PART III - TECHNICAL INFORMATION The basic problem which this test project was attempting to solve is the lack of a wired telecommunications infrastructure in Mongolia, including across its capital city Ulaan Baatar, suitable for carrying data to and from public, educational and research organizations across the city and to and from the Internet. The site chosen for this test, Mongolia, and its capital city Ulaan Baatar are quite typical of the infrastructure in thousands of cities in lesser developed nations. These are: a. A poor and obsolete Postal and Telephone and Telegraph government telephone system. Capable of, at the best, of only limited capacity dial-up modem traffic, on an intermittent basis. b. Lack of local expertise and resources necessary to plan, acquire, and install even a 56Kbps wired circuit. c. Inability of local, institutional science and research organizations and personnel to communicate readily with US Science. And corresponding inability of US science visiting the country, to communicate with data systems back to the US. d. Increasing ability, though costly, to get, via satellite or cable, Internet feeds to one point in the country from other countries, but inability to distribute that data signal adequately 'the last mile' - or locally. Beyond the one system, or network, in one building at the satellite 'base station' or international fiber terminus building. Other conditions that made this a wireless test beyond those possible even in rural areas of the United States were: a. Severe winter weather. In Ulaan Baatar high winds, and average temperatures from -15 to -25 degree Centigrade for entire winter months subjecting the radios, connectors, shielding materials, and antennas to extremes of cold and wind. The question was whether or not economical commercial-grade radios and systems could handle the weather and give similar MTBF times to those systems operated in milder climates. b. Uncertainy over whether the electromagnetic environment from the equipment that exists in Mongolia today, some of which will result from systems developed and deployed by the Soviet Union in the past, in a different technological regulatory environment, will affect the spread spectrum data radios that appeared most suitable and economic for the sitution, that we intended to deploy, which were developed in the US and operate in environments controlled by FCC rules. c. A mish-mash of US and foreign computer and peripheral equipment. Would interoperability of the radios with indigenous hardware, software, connectors, be a problem? d. A question whether, given the level of in-country expertise able to help install, and maintain the wireless network, could local expertise be trained sufficiently in a short period, in country, to handle the network in the future, with only the assistance of remote expertise to call upon for help. Original Plan The original plan called for integrating 8 spread spectrum data radios and custom built IP servers, with the base station on the premises of DataCom - an entrepenurial Mongolian company which had a 128Kbps Internet data link to the US via Sprintlink services over PamAmSat and Comstram satellite service from California. The computers and networks at the following institutions were to be served were: National University of Mongolia Mongolian Technical University Computer Management Technical Institute Information Centre of the Science Academy Mongolian Academy of Sciences Public Internet Access Centre U.S. Embassy Datacom Ltd Company Since the feed to and from the US was only 128Kbps, the radios installed - from less than 1 to 10 Kilometers from Datacom - were only designed to operate at 115Kbps through the RS232 Serial Port. Because the Mongolian governmnet permitted GSM cellular radios to operate in country - which uses a portion of the 902-928Mhz bands reserved in the US for FCC Part 15 spread spectrum use, it was necessary to limit radios to 902-915Mhz of bandwitdh, slightly degrading performance. FreeWave Technologies Inc, radios from Boulder, Colorado (http://www.freewave.com) whose radios operate at 170Kbps air speed, but can be limited from 9,600 to 115,000 Kbps port speed, and, through a software switch can be limited to 902-915Mhz in bandwidth, were used. These radios also use the full 1 Watt of radio transmission power permitted by the FCC, which can 'work through' some radio interference and handle less than perfect line of sight conditions. While these radios are capable of being directly plugged into the 9 pin RS232 serial ports of any standard computer, the uncertainty as to whether the machines at the Mongolian institutions to be served were robust enough to handle 115Kbps at their serial ports, or contained IP router software, but the reported ability of all to handle Ethernet traffic, led us to build 8 small custom routers, based on Intel chassis, minimum Linux (unix) software installations in 16Mbps of RAM, fast 16550 UART serial ports, and standard 10 BaseT Ethernet cards and services. While not commercial, documented systems, these routers were assembled from widely available standard parts and software, and easily replicable anywhere in the world very cheaply. They can be made from a used 386 or 486 with 40Mbps hard drive, 16Mbps of RAM, a 3.5 inch floppy disk (the Debian Linux or 'shareware' software can be loaded to the needed routing capability from 4 floppies - no CD player needed) with 'borrowed' monitor and keyboard used to install and configure, but not needed during operations. The routers were designed to sit between the radio and the LAN hub of the institution, operate on 220 VAC. The FreeWave DRG115 Transceiver radios, which require 12 volts DC, and consume less than 3 watts of power, were fitted with transformers that could handle the Mongolian 220VAC wall power. These radios can also be powered in outside or no-grid situations from 12 volt vehicle battery or solar gel cell sources. The radios were one-time configurable from any PC with RS232 port and a terminal program producing 19,200 Bps at the port. The antennas and feedlines were a combination of (1) the 3 inch antennas that are shipped with the radio. (2) an Omni antenna tuned to the 900Mhz bands to be used at the site of DataCom, so it could handle radio signals from all points of the compass. (3) a series of high gain Yagi directional antennas to be used at sites beyond the range of the small radio antennas. (4) low line loss coax feedline (LMR-400) cables were used between the antennas and radios. A key small point was that all US manufactured Part 15 radios are required by the FCC to have 'non-standard' connectors at the radio port of the antenna lines. So an adequate supply of such connectors (or short cables with standard connectors at the other end, from the original manufacturer as the only source) was necessary. On Site Discoveries All this preliminary technical planning was done through DataCom Co., Ltd, headed by Dr. Dangaasuren Enkhbat, its Director, via email, in English. Had not DataCom, supported by the Mongolian government and the US Ambassador had the satellite Internet link already in place, albeit only to one server in one building (), it would have been very difficult to do this preliminary planning sufficiently to insure no major technical errors or omissions were made before travelling to such a difficult to visit site for just a single 2 week visit to accomplish everything. Even so, the Mongolians never understood the necessity for a good distance, and line-of-sight survey needed to be accomplished before the final radio and antenna selections were made, in the US. Several requests for video tapes or other precise pictures of the geography of the scene went unfilled. As a consequence when the two man installation team (Dewayne Hendricks of Warpspeed Imagineering, and Glenn Tenney of Fantasia Systems) arrived, they were surprised to see that DataCom's location was surrounded by high rise buildings - which can either block entirely or attenuate greatly the strength of the radio signals. Very fortunately the materials used in the buildings were such (a rare condition in the US) that they were sufficiently transparent to the 902-925Mhz transmissions to permit communications to all sites. This cannot be expected everywhere. In 2.5 weeks without adverse weather the Warpspeed team was able to install all radios and get a reliable data signal to and from each site. By the time the team departed Mongolia, the network, with adjustments to some sites, was working. (which means test IP packets within the 202.131.2 Class C addresses installed in the Linux routers behind each radio, operated suitably. Some sites, although having promised DataCom they would be ready to accept the Ethernet LAN signal into their local networks, acted as if it was a suprise when the radios arrived and were installed. They were unable to finish their part of the project. So the tests were confined in those cases to the router. In the case of the Public Internet Centre (National Library) which had a network of workstations installed under a Soros Foundation grant, the designated workstations operated properly. As did the link to the US Embassy, and the Academy of Sciences. as well as to DataCom Ltd. The network map as of February, 1997 is at Attachment 1 The staff of DataCom Ltd, having been trained under Soviet rule, were competant technically. They also had switched almost all their technical choices to US made hardware and software in recent years, were familiar with TCP/IP and the Internet because of their installation of the Sprintlink link, and so adapted more readily to the US made radios and routers. Their command of English was adequate to permit working together without the services of a translator. Since the work included training the Mongolian staff of DataCom to operate, maintain, further deploy, and refine, the network it was important that the Mongolian staff learn from the US installer team. Originally it was expected and agreed to that DataCom would collect and report via email to me as the PI, thruput, reliability and interference data through one severe Mongolian winter. They did not do so. As a consequence, except for several sporadic requests for some technical assistance, they hardly communicated at all. Consequently we have been unable to get hard thruput, radio performance, or other measurable data since the radios and routers were first installed and were working adequately. However, independent of this project, DataCom procured more FreeWave radios, and stating that their FreeWaves did not work properly point to multi-point (they do everywhere else, in our extensive experience) - the original configuration with one radio at the center (DataCom, and 7 outlying sites was altered by them to give point to point communications between several of their sites. Unfortunately the Mongolians requested no technical assistance from our NSF team or FreeWave, which could have resolved their problems. So they ended up with a different, and more costly, configuration. It has been reported to us that one site, the Academy of Sciences, which was obviously the most technically advanced in networking when we started the project, is being well served by a pair of point to point FreeWaves, linking their 35 computers to the Internet, via DataCom's gateway server, web site, and ground station link to the United States. On 11 June, 1997 custody of the $21,180 worth of radios, routers, antennas, and other hardware and software that was our Project's responsibility, but in the hands of DataCom, was transferred, in place, to the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, (Prof. B Chadraa, ) thus ending the NSF project. The rough total cost for getting this 56-115Kbps Internet signal the 'last mile' in Ulaan Baatar, was $10,000 per site, with equipment representing 25% of the total cost. FINDINGS US made spread spectrum radios can be used locally by many lesser developed nations to complete their 'last mile' of connectivity. A good site survey ahead of installation is the key to the first installation being a success. The specifics of a survey require people with a good deal of expertise in several areas. If, in a foreign country, the US installers cannot get to the site in person, then it is critical to get basic information from locals in country. In countries that may have various radio-transmission sources, it can be the difference between success and failure to determine potential interference sources. Differences in foreign country spectrum allocation laws or rules, the type, characteristics and reliability of electrical power require careful analysis. That government's approval needs to be secured even before the radio systems are finally selected. Particularly in the 900 Mhz bands area - popular and congested in the US, and the location of many growing services in other countries - cellular phones in particular - there can be serious interference. Sufficent spares of all kinds - from the basic radio, through cabling, connectors, antennas need to be taken to the country, since replacement later may be very difficult for them. A great deal of pragmatic experimentation at the foreign radio sites with inside or outside location, RF cabling lengths, antenna placement and orientation, will usually be necessary, and allowances made for the time it takes to do this. Short of carrying, in advance, modern spectrum analyzers which can measure true signal strength and interference sources, with sample radios, it is not possible to predict radio performance and link margin remotely. A US-Foreign team approach is desirable, but reliable communications, including e-mail, is absolutely necessary long before radios and equipment are selected, much less shipped. The Mongolian Wireless Field Test Project proved a reasonable model for providing 'last mile' connections in other lesser developed countries, encountering and overcoming most of the types of problems a US company, university, non-profit organization, or agency will encounter. The project, while largely successful in providing economical cross-city institutional Internet access where local PTT alternatives did not exist, confirmed the expected difficulties in deploying advanced terrestrial communications technologies in a 3d world country with marginal technological expertise and infrastructure without time for substantial training for local nationals. This final report is on the NSF Wireless Field Tests Web Site at Microtimes Magazine, June 23d, 1997 issue contains a lengthy narrative article 'Wireless in Mongolia' by Dewayne Hendricks, Warpspeed Imagineering.