The design of a wireless solar-powered router for rural environments isolated from health facilities

Author

Reigadas, Francisco Javier Simo ; Fernandez, Andres Martinez ; Garcia, Pablo Osuna ; Escola, F.R. ; Pascual, Joaquin Seoane

Author_Institution

Univ. Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid

Volume

15

Issue

3

fYear

2008

fDate

6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

24

Lastpage

30

Abstract

Isolated rural areas often lack terrestrial telecommunication networks, especially in developing countries, which poses an important obstacle for offering health assistance of acceptable quality. On the other hand, low density and low concentration of population, lack of electricity in many areas, and accessibility problems make it difficult to propose realistic solutions based on conventional technologies. This work presents the development of an autonomous solar-powered wireless node for low-cost, static mesh networks. IEEE 802.11 is used for communication among nodes. The network is QoS-aware at the IP level, providing reliable VoIP services, and nodes contain a software PBX so that any two nodes in the network can establish a multihop VoIP communication.

Keywords

IEEE standards; IP networks; Internet telephony; private telephone exchanges; quality of service; telecommunication network reliability; telecommunication network routing; telecommunication power supplies; telecommunication standards; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11; IP level; QoS-aware network; health assistance; isolated rural areas; multihop VoIP communication; reliable VoIP services; software PBX; static mesh networks; terrestrial telecommunication networks; wireless solar-powered router; Costs; Hardware; Intelligent networks; Mesh networks; Physical layer; Production; Quality of service; Signal design; Telemedicine; Timing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Wireless Communications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1284

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MWC.2008.4547519

Filename

4547519