Introduction

The internet has become one of the most important tools for economic development and social inclusion in recent times. Its relevance has become more profound in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that has virtually brought the world to a halt. Increasingly, almost every business and social activity is going online making access to connectivity a critical issue. Ghana is no exception to this trend, however; the extensive connectivity gaps is serving as a barrier towards the utilization of technology for economic and social advancement. The western region of Ghana is noted for having several communities including very vibrant areas like Samreboi that are digitally unconnected. The cost of running commercial enterprises are increasingly becoming more costly and uncompetitive, some social services are gradually becoming inaccessible and cost of living is generally becoming uncomfortable all due to the non-reliable and expensive cost of digital resources which support the delivery of these services. It is very obvious that without any immediate intervention, the community and adjoining communities may continue to wallow in abject poverty with debilitating consequences on the local economy in particular and ultimately, the national economy. It is for this reason that this project has been conceived with the view of extending connectivity to the community and other adjoining areas.

Project Brief

The Samreboi Community Network project is aimed at providing affordable and easy access to the internet in all parts of the town. It serves all the public, private and households with their digital needs. The project installed transmission devices in the community to provide wireless internet to members of the community. It also promotes the use and appropriation of ICT in Samreboi by means of initiatives from the various actors in the community i.e. the governmental sector, the civil society, and the private sector. The project develops a web-based application that is being installed locally to provide information to the communities. This database includes in its electronic educational materials that are needed for all levels, especially in the field of science and mathematics. This provides an eLearning platform where people share questions and allow people to provide answers to these questions. This local sever provide the list of activities that are being done in the district and also provide first-hand information to visitors to the Community. The project also bridges the gap between the farmer in the village and cities by obtaining information about the price of goods and the amount it shall cost them to move produces to the cities since they could easily obtain customers in the cities using the internet.

Expected Outcomes

The project is expected to have long-lasting benefits to the community. The specific outcomes to be achieved are as follows:

• Internet connectivity improved
• Internet Access improved affordable
• Digital skills improved

Partners

Passion Technology

Passion Technology is an evolution of Socially Responsible and a practical information technology company that aims at advancing technology and innovation to inspire and benefit the individuals and communities as we seek to grow jobs that enhance the quality of life by bridging the technological gab. Passion Technology understand the unique challenges of each rural communities therefore our research and production team and the entire work force combine strategic thinking, distinctive design and appropriate technology to deliver innovative solution that consistently bring new experience and promote technology in rural communities.

Implementation Details

The network is completely wireless. We standardized on Ubiquiti network equipment, with a little bit of other hardware like TP-Link and D-Link

Digital Map

Internet Connection

The network required dedicated internet. The connection is solely devoted to the project use. The connection is typically delivered via a Vodafone Radwin Point-to-Point Radio. This is to have a stable connection to the internet and higher bandwidth.

The Spectrum

Community Network Design with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Frequency Bands

Samreboi Community Network design, emphasizes the strategic use of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. These frequency bands play a crucial role in delivering reliable, high-speed wireless connectivity to the Samreboi Community Network

Physical Network

The physical network starts at the top of the radio mast at SAXCCU Guest House on the Vodafone Radwin Point-to-Point Radio. From here an outdoor Cat6 patched cable goes down the transmission room to a server rack, into a gigabit port on the pfsense firewall server.

The Vodafone Radwin Point-to-Point Radio at Samreboi Base Station

From here we connect to 24 port gigabit D-Link Switch (DGS-1024D) using an indoor Cat6 patched cable, connected to this switch are the servers hosting the web applications and the server hosting SCN Meet (Conferencing app like zoom). There are five (5) other outdoor Cat6 patched cables that leave the switch in the transmission room and goes up to the top of the radio mast.

Base Station at SAXCCU Guest House

At the top of the mast are five (5) radio antennas. Two (2) Ubiquiti Rocket M5 fixed together with Ubiquiti airMAX (AM-5G19-120) a 120-degree sector antenna, one (1) Ubiquiti PowerBeam M5 (PBE-M5-400) and two (2) NanoStation M5. The two (2) Ubiquiti Rocket M5 fixed together with the Ubiquiti airMAX Sector (AM-5G19-120) enabled propagate the 240-degree wireless signal to the communities. The two (2) Ubiquiti Rocket M5 fixed together with the Ubiquiti airMAX Sector (AM-5G19-120) and NanoStation M5 are configured as an Access Point (AP) for Point-To-Point (PTP) and Point-To-Multipoint (PTMP) to organizations, schools, and households and nearby communities. The PowerBeam M5 was configured as an Access Point (AP) for Point-To-Multipoint (PTMP) to GIFEC CIC and Aboifie Township. This entire network equipment is powered by two Mercury UPS.

At the three (3) Schools were poles with PowerBeam M5 that are configured as Station mode on rooftop pointed and linked directly to the main transmission site through Point-To-Point means. From here are outdoor Cat6 patched cables that go down the pole to a PoE (Power of Ethernet) adaptor. The PoE adaptor has two (2) Ethernet ports. One Ethernet port is a LAN and the other is PoE. The LAN port is connected to the schools’ internal network switch using indoor Cat6 patched cables.

In the community, we mounted poles with PowerBeam M5 configured as Station at a vantage point and link directly to the main transmission site through Point-To-Point means. From here an outdoor Cat6 patched cable goes down the pole to a PoE (Power of Ethernet) adaptor. The PoE adaptor LAN port is connected directly to the Ubiquiti Rocket M2 PoE adaptor using an indoor Cat6 patched cable. The PoE port is connected to an outdoor Cat6 patched cable that goes back up the pole and is connected to Ubiquiti Rocket M2 fixed together with airMAX Omni Antenna AMO-2G13 (2.4 GHz, 13 dBi) antenna to enable propagate the open wireless signal (internet) to the community or public.

Samerboi Transport Union Relay Point

In other communities, we mounted poles with PowerBeam M5 configured as Station and point and link directly to the main transmission site through Point-To-Point means. From here an outdoor Cat6 patched cable goes down the pole to a PoE (Power of Ethernet) adaptor. The PoE adaptor LAN port is connected directly to the Ubiquiti Bullet M2 PoE adaptor using an indoor Cat6 patched cable. The PoE port is connected to an outdoor Cat6 patched cable that goes back up the pole and is connected to Ubiquiti Bullet M2 fixed together with TP-Link Omni-directional Antenna (TL-ANT2415D 2.4GHz 15dBi) antenna to enable propagate the open wireless signal (internet) to the community or public.

To have better connectivity in some communities, we mounted poles with PowerBeam M5 configured as Station and point and link directly to the main transmission site through Point-To-Point means. The PoE adaptor LAN port is connected to a TP-Link 8-port gigabit switch using an indoor Cat6 patched cable. From the TP-Link 8-port gigabit switch, three (3) indoor Cat6 patched cable is connected to the three (3) PoE adaptor LAN ports. The PoE ports are connected to three (3) outdoor Cat6 patched cable that goes back up the pole and is connected to Ubiquiti Nanostation M2 to enable propagate the open wireless signal (internet) to the community or public.

Local Contents

Additionally, Step Network developed local content for the Samreboi Community Network. The following local content was uploaded on the Samreboi local server.

Donation App

To ensure financial sustainability, Step Network developed a robust payment app that allowed all users to pay for the service. It was expected that users pay affordable rates to ensure that recurrent costs like the internet and other basic operational expenses are met.

School Learning Platform

This eLearning app was developed by Step Network (Peter Siaw Donkor and Paul Eshun). eLearning platform is an integrated set of interactive online services that provide teachers, learners, parents and others involved in education with information, tools and resources to support and enhance educational delivery and management.

Meet Server

Our most modern video conferencing and instant messaging application is called SCN Meet using Jitsi Meet.

PMALL

Passion Mall developed by Passion Technology (Ignatus Arkoh Amoah) is an online retailer and Multi-Vendor e-commerce website focused on making online commerce available to the locals of Wassa Amenfi and beyond. It is now becoming the iconic example of electronic commerce especially in Samreboi and its communities. It is hosted locally and online on the Samreboi Community Network.

Cloud Storage

Our most modern cloud storage is called SDrive. This is the storage backup similar to Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive etc., using OwnCloud, common open source file sync and share software. It provides a safe, secure, and compliant file synchronization and sharing solution

Monitoring systems

Furthermore, a robust monitoring system has been developed to check the network status and ensure that the infrastructure is resilient and reliable.

Nagios Monitoring

Nagios is a monitoring system, a common open-source tool for checking that things are running. Nagios offers to monitor and alerting services for servers, switches, applications and services. It alerts network administrators when things go wrong and alert them a second time when the problem has been resolved.

Zabbix Monitoring

Zabbix is a graphing system, another open-source tool for graphing data over time. In this case, we graph various things for each host on the network to understand what is going on, and for troubleshooting purposes.

The Project Awareness

Also, project staff undertakes awareness creation exercises. This includes a visit to the Schools, Churches, and Mosques, other Departments and NGOs and printing of leaflets in the communities.

Challenges and Solutions

The project addresses challenges like power outages and funding limitations by exploring solar energy solutions and seeking partnerships.

Conclusion

By fusing innovation, technical skill, and community involvement, Samreboi Community Network serves as a ray of hope. Together, we can bring about a time when the digital era thrives in every location, no matter how remote

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