Further work planned this week

We've had word that Guy and Simon from NextGenUs are coming back to Great Asby on Thursday to install some more wireless nodes.  With other broadband related events to attend while over here, they will be staying until Monday.  So hopefully we'll get another three nodes in place.  We may also manage to connect some subscribers as well - time and weather permitting.

Ben and I had hoped to do some more wireless testing at Goodlie Hill and Maisongill today but the weather soon put a stop to that and it's not looking too good for the rest of the week either.  Hopefully we'll have some good news to report by the weekend.

Two more wireless nodes up and running

Today Guy Jarvis, Mike Sayer and I successfully completed the installation of two wireless nodes at Holly Bank House and Great Kettle Barn using the configuration described in the previous post.

Four Nanos ready for the pole with one PoE injector and an Ethernet switch

In both cases the four Nanos were attached to the pole so that the one set as Station would point at the village hall and the other three, set as Access Point, would cover the locations of the client devices that would be connecting to that node.  Each Nano has a maximum horizontal signal spread of about 60 degrees so its positioning on the pole needs to be fairly precise to achieve the required coverage.  A large-scale map of the village is useful for getting the angles right.

1:5000 scale map of Great Asby

Mike installs the bracket ready to take the pole at
Holly Bank House, alongside the existing mesh-box

 

Luckily the weather was fine - no wind and only a brief fall of rain.

Guy ensures the Nanos are at just the right
angle for Great Kettle Barn

While Mike installs the pole on the chimney,
Guy sorts out the cables

The new wireless node at Great Kettle Barn
alongside the existing mesh-box

When the new nodes were tested they both made excellent connections back to the village hall.  After some client devices are installed we will be able to see how well they connect back to the nodes and whether the AP Nanos are correctly positioned.  Hopefully it will not be necessary to go back up on the roofs to reposition them.

Project Board and preparation for two more wireless nodes

The RDPE Project Board met yesterday to review progress with the project.  The Project Board is chaired by GAB director Barbara Allen who was joined by Graham Parkin, Senior User member, Guy Jarvis, director of NextGenUs and Senior Supplier member, and Miles Mandelson, Project Manager.  Good progress with the project so far was recorded.

After the meeting was concluded Guy, Miles and Ben Hadler met to discuss and document the network design in detail.  It was decided that the next day (Friday) two additional wireless nodes would be installed at Holly Bank House and at Great Kettle Barn.  Guy had arranged for Mike Sayer, aerial installer from Kirby Stephen, to join us in the morning to assist with the installation.  Also Ben had undertaken to install a NanoStation on his roof to act as the first proper client installation.

Later in the evening Guy set about configuring the eight Nanos required for the two nodes.  Each installation comprises one Nano configured as a wireless station to connect to the next node (in these cases the village hall) and three Nanos configured as wireless access points to which client Nanos will connect.  The four Nanos are each powered over its Ethernet cable and connected together via a five-port Ethernet switch.

Wireless surveying at Goodlie Hill & Maisongill

This morning Ben and I set off to Goodlie Hill (where we currently have a wireless node on the existing network) to erect one of the NanoStations on an 8m pole.  It was configured as an Access Point and called Roam1.  After powering it up from the pickup and testing it, we managed to prop it up against the tree where the existing equipment is with its foot resting on the deck pickup.  Once it was up there it could 'see' three of the Nanos at the village hall.

Temporary installation at Goodlie Hill

Temporary installation at Maisongill

We then drove up to Maisongill in my car and stopped at the highest point on the track leading to the farm.  There we erected the second Nano on a 5m pole.  It was configured as Station and called Roam2. Unlike last week, we got a  good connection to Roam1 at Goodlie Hill and even managed to connect to one of the Nanos at the village hall.  From the point where we were stood we could see the Maisongill farmhouse as well as those at Grange Hall and Asby Grange.
These results demonstrate that our original plan to install a new wireless node at Maisongill to serve farms at that end of the village is justified provided we can design and install a suitable mast and renewable energy solution to support the node at the right height and power it.  A node in that position will be able to connect back to Goodlie Hill with a strong signal and, if necessary to the village hall.

Readout on the screen from Roam2 at Maisongill

Voltage inverter and power-over-Ethernet (PoE) unit powering Roam2

Preparation for more wireless surveying

As part of designing the new network we plan to test out wireless links between various locations.  To do this we have configured two NanoStations today, one as a wireless access point and one as a wireless station.  The latter, in effect, operates as a client of the former.  The idea is to mount the Nanos at the top of 8m poles, power them each from a 12v lighter socket in a car using 'power over Ethernet', and position them in the locations we want to test.  We then see if a connection can be made between the Nanos and at what strength.  This is a an entirely temporary (and mobile) arrangement for the purposes of testing only.  It requires two people (Ben and myself), two cars, and walkie-talkie communication.

The first two locations we plan to test are Goodlie Hill and Maisongill.  We'll let you know how we get on.

(I did warn you it would get boringly technical!)

Wireless surveying

Over the past week we have been doing some wireless surveying with mixed results.

Last Friday (24/9/10) Ben Hadler and I took the spare NanoStation up to Goodlie Hill where we managed to connect to the Village Hall node.  As this site has no mains power, we used a 12v to 240v inverter in the car to power the device.  Signal strength was good, S: -66dB, N: -91dB, and speeds were approaching 3Mbps.  Note that our nominal purchased backhaul bandwidth is 2Mbps.

We then took the NanoStation up to a high point at Maisonngill where we plan to install a second off-grid wireless node to serve that and neighbouring farms.  We had no joy in establishing a connection back to the Village Hall and assumed that there was insufficient line of sight between the two locations.  We concluded that any node up at Maisongill would have to connect to a different node from the Village Hall - possibly Goodlie Hill.

On Thursday (30/9/10) I took the NanoStation up to Great Kettle Barn where Mick Clayton kindly fixed it to the end of his Velux window pole and stuck it out of a first floor window.  After a bit of trial and error we got a good connection back to the Village Hall (S: -75dB, N: -93dB) and speeds approaching 4Mbps.  The connection should be even better once a proper node is installed on the chimney.

Google Earth view of the area we plan to cover showing existing wireless nodes plus a new location at Maisongill

Yesterday (1/10/10) I returned to Maisongill, this time with a 2.4GHz wireless access point to see if I could make a connection to any of the nodes in the existing network.  The Velux window pole came in very handy again.  A wireless survey picked up five different mesh-boxes at Goodlie Hill, the church, Great Kettle Barn, Asby Hall Mews and, surprisingly, the Village Hall.  Encouraged by the latter result, I tried again to connect the 5GHz NanoStation.  Only briefly did the wireless survey show the node at the Village Hall but then it was gone and no connection was made.  A bit of a mystery and one for Guy and Simon to solve.......!

Guy has supplied five more NanoStations for the purposes of further surveying.

Roaming node

I have erected the roaming node on our house in order to test the connection with the Village Hall node.  Signal strength is good and I'm getting the full 3Mbps bandwidth available according to www.speedtest.net.

After some doing some playing with it in situ, I'll experiment with it in various other locations.

The work begins

After a very busy time at Rory Stewart's Broadband Conference at Rheged, Guy and Simon from NextGenUs arrived in the village at 10.30am yesterday (Sunday) to install the first new wireless node.  This consisted of a 10ft aluminium scaffolding pole mounted on the gable end of the Village Hall alongside the existing mesh-box.  On the pole were four Ubiquiti NanoStation wireless devices positioned at 90 degree intervals and connected back to the router in the Village Hall with Cat5 Ethernet cable.  After configuration and testing, all four were got working.

Simon fixes the bracket for the pole

The next stage is to use a fifth NanoStation  to check where good wireless connections can be made back to the Village Hall node.

Guy configures the NanoStations

What is the GAB RDPE project?

Recently Great Asby Broadband successfully applied for funding from the Rural Development Programme for England to support a project to improve the community wireless network operating in the village. The aims of the project are:

1. Increase the available bandwidth from 2 to 10Mbps
2. Install a wireless network capable of delivering up to 50Mbps
3. Increase the range of the network to reach more households
4. Increase the number of subscribers by 20%.

We have engaged NextGenUs UK CIC to supply, install and support the operation of the network.  The project is scheduled to start in September 2010 and conclude by July 2011.

The project is overseen by the Project Board comprising Barbara Allen (Executive Lead), Graham Parkin (Senior User), Guy Jarvis (Senior Supplier).  The project is managed day to day by Miles Mandelson.