Low-cost internet mesh networks for public rural schools

Abstract

El Salvador has 5,134 public schools, out of which 3,873 are considered rural. Last year's statistics showed only 394 rural schools had Internet access. That is to say, according to official figures, barely 6% of rural public schools have some sort of Internet service. Globally, lack of Internet service on rural areas have deeply concerned governments, non profit organizations and international institutions like United Nations. Many projects have been carried on the developing world. Solutions based on wireless networks and Voice Over IP seem to be gaining support. They offer low cost solution to the lack of infrastructure in rural public schools. This technologies make feasibility of reaching the poor much more effectively than at present. For almost a decade, the University of El Salvador has been working on ideas to help rural areas to have low cost Internet access. Rural public schools could be one of the great beneficiaries. In this paper we propose solutions based on mesh wifi networks. We analyze a geographical area called Sierra Tecapa-Chinameca where survey site has been conducted. This area is made of more than 200 schools, with more than 50,000 students and 1,800 teachers. To prove our proposal, we discuss an experiment conducted in 2010 where a prototype network was temporarily deployed. Also, we discuss an operating mesh wireless network deployed in 2015, in Santa Marta, Cabanas, about 113 kilometers north east of San Salvador.