Volcanic Study the Wireless Way

Wireless offices? Sure.

Wireless volcanoes? Well…why not?

Scientists and academicians in Chile have set up an outdoor, point-to-multi-point
wireless network in order to provide remote education to 60 of the nation’s
high schools. Now they are looking to expand that network in an effort to monitor
two of the world’s most active volcanoes. They want to use 802.11 to provide
early warning of potential eruptions.

"This shows that 802.11 technology is only limited by your imagination
and what you are willing to do," said Jeff Manning, business manager with
Agere ORiNOCO, whose outdoor routers are included in the Chilean network. "In
an environment like that, a technology that tells you what you need to know
not just for scientific reasons but also for safety reasons can be very useful
to say the least."

The University of La Frontera (UFRO) in Temuco,
Chile and the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Marma
(UTFSM) in Valparamso, Chile already have established a network between themselves
and numerous other educational institutions, in a first step toward the proposed
volcano study.

The network is the brainchild of Razl Burgos Viveros, associate professor of
electronic engineering at UFRO, and Walter Grote, professor of electronic engineering
at UTFSM.

To provide security for the new network, Burgos set up a RADIUS (remote authentication
dial-in user service) server at UFRO. That server provides high levels of wireless
network security by validating every PC Card before it can log-on to the network.

With security assured, the team turned to connectivity issues. While Temuco’s
relatively flat topography made it fairly easy to build out a wireless network
at UFRO, the mountainous landscape of Valparaiso presented challenges. Grote
and his engineering team needed more than a single access point, and thus they
installed one ORiNOCO Central Outdoor Router (COR) and three ORiNOCO Remote
Outdoor Routers (ROR) around the city.

The COR/ROR system provides high-speed fixed wireless point-to-multi-point
networking in the 2.4 GHz band. Each COR/ROR has a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port
for connecting to a wired network and is capable of achieving a data rates as
high as 11Mbps. Each ROR-COR link has a range of up to approximately 16 miles,
and provides 128-bit RC4 encryption, MAC Address control, and System Access
Pass Phrase.

With the wireless network infrastructure in place at each university, the research
team then installed a wireless PC Card into desktop computers at each of 60
high schools, along with Linux software that enables each PC to function as
both a bridge and a router to the university’s wired networks.

"Installation was simple and quick," said Burgos. "The most
difficult part was planning the placement of the CORs and RORs in order to maximize
range and throughput. After that, it was a piece of cake, and we haven’t had
any problems since."

Students at each school can use the wireless network to watch videos and educational
conferences broadcast from the two universities. They can also access educational
videos available through the university’s intranets.

Volcano Project

With the wireless point-to-multi-point network in place, the research team
has begun to seek funding for its volcano project, wherein it hopes to keep
tabs on seismic activity near and around the highly unstable Llaima and Villarica
volcanoes in the Andes Mountains.

As envisioned by the scientists, special sensors will be buried deep into the
ground near these volcanoes. The sensors will monitor seismic activity such
as earthquakes near the volcanoes. The also will keep an eye out for changes
in the formation of the Earth’s surface, by measuring the location of certain
points of land over time.

The sensors contain an analog-to-digital electronic converter that will transfer
data gathered via an Ethernet port. Hosted in special ruggedized boxes near
the volcanoes, the sensors will be connected to a basic desktop computer, which
in turn will be connected to a special Internet Protocol camera with a USB port.
The PC will then transfer data about volcanic activity from the sensor and the
IP camera to researchers back at UFRO via the long-distance wireless link.

This project should enable researchers to monitor and study the volcanoes without
having to physically go on site. If all goes as planned, scientists also will
be able to warn the public of potentially disastrous volcanic activity, enabling
people to evacuate in advance of an eruption.

While most enterprise users in the United States are not too active in the
field of vulcanology, analysts say the Chilean project still has profound implications
for enterprise IT managers and others with an interest in developments related
to the 802.11 protocol.

"This shows the magnitude of creativity and expansion in the 802.11 marketplace," said Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing with analysis firm Gartner.

"These are good signs of a healthy 802.11 marketplace," he explained. "It says that the standard is doing its job. It is providing a lot of interoperability and bringing costs down, and that is good. It shows that the 802.11 market is really here and is really viable."

For those who have adopted 802.11, this reaffirms the wisdom of their choices. For those who have not yet taken the plunge, "this is a warning sign to IT that you have to embrace the technology," he said. "Every time IT tries to avoid something they get burned, and every time they embrace it and recognize that it is here, they have a much more positive scenario."

If Chilean researchers already are using 802.11 to watch volcanoes from a distance,
he suggested, IT professionals in the United States had better heed the call.

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