Sonapur, Assam

WHY Sonapur?
Sonapur is a quaint little village, seated on the river Diguru, flowing into the mighty Brahmaputra near Guwahati in Assam. It belongs to one of the strategic regions of India and is the biggest north Eastern state of India. However, these regions of North East India are yet to reap the benefits of technological development.
These regions have been plagued with a serious lack of availability and accessibility of content, products and services and that is the reason the economy is not percolating to the bottom of the pyramid. Considering these facts, it therefore becomes obvious that the last mile connectivity problem further creates divide between the haves and have-nots. This is where DEF along with North East Development Foundation decided to extend their already established digital centre in Guwahati to offer wireless connectivity through its Wireless Training workshop, which could be seamlessly integrated in areas which do not even have well developed public infrastructure.

The workshop, perhaps first of its kind in Assam, in terms of wireless knowledge dissemination and training, discussed critical aspects of wireless technology and deployment. The objective of the training was to set up temporary mesh wireless network, with testing and live demonstration with all essential wireless equipments within a range of 5 KM with one relay station and two nodes.

At Sonapur centre, the training of trainers has been successfully done.

Wireless Training at Sonapur, Assam

Summary
The workshop, perhaps first of its kind in Assam, in terms of wireless knowledge dissemination and training, discussed critical aspects of wireless technology and deployment. Specifically, it brought out the importance of IP address and its significance, the characteristics of class A, class B and class C

Address. It discussed concepts of Subnet Mask, Network Address, Broadcast Address and how to calculate each of them for class A, B and C Address and finally for every kind of network using VLSM i.e. for /24, /25, /26…. The discussion was also on public and private IP address. It introduced and worked on the concept of wireless standards, that is what IEEE is and what are the standards that IEEE made for wireless technology. It discussed about 802.11 b/g/a/n according to modulation technique, speed and frequency. The discussion and exercise was on features and characteristics of electromagnetic wave. It discussed
speed and data dependency with frequency that is with more frequency one can transmit more data but at smaller distance. Trainees were given training on Fresnel zone and free space loss associated with the radio wave and also how to calculate them. Training were provided on how power is received at the receiver end when transmitter with certain dBm power, certain dBi gain antenna is transmitting wave and how much data throughput one get from it. The workshop discussed about the basic unit of radio that are needed to remember while configuring any radio of any company. It also worked on the line of sight calculation with software called Motorola PTP software in which were given longitude and latitude of two locations and it automatically found the possible of radio link between them. The workshop focused on the security (WEP/WPA) subject and also associated client with MAC filtering, focused on what is basic of router and how to configure the router. Trainees with help of trainers setup a Hotspot in mikrotik router which provides the IP address automatically to client while associating the Mac address of client to mikrotik router. Demonstrations were made while giving different user a different speed and monitoring the network according to user.
Training Date: 24th December 2010 to 29th December 2010
Venue: Sonapur, Kamrup District, Assam
Trainers: SANTOSH BARAL (Nepal Wireless) and SHAHID AHMAD

Objective:
The objective of the training was to set up temporary mesh wireless network, with testing and live demonstration with all essential wireless equipments within a range of 5 KM with one relay station and two nodes.

Training Imparted:
The five days programme imparted the following wireless knowledge with theory and practice and live demonstration:
a) Fundamental computer
b) Inter networking basic
c) Basic network topologies
d) The OSI Reference models
e) Ethernet networking
f) Ethernet cabling
g) TCP/IP Protocols
h) IP Addressing
i) Subnetting, Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSMs), and Troubleshooting TCP/IP
j) IP Routing
k) Wireless Standard
l) Radio Physics
m) Radio Link
n) Radio device configuration
o) User account creation
p) Security (WEP/WPA, MAC authentication)
q) Troubleshooting wireless network

Trainees:
1. TAPAN TALUKDAR
2. BANESWAR DEKA
3. BIKASH BORO
4. DENSON BORO
5. MRIDUL DAS
6. SHAHID AHMAD
7. MAHANTA TUMUNG
8. JADUMONI BORO

Achievement:
At the end of the training the trainees gained skills on the following and were able to perform the following tasks:
i. Trainees were able to make all kind of cabling like state cabling, cross cabling etc.
ii. Trainees skilled to make link analysis between two nodes.
iii. Trainees gained knowledge to configure radio (Mikrotik and Engenus) as Access Point, Client and as Mesh
iv. Trainees now can configure the Mikrotik router as DHCP Server, Router, and Hotspot server
v. Trainees can create user profile of different varieties and connect the client with Security (WPA/WEP) and Mac authentication.

Limitations:
There were limitations as emerged during the training / workshop:
i. Selection of trainees could have been better and numbers enhanced
ii. Distance between training centre & the place for stay / accommodation
iii. Language and explanation difficulty in communication for trainer / translation and explanation was carried out by second person
iv. Duration was short by 2-3 days

Feedback:
i. About venue: Excellent (60%) Average (40%) Poor (0%)
ii. Communication skills: Excellent (30%) Average (70%) Poor (0%)
iii. About personal qualities: Excellent (60%) Average (40%) Poor (0%)
iv. About content: Excellent (70%) Average (30%) Poor (0%)
v. About training method: Excellent (60%) Average (40%) Poor (0%)
vi. About duration of training: 100% feel, it should be at least for 10 days.