related incidents.
Earthquake – since Altai equipment is placed outdoor, it is not affected by building collapse or cable breakage. With satellite or alternate backhaul, it can continue to provide connectivity even when all cables have been severed.
Fire – since Altai equipment can provide redundant coverage, the loss of one or more piece of Altai equipment due to fire can still allow connectivity. With the A8’s wide coverage, it is very easy to design and implement redundant WiFi networks that provide backup links.
Typhoon and Hurricane – Altai equipment is designed to survive strong winds, with a very light antenna design and strong mounting solutions; it is unlikely to be damaged by strong winds. With A8’s wide coverage, it is easy to design and implement redundant WiFi networks that provide backup links.
