DAKNET

(WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY)
Abstract:

DakNet provides extraordinarily low-cost digital communication, letting remote

villages leapfrog past the expense of raditional connectivity solutions and begin
development of a full coverage broadband wireless infrastructure.DakNet, an ad hoc
network that uses wireless technology to provide asynchronous digital connectivity, is
evidence that the marriage of wireless and asynchronous service may indeed be the
beginning of a road to universal broadband connectivity.
This paper briefly explains about what is DakNet, how wireless technology
implemented with DakNet, its fundamental operations and its applications, cost
estimation, advantages and disadvantages and finally how to connect Indian villages with
town city and global markets.

Contents:
• Introduction
• What is DakNet
• How it works
• Applications
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Conclusion

Introduction:
For the remote areas of the India, where even the telephone, let alone the internet,
is still a distant dream,’DakNet’ brings a ray of hope. This wireless technology sends the
net to villages on a local bus or even a bike in somewhat the same fashion ‘dak’ or mails
are sent out. in rural areas, tele-density and connectivity is quite low, primarily because
the cost of extending a fixed line from the backbone to the villages is very high and is not
economically viable for the telephone companies. in an effort to bridge the digital divide
between urban and rural India, the country as turned to the use of wireless technology.
In short the goal of “broadband connectivity for everyone” has been shelved in
favor of cutting back to the minimum possible standard telephone service in the mistaken
belief that this is the cheapest way to provide connectivity. this compromise is
particularly tragic given recent advances in wireless technology, which make running a
copper line to an analog telephone far more expensive than broadband wireless internet
connectivity. rather than backpedal on the goal of connecting everone,society should be
thinking, how can we establish the kernel of a user network that will grow seamlessly as
the village’s economics develop? In other words, what is the basis for a progressive,
market-driven migration from government seed services e-governance to universal
broadband connectivity that local users will pay for?

What is daknet?

DakNet, whose name derives from the hindi word for “post” or “postal,”
combines a physical means of transportation with wireless data transfer to extend the
internet connectivity that a central uplink or hub, such as a cybercafé, VSAT system, or
post office provides.
DakNet, an ad hoc network that uses wireless technology to provide asynchronous
digital connectivity, is evidence that the marriage of wireless and asynchronous service
may indeed be that kernel—the beginning of a road to universal broadband connectivity.
Developed by MIT media lab researchers, DakNet has been successfully deployed in
remote parts of both India and Cambodia at a cost two orders of magnitude less than that
of traditional landline solutions. Villagers now get affordable internet services—and
they’re using them. As one man in a small village outside of New Delhi remarked,” This
is better than a telephone!”
Architecture of daknet:
DakNet consists of…….
• MAP(Mobile Access Point)
• Kiosk
• Hub(Internet Access Point

MAP(Mobile Access Point):

A movable transceiver, which may periodically receive and/or transmit digitized
information to and from kiosk and periodically received and/or transmit, digitized
information to and from a server acting as the gateway to the internet and/or telephony
network(s).

Kiosk:
The facilities at a physically location where a client computer may be available
for customer access or the physical locations where a physically movable device may be
made available for customer access. A client computer kiosk may be sited to enable
effective transmission to and from a Mobile Access Point.
Hub(Internet Access Point):
A Computer device with direct, real-time connection to the Internet and/or other
national and/or international communications infrastructure or a common connection
point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN.
A hub contains multiple ports.

How it works:
Instead of trying to relay data over a long distance, which can be expensive and
power hungry, DakNet transmits data over short point-to-point links between kiosks and
portable storage devices, called mobile access point(MAPs).Mounted on and powered by
a bus, a motorcycle, or even a bicycle with a small generator, a MAP physically
transports data among public kiosks and private communications devices and between
kiosks and a hub.Low-cost WiFi radio transceivers automatically transfer the data stored
in the MAP at high bandwidth for each point-to-point connection.

Features and benefits:

The primary advantages of a VAN are its low cost and ease of set up. Instead of
laying copper or fiber to each village or trying to establish costly long-distance wireless
links or satellite uplinks, a VAN takes advantage of existing transportation infrastructure
to create an affordable broadband network. Although the latency or delay of this network
is higher than other networks it is cable of providing a higher per day data throughput
than other low-bandwidth technologies such as telephone modems.
• Real-time communications not required for public kiosks
1. Communications tend to be asynchronous
2. Villager’s trade –off latency for affordability
• Leverages two major trends
1. Cost of wireless broad (WiFi)
2. Cost of digital storage
• Easy to implement on widespread basis
• Lower uplink costs and maintenance requirements
• Bandwidth does not decrease with distance
• Seed infrastructure that is scalable with demand
• Reduced regulatory challenges and licensing fees

Disadvantage:
• Token ring constraint if a lower tier goes down, all higher tier goes down
• Experience and Expertise person can only handled kiosk
• Efficiency of bandwidth reduced for each tier

Conclusion:

DakNet’s low deployment cost and its enthusiastic reception by rural users has
motivated dozens of inquires for further deployments. This should provide millions of
people their first possibility for digital connectivity, and, as study after study has shown,
increasing connectivity is the most reliable way to encourage economic growth. The
larger goal is to shift the policy focus of the government’s universal-service-obligation
funds from wire line village telephones to wireless ad hoc networking. The shift will
probably require formal assessment of user satisfaction, resulting economic growth, and
of course system reliability. If we can clear these bureaucratic hurdles, however,
governments might be able to connect the world’s poor to the internet far sooner than
anyone believed possible. And hopefully, we will be able to connect with the remote
areas of the country sooner than we thought well.