Location+Analysis

This is an analysis for the locations of the Rural Wireless Mesh Network Project (source: googlemaps)

(Click on the images to view them in full size.)

For Stages 1 & 2:

Sites A & B (for Stage 1) are located at the Elands region in NSW (postcode 2429, near Taree), along Glenwarrin Road near Palm Court Ln. Site C (for Stage 2) is located at the East of site A, near Tilbaroo Rd and Lyrebird Ln.


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Here is a satellite photo of those 3 sites. Looks like there are only trees in between them, which should not affect the WiFi signal transmission by much:


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Here is a look at their geographical terrain (landscape), it can be seen Site B is at about 600m altitude, Site A is 2 contour lines away (about 560m altitude), while Site C is a half contour line away (about 590m altitude), so Site A is at a downslope location from the other two. Most importantly, there doesn't seem to be a tall hill blocking between any of those sites, so we should have clear "lines of sights" for the WiFi signal transmission.


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Based on scaled measurement, sites A & B are approximately 850m apart from each other, and sites C is approximately 1250m away from site A. The distances are well over the normal range of 300m for the router. Therefore we need directional antennae to establish WiFi connections between these sites.

For Stage 3:

In this stage we need to establish WiFi connection to site D, a fire tower in a far away location (about 11km West of site A). It is located in the "Blue Knob" Lookout, near Knodingbul Rd and Coolgi Rd in the Bulga State Forest:


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Here is a satellite photo between site A and site D. We can see that site D is deep within the forest, but apparently there is nothing other than trees to potentially hinder the WiFi signal transmission.


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Here is the geographical terrain map showing the landscape. Site D is located at the tallest peak of the surrounding area, about 990m altitude. About 2km to the East there is another peak of about 820m altitude, but it doesn't seem that peak or any other tall hills would block the line of sight between site D and the other 3 sites, which are all about 600m altitude.


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Using scaled measurement we calculated the distance between sites A & D to be approximately 11km, and with site C a further 1250m to the East, the distance between sites C & D is about 12.2km. If we are to establish an "Ad Hoc" wireless network between C & D with directional antennae pointing at each other, each of the antennae has to have a range of over 6100m.