[Grassroots-l] WDS for network deployment - Deployment Meeting

[Pia Waugh]

Hi all,

Daniel (dsd) asked on the deployment meeting wiki page
(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_meetings) about WDS, so I thought I'd
throw it out on the list and also throw in my 2c :)

I used WDS in a school for about 200 students, with 10 access points. The
details about that deployment are here including WDS documentation:

  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Niue
  http://pipka.org/blog/2008/08/16/olpc-in-niue/

I'd recommend the Linksys WRT54G with the openwrt firmware.

I found it worked pretty well, although unfortunately I wasn't there when
all 200 laptops were in use in the field. I only saw about 60 working
simultaneously, but I did test walking all around the school with good
results.

The main trick is to plan your WDS implemetation well, such that there are
minimal hops for devices, good coverage and most importantly no loops. I
learnt that last one the hard way :) Every loop you create will create
enormous amounts of traffic and it will degrade the performance
exponentially. Also, you can get a POE kit for the WRT54G but we didn't need
it for this rollout.

What have others found?

Cheers,
Pia

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