BoulSat Project: Low-Cost Wireless Metropolitan Network Implementation in Burkina Faso

Abstract

The BoulSat Project involves the realization of a bidirectional VSAT (satellite connection system) and the study of ”poor” a Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) to extend the Internet connectivity to the public institutions in the town area. Low-cost or waste materials have been used to build components where possible, thus to make possible for the local technicians with no specific and theoretical skills to build their network components by hand. This pilot scheme has been applied in Boulsa, in the Sahel region at the north of Burkina Faso. Besides the Boulsa case study, the whole work analyses a typical situation, due to the wide range of problems which have been handled, of remote communities in the South of the World. The aim is to characterize a standard of intervention, suitable for Developing Countries, to set up low-cost wireless telecommunication infrastructures.