# Presentation: 033288

## Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Applications Around the World

**Lauren Maxim Van Wazer, **
**       ****Special Counsel**
**Office of Engineering and Technology**
**Federal Communications Commission**
**           ****June 2003**

## Sampling of Services Facilitated by WLANs

- Access to Broadband
- Community Networking
- Economic Development
- Education
- Telemedicine
- Basic Telephone Service Through Voice Over IP (VoIP)

## Few Barriers to Entry 

- Relatively low equipment costs
- Off-the-shelf equipment for consumers and small businesses
- Access to spectrum  -- in U.S., WLANs operate in unlicensed spectrum, therefore spectrum access is free
- Flexibility in regulations – in U.S., type of technologies required to be used in unlicensed bands are not specified; instead, users operate within certain technical parameters

## WLAN Growth

- With the potential benefits and the limited impediments, the use of WLANs has increased dramatically
- In the United States, sales of WLAN equipment are expected to increase from $1.1B in 2001 to $5.2B in 2005
- By 2007, it is estimated that more than 20 million people will be using WLANs in the United States alone

## WLAN Case Study #1:Southern CaliforniaTribal Digital Village

**San Diego County, USA**
**Project funded and supported by Hewlett Packard**

## The Challenge

- Over 7,600 Native American Indians live on reservations in isolated and scattered communities in Southern California, near the Mexican border
- Area spans more than 150 miles and takes more 4 hours to visit by car
- 18 Native American Indian reservations
- 50% unemployment

## The Challenge – cont’d

- Connections between the reservations made difficult by rocky, mountainous terrain and deep valleys – getting line of sight can be difficult

## Tribal Digital Village: Areas of Focus

- Access to Education – distance learning, including University of California at San Diego
- Cultural Preservation – *e.g*., language preservation and Web link to specialized cultural library
- Community Development
- Economic Development
- Internet Infrastructure

## Tribal Digital Village Network Using IEEE 802.11b

## Power Sources and Network Access Points

- Flexible, solar and even car batteries
- Access points used as community centers

## New Skills and New Services

- All work constructing and maintaining wireless network done by tribal members including building communications towers and aligning the radios

## Community Bulletin Board

- E-mail exchange
- Events calendar
- Health information
- Education and school resources information
- Job opportunities

## Reflections on Success

- “We sometimes have to take a step back to see what we’ve accomplished.  I really thank all of the people involved in this project for having the faith to trust us.  They gave us the opportunity, and we’ve done a great thing with it.”    – Michael Peralta, member, Rincon Indian Reservation

## WLAN Case Study #2:India’s Digital Gangetic Plain

## The Challenge

- 25 rural villages
- No electricity, roads, or running water
- No basic telephone service

## The Answer

- 85 Km-long multi-hop wireless corridor between Kanpur and Lucknow
- Project called “Digital Gangetic Plain” because wireless coverage cuts across the river Ganga and connects rural villages
- Done in conjunction with Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and Media Lab Asia

## The Answer – cont’d

- Use 2.4 GHz band, which has been delicensed in India
- Use 802.11b and VoIP technologies
- Rural ISPs – information kiosks
- May offer potential for much of rural India because many villages in India are within 25 km of fiber – 802.11b may provide “last 25 km” access

## Success!

- “Hello, How are you?  I am calling you from our village.  Everything is all right here.  There is a long queue.  All of us want to use this phone.  So, will talk with you later.” – Prabhu Muniam, Kanpur farmer using communications services made available by the Digital Gangetic Plain project

## WLAN Case Study #3:“Linking Everest”

**WLAN Case Study #3:****“Linking Everest”**

## The Challenge

- Need for emergency and other communications and checking on weather conditions
- Educational needs
- Technical issues:  no power, placing wireless devices on moving glaciers and insulating equipment from extreme temperatures

## The Answer

- Laptop computers, powered with generators and solar-charged batteries, communicate with satellite link
- Temporary shed built with stone walls and covered with a tent houses Internet café
- Cisco equipment

## Everest Network

## The Answer – cont’d

- Benefits for climbers – facilitated emergency communications, routine e-mail communications, online booking for lodges
- Fees from climbers used to clean trash on Mount Everest
- Distance learning project – four schools to be linked – obtaining Internet access
- Cultural preservation