DAKNET

1. INTRODUCTION
Now a day it is very easy to establish communication from
one part of the world to other. Despite this even now in
remote areas villagers travel to talk to family members or to
get forms which citizens in-developed countries an call up on
a computer in a matter of seconds. The government tries to
give telephone connection in very village in the mistaken
belief that ordinary telephone is the cheapest way to provide
connectivity. But the recent advancements in wireless
technology make running a copper wire to an analog
telephone much more expensive than the broadband wireless
Internet connectivity. Daknet, an ad hoc network uses wireless
technology to provide digital connectivity. Daknet takes
advantages of the existing transportation and communication
infrastructure to provide digital connectivity. Daknet whose
name derives from the Hindi word Dak for postal combines
a physical means of transportation with wireless data transfer
to extend the internet connectivity that a uplink, a cyber caf
or post office provides.

2. WHY DAKNET
Real time communications need large capital investment
and hence high level of user adoption to receiver costs. The
average

villager

cannot

even

afford

personnel

communications device such as a telephone or computer. To

recover

cost,

infrastructure.

users

must

share

the

communication

Real time aspect of telephony can also be a

disadvantage. Studies show that the current market for

successful rural Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) services does not appear to rely on real-time
connectivity, but rather on affordability and basic interactivity.
The poor not only need digital services, but they are willing
and able to pay for them to offset the much higher costs of
poor transportation, unfair pricing, and corruption.

It is useful to consider non real-time infrastructures and

applications such as

voice mail, e-mail, and electronic

bulletin boards. Technologies like store- and forward or

asynchronous modes of communication can be significantly
lower in cost and do not necessarily sacrifice the functionality

required to deliver valuable user services. In addition to non

real-time applications such as e-mail and voice messaging ,
providers can use asynchronous modes of communication to
create local information repositories that community members
can add to and query.

2.1 WIRELESS CATALYST

Advances in the IEEE 802 standards have led to huge
commercial success and low pricing for broadband networks.
These techniques can provide broadband access to even the
most remote areas at low price.
Important considerations in a WLAN are
Security: In a WLAN, access is not limited to the wired PCs
but it is also open to all the wireless network devices, making
it for a hacker to easily breach the security of that network.
Reach:

WLAN

should

have

optimum

coverage

and

performance for mobile users to seamlessly roam in the

wireless network
Interference: Minimize the interference and obstruction by
designing the wireless network with proper placement of
wireless devices.

Interoperability: Choose a wireless technology standard that

would make the WLAN a truly interoperable network with
devices from different vendors integrated into the same.
Reliability:

WLAN

should

provide

reliable

network

connection in the enterprise network.

Manageability: A manageable WLAN allows network
administrators to manage, make changes and troubleshoot
problems with fewer hassles.
Wireless data networks based on the IEEE 802.11 or wifi
standard are perhaps the most promising of the wireless
technologies. Features of wifi include ease of setup, use and
maintenance, relatively high bandwidth; and relatively low
cost for both users and providers.
Daknet combines physical means of transportation with
wireless data transfer to extend the internet connectivity. In
this innovative vehicle mounted access points using 802.11b
based technology to provide broadband, asynchronous, store
and forward connectivity in rural areas.

3. WIFI

Wi-Fi refers to a set of high frequency wireless local area

network (WLAN) technologies more specifically referred to as

802.11a 802.11b and 802.11g. These standards are universally
in use around the globe, and allow users that have a Wi-Fi
capable device, like a laptop or PDA, to connect anywhere
there is a Wi-Fi access point that is available. The three
standards that are referred to signify the speed of the
connection they are capable of producing. 802.11b ( which
transmits at 11 Megabits per Second ) is the most common,
although the faster Wi-Fi standards are quickly replacing it.
Across the board, all of these Wi-Fi standards are fast enough
to generally allow a broadband connection. Wi-Fi is an
emerging technology that will likely be as common as
electrical outlets and phone lines within a few years. Wi-Fi
adds tremendous levels of convenience and increased
productivity for workers whose offices are equipped with WiFi, as well as travelers that can increasingly access Wi-Fi in
airports, coffee shops, and hotels around world.
A Wi-Fi network operates just like a wired network ,
without the restrictions imposed by wires. Not only does it
enable users to move around and be mobile at home and at

work, it also provides easy connections to the Internet and

business networks while traveling.
Wireless Fidelity, which is also known, as 802.11b is the
corporate choice and has a suitably wide range for use in big
office spaces. Wi-Fi is currently the most popular and least
expensive wireless LAN specification. It operates in the
2.4GHz radio spectrum and can transmit data at speeds up to
11Mbps within 30m ranges. It can affect by interference from
mobile phones and Bluetooth devices, which can reduce the
transmission speeds. Wi-Fi is an emerging technology that
will likely be as common as electrical outlets and phone lines
within a few years.

Wi-Fi adds tremendous levels of convenience and increased

productivity for workers whose offices are equipped with WiFi, as well as travelers that can increasingly access Wi-Fi in
airports, coffee shops, and hotels around. It is the standard
fitment to many wireless laptops including the new Centrino
based models.

Security Aspect

In Wi-Fi technology, data is broadcast over the air using

radio waves. This means that any WLAN enabled
computing device within reach of a wireless access point can
reach of a wireless access point can receive data transmitted to
or from the access point. Because radio waves travel through
ceilings, floors and walls, the transmitted data can reach the
wrong recipients on different floors or even outside the
building. Intruders can use unsecured access points to get into
corporate resources and launch denial-of-service attacks that
can bog down servers with bogus requests and prevent user
access to data and applications.

To ensure security, 802.11 wireless communications have

a function called wired-equivalent privacy (WEP), a form of
encryption, which provides privacy comparable to that of a
traditional wired network. If the wireless network has some
information that must be secured, WEP should be used to
ensure data protection at traditional wired network levels. But
as we know, there is never 100 percent security, and the WEP
standard was itself breached. Of late, WPA (Wi-Fi protected
Access) has over broken WEP as the de facto security standard
for Wi_Fi alliance certification. WPA offers higher levels of

wireless data security than WEP. It is a subset of the proposed

802.11i security standard from IEEE.

Specifications
Max speed

- 11 MBPS

Max Encryption

- 128 bit WEP

Discrete channels

-3

Max range @full throughput - ~30 ft

Natively compatible

- 802.11b, 802.11g

Potential user

- Entry level and home

networks

3.1 ADVANTAGES OF WIFI

Uses an unlicensed part of the radio spectrum. This

means less

regularly controls in many

countries.

Frees network devices from cables, allows for a more

dynamic network to be grown.

Many reliable and bug-free Wi-Fi products on the

market.

Competition amongst vendors has lowered prices

considerably since

their inception.

While connected on a Wi-Fi network, it is possible to

move about without breaking the network connection.

Moderns Access Points and Client Cards have excellent

in-built security and encryption.

Enterprise and Carrier Grade Access Points can

3.2 DISADVANTAGES OF WIFI

The 802.11b and 802.11g flavors of Wi-Fi use the 2.4 GHz
spectrum, which is crowded with other devices such as
Bluetooth, microwave ovens, cordless phones (900MHz
or 5.8 GHz are therefore, alternative phone frequencies
one can use if one has a Wi-Fi network), video sender
devices,

among

many

others.

This

may

cause

degradation in performance. Other devices, which use

microwave frequencies such as certain types of cell
phones, can also cause degradation in performance.

Power consumption is fairly high compared to other

standards, making battery life and heat a concern.

Users do not always configure it properly. In addition,

Wi-Fi commonly uses Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
protocol for protection, which has been shown to be
easily breakable even when properly configured. Newer
wireless solutions are slowly providing support for the
superior Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocol, though
many systems still employ WEP.

Wi-Fi networks have limited range. A typical Wi-Fi

home router using 802.11b might have a range of 150 ft
(46 m) indoor and 300 ft (92 m) outdoors. But about 10
US$ and an hour of building will get you an antenna
that can go much further.

3.3

AD-HOC NETWORK

An ad-hoc wireless network is a collection of wireless mobile

hosts forming a temporary network without the aid of any
established infrastructure or centralized control. Ad-hoc
networks require a peer-to-peer architecture, and the topology
of the network depends on the location of the different users,
which changes over time. In addition, since the propagation
range of a given mobile is limited, the mobile may need to
enlist the aid of other mobiles in forwarding a packet to its

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final destination. Thus the end-to-end connection between any

two mobile hosts may consist of multiple wireless hops. It is a
significant technical challenge to provide reliable high speed
end-to-end communications in ad-hoc wireless networks
given their dynamic network topology, decentralized control
and multihop connections.

In the ad-hoc network, computers are brought together to

form a network "on the fly." As shown in Figure, there is no
structure to the network; there are no fixed points; and usually
every node is able to communicate with every other node. An
algorithm in ad-hoc network architectures uses a broadcast
and flooding method to all other nodes to establish who's

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who. Current research in ad-hoc wireless network design is

focused on distributed routing. Every mobile host in a
wireless ad-hoc network must operate as a router in order to
maintain connectivity information and forward packets from
other mobiles. Routing protocols designed for wired networks
are not appropriate for this task, since they either lack the
ability to quickly reflect the changing topology or may require
excessive overhead. Proposed approaches to distribute routing
that quickly adapt to changing topology without excessive
overhead include dynamic source and associativity based
routing. Other protocols that address some of the difficulties
in supporting multimedia applications over ad-hoc wireless
networks include rate-adaptive compression, power control,
and resource allocation through radio clustering.

4. DAKNET NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

The main parts of daknet architecture are

Mobile access point

Hub
Kiosk

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4.1

MOBILE ACCESS POINT

Daknet offers data to be transmitted over short

point-to-point links. It combines physical and wireless data

transport to enable high-bandwidth intranet and internet
connectivity among kiosks (public computers) and between
kiosks and hubs (places with reliable Internet connection).
Data is transported by means of a mobile access point, which
automatically and wirelessly collects and delivers data
from/to each kiosk on the network. Low cost WIFI radio
transceivers automatically transfer the data stored in the MAP
at high bandwidth for each point- to- point connection.

Mobile Access Point is mounted on and powered by a bus or

motorcycle, or even a bicycle with a small generator. MAPs are

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installed on vehicles that normally pass by each village to

provide store-and-forward connectivity.

MAP equipment used on the bus includes,

a custom embedded PC running Linux with 802.11b

wireless card and 512 Mbytes of compact flash memory.

a 100-mW amplifier, cabling, mounting equipment, and

a 14-in omni directional antenna.

an uninterruptible power supply powered by the bus

battery.

The total cost of the Daknet MAP equipment used on the bus
is $580.A session occurs each time the bus comes within range
of a kiosk and MAP transfers data. The speed of the
connection between the access point and the kiosk or hub
varies in each case. But on average, they can move about 21Mb
or 42 Mb bi-directionally per session. The average good put or
actual throughput for a session, during which the MAP and
kiosk go in and out of connection because of mobility and
obstructions, is 2.3Mbps. Omni directional antennas are uses
on the bus and either directional or omni directional antennas
are located at each of the kiosks or hubs. The actual

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throughput depends on gain of antenna and orientation of

each kiosk with the road.

4.2 HUB
It is a common connection point for devices in a
network. It is used to connect segments of a LAN. It contains
multiple ports. Packet at one port copied to all other ports-all
segments see all packets. When the vehicle passes near an
internet access point the hub- it synchronizes all the data
from different kiosks using the internet.

4.3 KIOSK
It is a booth providing a computer related service such
as ATM. In each village there is kiosk. It requires a user
interface that can be used without training. It enable user to
enter and display information on the same device. Either

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directional or omni directional antennas are located at each of

the kiosks or hubs. Amplifiers are used to boost the signal and
range for higher.

5. HOW DAKNET WORKS

A simple store-and-forward WiFi system, using a
government bus as a central linkage. The bus contains a
simple WiFi installation and server, and when in range of one
of the outlying information kiosks it synchronizes data for
later processing.
DakNet is a patented wireless package that does away
with base stations. DakNet offers a cost-effective network for
data

connectivity

in

regions

lacking

communications

infrastructure. Instead of trying to relay data over long

distances, which can be expensive, Daknet transmits data over
short point-to-point links between kiosks and portable storage
devices called Mobile Access Points (MAP). Mounted and
powered on a bus or motorcycle with a small generator MAP
physically transports data between public kiosks and private
communications devices and between kiosks and a hub (for
non real time internet access). Low cost Wi-Fi radio

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transceivers transfer data stored in MAP at high bandwidth

for each point-to-point connection.
Daknet has thus two functions:

As the MAP equipped vehicle comes within the range of

a village Wi-Fi enabled kiosk it automatically senses the

wireless connection and uploads and downloads tens of mega
bytes of data.

As it comes in the range of Internet access points (the

hub) it automatically synchronizes the data from kiosks using

the Internet.

These steps repeat or all the vehicles carrying MAP, thus

providing a low cost wireless network and seamless
communication infrastructure. Even a single vehicle passing
by a village is sufficient to carry the entire daily information.
The connection quality is also high. Although Daknet does not
provide real time data transport, a significant amount of data
can move at once-typically 20MB in one direction.

Thus asynchronous broadband connectivity offers a

stepping-stone to always on broadband infrastructure and end

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user applications. Daknet makes it possible for individual

households and private users to get connected.

Daknet network architecture

The average cost to make a village kiosk ready is $185.

Assuming each bus serves 10 villages the average cost for
enabling each village is $243.

DakNet offers an affordable and complete connectivity

package, including:
Wireless hardware (wireless transceiver and antennas)
Networking software
Server and cache software

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 Custom

applications,

messaging, and

including

email,

audio/video

asynchronous Internet searching and

browsing
API enabling organizations to easily integrate DakNet with
their existing applications.

6. DAKNET IN ACTION
Villagers in India and Cambodia are using Daknet with
good results. Local entrepreneurs currently are using DakNet
connections to make e-services like e-mail and voice mail available
to residents in rural villages. One of the Daknets early

deployments was as an affordable rural connectivity solution

for the Bhoomi e-governance project. DakNet is also
implemented in a remote province of Cambodia for 15 solarpowered village schools, telemedicine clinics, and a governors
office.
Daknet is currently in action in many places. They are,

Bhoomi initiative in Karnataka

SARI (Sustainable Access for Rural India) project of

Tamilnadu

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Ratnakiri project in Cambodia

6.1

BHOOMI INITIATIVE IN INDIA

Bhoomi, an initiative to computerize the land records of

villagers is the first e-governance project in India. Bhoomi has

been successfully implemented at district headquarters across
the state to completely replace the physical land records
system.
Daknet makes Bhoomis land records database available
to villagers 40km away from the district headquarters. In this
deployment a public bus is outfitted with a Daknet MAP,
which carries the land record requests from each village kiosk
to the taluka server. The server then processes the requests
and outputs land records. The bus then delivers the records to
each village kiosk and the kiosk manager prints the records
and collects Rs 15 per record.

Villagers along the bus route have enthusiastically welcomed

the system. They are grateful in avoiding the long trip to the
main city to collect the records. The average total cost of the

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equipment used to make a village kiosk or hub DakNet-ready

was $185. Assuming that each bus can provide connectivity to
approximately 10 villages, the average cost of enabling each
village was $243 ($185 at each village plus $580 MAP cost for
10 villages).
It has also been successfully employed in the villages of
Cambodia. Next steps involve combining DakNet and Bhoomi
with a package of applications to provide a sustainable model
for rural entrepreneurship.

The Government of Karnataka plans to use Bhoomi as

the backbone for providing other kinds of information of
relevance to rural areas. This includes commodity prices,
information on agricultural inputs, social assistance like old
age, widow and physically handicapped pensions etc. There
are also plans to extend these kiosks to the village level by
involving private sector entrepreneurs and gram panchayats
(local governance units) on a revenue-sharing basis.

7. FEATURES OF DAKNET

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Since it avoids using phone lines or expensive

equipment,

Daknet

provides

one

of

the

lowest-cost

accessibility solutions in the world.

In addition to low cost the other feature of Daknet is its
ability for upgrading the always-on broadband connectivity.
As the village increases its economic means the villagers can
use the same hardware, software and user interface to enjoy
real-time information access. The only change is the addition
of fixed location wireless antennas and towers, a change that is
entirely transparent to end users, because they need not learn
new skills or buy new hardware and software. With multiple
MAP buses, a low cost wireless network and seamless
communication infrastructure gets created.

8. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Daknet provide seamless method of upgrading to
always on broadband connectivity. As a village increases its
economic means, its inhabitants can use the same hardware,

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software, and user interface to enjoy real time information

access. The only change is the addition of fixes location
wireless antennas and towers.
If the mobile access points are replaced with fixed
transceivers real-time connectivity is possible. Thus more
sophisticated services, such as voice over internet protocol
(VoIP) is enabled which allows normal real time telephony.
Instead of using wifi, wi-max or e-video can be used.
Wifi can affected by interference from mobile phones and
Bluetooth devices which will reduce the transmission speeds.

9. CONCLUSION
Daknets low deployment cost and enthusiastic reception
by rural users

has motivated dozens of inquiries for further

deployments. This provides millions of people their first

possibility for digital connectivity. Increasing connectivity is

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the most reliable way to encourage economic growth. The

larger goal is to shift the policy focus of the Governments
universal service obligation funds from wireless village
telephones to wireless ad-hoc networking. The shift will
probable require formal assessment for user satisfaction,
resulting economic growth and system reliability.

10. REFERENCES
IEEE Computer, January 2004
Electronics For You, April 2004
www.daknet.net
www.medialabasia.org
www.firstmilesolutions.com

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