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Deploy Community Wi-Fi Service with Edgecore Solutions

 

Deploy Community Wi-Fi Service with Edgecore Solutions

Nowadays, there are still many small villages or counties fewer than one in five of its residents can access the internet because of a lack of Internet infrastructure. A private-public partnership could help to set up infrastructure to expand broadband and deliver wireless signals to pockets across the county with existing mobile broadband service to connect residents to the Internet.

Edgecore ECWO5212-L is a purpose-built community Wi-Fi service outdoor access point which target on community Wi-Fi service provider. The community Wi-Fi service offer the Internet service to communities and the key operating model of such business is being able to make profit via selling the Internet bandwidth allocated to the target community.

The cost of building a community Wi-Fi service includes;

  1. Internet bandwidth
  2. Equipment
  3. Installation
  4. Operation and maintenance

The cost of acquiring Internet bandwidth is incurred within the service provider’s business operation. The competitive edge depends on how the service provider can make the most out of it from the service offering. The Edgecore ECWO5212-L is designed to cope with this challenge via optimizing the cost incurred from Internet bandwidth, equipment, installation, operation, and maintenance of the community Wi-Fi service infrastructure.

  1. Concurrent 2.4GHz and 5GHz high-power radio
  2. Enterprise-grade security
  3. Complete bandwidth control on wireless-link, per SSID, and per-user based
  4. Built-in NAT for local Internet service sharing without additional equipment
  5. Template based deployment for ease of mass deployment
  6. Remote manageable by Edgecore controller
  7. Dual Ethernet ports design supports flexible deployment with no need of additional equipment such as switch
  8. Compact and lightweight rugged design enclosure (IP68) suitable for deploying in both outdoor and indoor environments
Case Example – A Community Wi-Fi Service Provider South East Asia
A community Wi-Fi deployment case is used as the example to elaborate the design consideration of the purpose-built solution for community Wi-Fi service. In this case, the WISP is using the Wi-Fi technology to deliver the Internet service via “Checkerboard Service Planning”. The benefits of Checkerboard Service Planning include;
  1. Effectively partition the service area into smaller square that can implement repetitive deployment scheme
  2. Modularize the service offering so template deployment approach is feasible
The WISP plans each basic service coverage as one “1KM by 1KM” area which contains 25 “200M by 200M” squares as depicted in Figure 1. Within the “1KM by 1KM” area, a location (checkerboard base) is selected to build the local operation center to host the Internet backhaul. The WISP distributes backhaul bandwidth to each square inside the checkerboard service area, and the amount of bandwidth each square depends on the service planning.
For each “200M by 200M” square, a location (square base) is selected to host a point-to-point wireless connection to the checkerboard base to receive the bandwidth designated for this square as depicted in Figure 2. This bandwidth distribution mechanism starts from the checkerboard base to each square base and further to subscribers in each square constructing the WISP’s basic bandwidth reselling business model.
In order to increase the service revenue, the WISP creates two types of service packages;
  1. Household service plan
This “household service plan” delivers a specific amount of bandwidth to a household. The customer can share the bandwidth with household members. This service type is like the ISP’s service installed via a home router and charged by the amount of bandwidth subscribed.
  1. Individual service plan
The “individual service plan” delivers a specific amount of bandwidth to the subscriber. The service cannot be shared with other people. This service type is like the mobile operator’s service to a smart phone and charged by the amount of bandwidth subscribed.
 
To support above operating model, the deployment requirements can be summarized as;
  1. A point-to-point wireless link (PTP) from “square base” to “checkerboard base” to receive bandwidth from the Internet backhaul. Bandwidth management is required for this wireless link. A range of 1KM is required.
  2. A point-to-multiple-point (PTMP) wireless distribution system delivers bandwidth to each household. The wireless equipment installed at each household must support NAT feature to provide Internet service sharing inside each household. Bandwidth management is required for each wireless link to the household. A range of 200M is required.
  3. A Wi-Fi AP supports the per-user bandwidth management to user device to provide bandwidth-based service package.
For above three service scenarios, the bandwidth management is essential for the WISP to conduct the bandwidth re-selling model. The Wi-Fi network is a shared medium over its wireless coverage which allows all the connected devices to share the total bandwidth transmitted from the Wi-Fi AP. In order to make the bandwidth management effectively, the desired bandwidth must be controlled at the service edge. ECWO5212-L is implemented with comprehensive bandwidth management mechanism that can manage the bandwidth on;
  1. PTP wireless link
  2. Each link on the PTMP wireless link
  3. Per SSID
  4. Per user
In this example, the WISP plans initially to service 15 household customers and 50 individual users in one “200M by 200M” square. Assuming each household customer subscribe a 2Mbps service and each individual customer subscribe a 512Kbps service, 50Mbps bandwidth is enough to support the above service planning.
 
With the selected accessory, the ECWO5212-L can meet the WISP service deployment plan as specified in this example was depicted in Figure 3. The ECWO5212-L with the ANT-PD495915D support up to 400Mbps connection speed at 1KM PTP which provides the room for the WISP to grow the service as needed.
For the PTMP deployment case, the base ECWO5212-L is equipped with the omni-antenna (S-OD245805) to deliver the bandwidth to the ECWO5212-L with direction antenna (ANT-PD495915D) installed at household. As depicted in Figure 4, the ECWO5212-L supports the service planned in this example with room to grow.
For the individual service plan, the ECWO5212-L functions as a concurrent dual-band AP providing the wireless connection to both 2.4GHz and 5GHz user devices. In this deployment, ECWO5212-L is equipped with the omni-antenna (S-OD245805) to deliver the bandwidth to the user devices (2.4GHz or 5GHz, 1x1 with 2Dbi antenna gain assumed). As depicted in Figure 5, the ECWO5212-L supports the individual service planned in this example with room to grow.
For the service area which lack of service base location, the ECWO5212-L is also implemented with mesh feature (as depicted in Figure 6) to enable the WISP to quickly deploy the Internet service.
In summary, ECWO5212-L with selected accessory supports every deployment requirement specified in this WISP’s service plan. With single equipment approach, the WISP is able to plan the deployment based on pre-configuration and pre-labeling approach. It's not only helping the WISP to quickly deploy the equipment, and also save the cost of installation by high-skilled technician. After the ECWO5212-L is commissioned in the field, it can be centrally managed by Edgecore controller to save the the operation and maintenance cost.