John Matogo, a lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology recently returned from a month long workshop and awareness seminar on wireless networking. The workshop dubbed "School on New perspectives for Low cost wireless networks for developing Countries" was organised by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) www.ictp.it and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) www.itu.int.

The workshop brought together 33 participants from various universities and research institutions in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. It focused on training participants on how to use low cost technology solutions to provide reliable telecommunications links especially in rural set ups.

Topics covered during the workshop included: networking, routing, WI-FI (Wireless Fidelity), radio wave propagation, antennas, link budget calculation, mesh networking, wireless network security, solar power equipment for wireless networks, wireless sensor networks, WIMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and spectrum management and regulatory issues.

Among the practical activates participants carried out were: developing high gain antennas from tin cans (cantenna), setting up a wireless mesh network, antenna mounting and alignment, and implementing a wireless link over a 11km distance and transmitting video over the link.

The last week of the workshop was an awareness seminar. 15 participants from various governments and telecoms regulators from several countries in Africa attended the workshop. Mr Matogo gave a presentation on the application of wireless networks to extend e-learning to schools in Kenya.

Future collaboration activities are planned with the ICTP. Mr Matogo plans to establish a wireless networking group among interested students in the SU and to teach wireless networking at the University. Mr Matogo's trip was fully sponsored by the ITU.