CWRC, from the 6th nov. '06

Last week, i was attending the community wireless resource centre (CWRC) training with lectures & practical sessions taking place at Makerere university, faculty of both food science & technology.

The training was established within the department of electrical engineering with support from the International development research centre (IDRC) with technical input from swedish-based IT +46, http://www.it46.se/ facilitators: Berthilson Louise & Escudero Pascual Alberto. The training was tailored towards the need to reduce the high costs of connectivity in IDRC-supported telecentres in Uganda, and to also explore optimal connectivity models such as sharing the existing bandwidth with neighbouring institutions (schools, NGOs, religious institutions...) via outdoor wireless networks.

The aim of the CWRC is towards making connectivity more affordable for telecentres by implementing a communication infrastructure that is shared & managed by the community. In otherwords, a "community wireless network", and it is based on the possibility for groups or communities to build self owned & operated networks.

The training involved both theoretical & practical lectures, my favourites being which was: Access point configuration & troubleshooting, radio link calculations, link budgeting & planning, outdoor radio simulation - an introduction to radio mobile...

I should mention the training was good in furthering my experience with wireless networks & setting up another great wireless link at Nakaseke telecentre.

Thank you to everybody especially Ugabytes, Dorothy Okello, Alberto, Louise and the students too for the great cooperation towards the running of the course.

thank you :)

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