Final Technical Report of APTJ3 Pilot Project 2015
“The Establishment of Smart Rural Broadband Network Using a Combination of Unlicensed Wi-Fi, VHF and TV White Space Bands Depending Upon the Geographical Terrains in 16 Villages of Earthquake Affected Gorakha District of Nepal to Connect Community Schools, and Health Clinics and Build Wi-Fi Hotspots, Emergency Communication System and Early Warning System for the Villagers”
Report Prepared by:
Mahabir Pun, Nepal Rajendra Prasad Poudel, Nepal Girish Adhikari, Nepal Toru Nomura, Japan Takeshi Kawage, Japan Junya Dosaka, Japan Harau Kaneko, Japan Hiroshi Tominaga, Japan
Submitted by:
E-Networking Research and Development (ENRD) Nepal Wireless Nepal
July 14, 2017
Preface
Dear Readers,
This is the final report of APT J3 project titled “Pilot Project for the Establishment of Smart Rural Broadband Network Using a Combination of Unlicensed Wi-Fi, VHF and TV White Space Bands Depending Upon the Geographical Terrains in 16 Villages of Earthquake Affected Gorakha District of Nepal to Connect Community Schools, and Health Clinics and Build Wi-Fi Hotspots, Emergency Communication System and Early Warning System for the Villagers ”. It was implemented by E-Networking Research and Development t/Nepal Wireless with the financial support of Asia Pacific Telecommunity ( http://www.apt.int ) under APTJ3 program.
Nepal Wireless Networking Project was started informally with a dream in 2001. The dream was to connect a small school named Himanchal High School of Nangi village to the Internet. The village is located in the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna Himalaya region of Nepal. Thinking about to bring Internet in a remote village of Nepal in 2001 was like a dream because not a single village in any remote parts of Nepal had telephone and Internet. However, step-by-step we worked with a team of volunteers to achieve that goal. In 2002, we became able to make the first long range Internet connection using Wi-fi technology and connected Nangi village. That was the humble beginning of Nepal Wireless.
Now we have come a long ways since 2002. By connecting one village in 2002, now we are in 15 districts of Nepal and have connected around 200 villages. Asia Pacific Telecommunity has been our great supporter since 2009 under APTJ2 and APT J3 project. The services that the project is providing include telemedicine, distance education, communication service, and e- commerce services.
Many thanks go to Asia Pacific Telecommunity for the financial support to do pilot project for building a hybrid wireless network using unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands and licensed bands using VHF and TVWS frequencies. With the hard work of our technical team we became able to overcome most of the challenges. Even if our goal is to make the Internet as beneficial as possible, we have to do more for finding ways to make it happen for the rural population. E- Networking Research and Development will keep working on upgrading the services in villages and trying to make every rural citizen digitally literate. Thus the next step would be to work on building smarter villages in Nepal. We hope this report will help you to understand our project and see how it can lead to new forms of development in rural Nepal. We appreciate for your interest and welcome your involvement in similar projects in rural Nepal. Thank you.
Mahabir Pun Chairman E-Networking Research and Development/Nepal Wireless
Date: July 14, 2017
Table of Contents
1. Introduction of E-Networking Research and Development and Nepal Wireless...... 1 2. Introduction and Objectives of the APTJ3 Pilot Project 2015 …………………………... 2 3. What is TV White Space (TVWS) and Why We Proposed to Use It …………………..... 3 4. Partner Organizations and Institutions …………………………………………………... 4 5. Technical Team Members of the Pilot Project ………………. ……………………………4 6. Project Implementation Processes …… ……………………………………………………5 6.1 Meeting with stakeholders and site selection...... ………………………..5 6.2. Permission for the VHF and TVWS Frequency Received from the Government…... 5 6.3 How the VHF and TVWS wireless equipment were chosen? ……………………….. 6 6.4 Four wireless relay stations for the pilot project were built………….. ……... ………7 6.5 Landslide warning system installed in Keraunja village of Gorakha …… …………...8 7. Infrastructures Built for the Testing of TVWS Technology and Test Results …:….. …….. 8 8. Infrastructures Built for the Testing of VHF Technology and Test Results …… ………….15 9. Japanese Experts Visited Nepal for the Training and Installation.... ……………………… 16 9.1 Mr. Subash Gurung from Nomura Engineering Company …………………………... 16 9.2 Mr. Takeshi Kawabe from Japan Battery Regeneration Company …………………... 18 9.3 Mr. Junya Dosaka from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. ………………………………. 18 9.4 Mr. Haruo Kaneko from Shiojiri City ………………………………………………... 19 9.5 Mr Shamus Jenning from Crlson Wireless Technologies ……………………………. 20 10. Challenges Incurred During the Implementation of the Project …...... ………………….. 20 11. Outcome of the APT J3 Pilot Project: ……………………………………………………. 21 12. Sustainability Plans of the Project……………...... ………………………………………. 22 13. Recommendations to Wireless Communities ……………...... ……………………………23 14. Conclusion ……………...... ……………………………………………………………….24 15. Appendix I, Technical Information of the Radio Equipment Used in TTS ……………...... 25 16. Appendix 2: Specification of VHF Equipment made by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc ……26 17. Appendix 3: Specification of Equipment Developed by Carlson Wireless Technology.. …. 28 18. Appendix 4: Report on visit to Kathmandu & Chitwan in Nepal in October 2016...... 29
Final Technical Report of APTJ3 Pilot Project 2015 in Nepal
Submitted by: Mahabir Pun, Chairman E-Networking Research and Development
1. Introduction of E-Networking Research and Development and Nepal Wireless
This is the final report from E-Networking Research and Development (ENR1D)/Nepal Wireless of the APT J3 2015 project started in Nepal with the financial support from Asia Pacific Telecommunity. The title of the project is “Pilot Project for the Establishment of Smart Rural Broadband Network Using a Combination of Unlicensed Wi-Fi, VHF and TV White Space Bands Depending Upon the Geographical Terrains in 16 Villages of Earthquake Affected Gorakha District of Nepal to Connect Community Schools, and Health Clinics and Build Wi-Fi Hotspots, Emergency Communication System and Early Warning System for the Villagers ”. Details of the installation, visit of Japanese experts to Nepal and the technical details of the project are included in the report.
ENRD is a NGO recognized by the government of Nepal and is the affiliate member of APT since 2009. As part of its mission, ENRD has been running Nepal Wireless Networking Project in the Himalayan villages to bring broadband Internet using wireless technologies. The project was informally started in 2002 from Nangi village of Myagdi district of Nepal at grassroots level with the technical support of national and international volunteers. Now ENRD has fulltime engineers and technicians working to build wireless networks and maintain them for bringing Internet related services and helping rural areas of Nepal become smarter villages.
In 2002, it was informally planned to connect only 10 mountain villages to the Internet for communication. However, it became very popular among the mountain communities as a result there was a huge demand. Thus ENRD had no choice other than expanding the wireless network to more and more villages. By connecting one village in 2002, the wireless network kept expanding continuously in many more villages in the mountainous region of Nepal. Now the project has built wireless network in fifteen out of seventy five districts of Nepal and has connected around 200 villages. During the initial days, ENRD had implemented the wireless networking project in the mountain villages without getting any license from the government. However, as required by the regulation of Nepal Telecommunication Authority, ENRD registered the Nepal Wireless Networking Project as a not-for-profit Rural Internet Service Provider by the name of Nepal Wireless in 2009. Thus the APT J3 pilot project was implemented by Nepal Wireless.
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Along with connecting the villages to the Internet, ENRD is also focused on wireless networking training as part of its capacity building program to produce rural wireless technicians. It provides training to the village technicians on wireless installation, computer lab networking and trouble shooting of the network. Moreover, many of the villages in the mountain have no power from grid line and we have to rely on solar power to run the repeater stations and other wireless networking gears. Thus ENRD also provides training to the village technicians on how to install and maintain solar power system.
The long-term goal of Nepal Wireless is to help narrowing down the digital gap between rural and urban areas. Therefore Nepal Wireless is working for more than a decade specifically to achieve the following goals:
• Education: Increase and improve educational opportunities in rural communities by creating tele-teaching and tele-training programs, and by making e-learning materials in local languages available for students, teachers and villagers through e-libraries. • Health: Connect rural health clinics and health workers to the doctors working in city hospitals in order to provide medical assistance through tele-medicine program and make highly needed healthcare available in rural communities by virtually bringing medical doctors to villages. • Communication: Increase communication facilities in rural areas by making broadband Internet available for voice and text communication. • Local e-commerce: Help villagers to buy and sell their products in the local market and international market through local intranet and Internet and also introduce e-banking, and remittance services in rural areas. • Job creation: Create jobs in the rural areas for younger generation through ICT related services such as communication centers, remittance services, and e-banking services. • Research and Field Testing: Help researchers working in the mountain areas by providing broadband Internet to collect data remotely and provide real time weather information about air routes in the Himalayan valleys during bad weather and the monsoon season for airline pilots. Plan is to provide technical support to the Ministry of Tourism for installing tracking system for the safety of trekkers hiking in the mountains.
2. Introduction and The Objectives of the APTJ3 Pilot Project 2015
When people started rebuilding the houses, schools and clinics after the earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, 2015, ENRD got requests from some of the mountain villages for help to bring broadband Internet services in their villages. Therefore ENRD proposed APT for support to help build a robust broadband wireless network as a pilot using a combination of unlicensed Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz and5.8 GHz), VHF and TV White Space bands. This is the first pilot project in Nepal to build hybrid rural broadband network using licensed and unlicensed frequencies. The proposed district for project implementation was Gorakha, which is the epicenter of the earthquake. The plan was to create a model of district with Wi-Fi hotspots in the public places, and Internet access to public schools, health clinics, local government offices, local cooperatives and businesses.
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The objectives of the pilot project were as follows.
a. To build a hybrid network for rural broadband using unlicensed Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz), VHF and TV White Space bands as a pilot in Gorakha districts of Nepal, the epicenter of the devastating earthquake b. To bring Internet in 16 community schools of Gorakha district for e- learning, and in 4 community clinics for e-health c. To build Wi-Fi hotspots for Internet access for public in public places such as community halls, local business areas and office of local government or populated areas d. To replicate “Village Internet Shops” that ENRD had already implemented successfully and develop the shops also as rural innovation lab. creating a space with tools for local creative people to work and to develop low cost tools for the villagers e. To install emergency communication system at the time of natural disasters such as earthquake, and landslides and install early warning system such as earthquake detection devices at ten schools and sensor based landslide warning system at two highly landslide prone villages of Gorakha. f. To install tracking system for the trekkers going for trekking in Manaslu trekking route. The’ tracking system is already developed in Japan.
3. What is TV White Space (TVWS) and why we proposed to use it?
In most of the countries, terrestrial television system has already been switched from analog to digital broadcasting or they are in the process of switching to digital broadcasting. Thus the frequencies once used by television companies are now unused in many countries around the world. TV White Space (TVWS) refers to the unused broadcasting frequencies in the wireless spectrum normally ranging from 470 MHz to 790 MHz. The actual amounts of spectrum vary by region as well as the availability of TVWS channels in different countries. The good thing is that those unused spectrums can be used to deliver broadband Internet to people. Therefore a new technology called TVWS technology is being developed rapidly and is being tested in many countries around the world including the US, the UK, Singapore, and several African countries etc.
Until now, Nepal Wireless has been using unlicensed band of 2.4 GHz for last mile connectivity and 5.8 GHz for Point to Point (P2P) back haul link. Typically, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequencies require clear line of sight (LOS) to get connected and the maximum P2P (Point to Point) link that could be achieved using these frequencies was limited to less than 60 KM. Even if there is a big tree or a small hill or a mound or bad weather along the path of the radio waves of 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, the signals get blocked and the signal strength decreases drastically. Thus we had been facing big problems in connecting the remote villages using 2.4 and 5.8 GHz only. As a result, we were required to build more repeater stations on the top of high mountains to make long range wireless link using 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands, which eventually increased the cost for building the infrastructure of broadband wireless network.
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The impressive feature of TVWS is that it uses lower frequencies compared to Wi-Fi and mobile networks allowing the signals to travel much greater distances and to penetrate permanent obstacles such as buildings and vegetations. It is also supposed to travel around terrain allowing near or non line of sight connections. Therefore ENRD proposed to build a hybrid wireless network in Gorakha district as a pilot project using a combination of Wi-Fi and TVWS bands. After the APTJ3 proposal was developed, we found that another technology using VHF frequencies is also developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. of Japan for broadband connectivity. Since VHF frequencies are much lower than TVWS frequencies, it could have better penetration than TVWS frequencies. Therefore ENRD decided to use VHF band in the pilot project.
4. Partner Organizations/Institutions
The followings are the partner organizations of ENRD from Japan and Nepal, who were actively involved for the development and implementation of the APTJ3 project.
i. ITU Association of Japan (ITUA-J) for technical support ii. Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc, for the supply and testing of VHF devices and training iii. Nomura Engineering Inc., Japan for hardware design of trekkers tracking system iv. Technology Sales Pvt. Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal for the development, supply, installation and training of early warning system for the earthquake and landslides v. Gham Power Company Pvt. Limited for installing solar power system vi. International Technology Exchange Society (ITE), Japan for sharing technology to extend lives and performance of lead-acid battery vii. Shiojiri City, Japan for knowledge sharing on landslide warning system
5. Technical Team Members of the Pilot Project
The following is the list of the technical team members, who formally contributed directly for the development and installation of the hybrid network and trekkers tracking system. There are many more members and volunteers, who provided their valuable ideas and technical support for the installation of Internet shops in the villages and for the development and installation of trekker tracking system in the Annapurna region.
i. Mahabir Pun - Team leader for the APTJ3 project. ii. Mr. Rajendra Prasad Poudel - Full time team member for system designing. iii. Mr. Girish Adhikari - ENRD Full time system administrator for the network iv. Mr. Yasuhiko Kawasumi, Japan - Technical experts of the project, Japan v. Mr Junya Dosaka, Mr. Yanagisawa Kei and Ms. Xue Yunjuan Japan - Experts from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. Japan vi. Mr. Toru Nomura, Japan – Expert in Radio Communication and hardware development vii. Mr. Takeshi Kawabe & Mr. Hiroshi Tominaga, Japan – Expert for battery regeneration viii. Mr. Haruo Kaneko, Japan – Expert in early warning system for land slide prone areas ix. Mr. Subash Gurung – Technical expert from Nomura Engineering Inc. Japan x. Ram Laxman Rimal for the development and installation of landslide warning system
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6. Project Implementation Processes
6.1 Meeting with stakeholders and site selection
ENRD had decided to implement the APT J3 project mainly in Gorakha district because that was the epicenter of the 2015 earthquake and was the hardest hit district. The trails to visit the project sites were still dangerous to walk in order to reach the villages. Some of the villages we had planned to survey were not accessible. Mahabir Pun led a team of technicians and engineers to visit different sites for the implementation. We visited Bhachek area, Barpak, Sirdibas, Laprak valley, Nubri valley and Keraunja area of the district and did technical survey of the area. Also we had meeting with the local leaders and villagers to discuss for the implementation, operation and sustainability of the project. In the mean time we also got requests from some of the villages in Sindhupalchok district, which is the second hardest hit district by earthquake. Therefore we also visited some villages there and had formal meetings and discussion with the villagers. Therefore some of the villages that were previously selected for the implementation of APT J3 pilot project have been changed and the followings are the sites where ENRD brought the Internet.
i. Pokhari ii. Ghyalchok iii. Barpak iv. Laprak v. Gumda vi. Singla vii. Lapsibot viii. Khorala ix. Khoralabensi x. Lapugaun xi. Lapubensi xii. Khanigaun xiii. Kashigaun xiv. Dapcha xv. Philim
6.2 Permission for the VHF and TVWS frequency received from the government
One of the main reasons why ENRD could not complete the project on time was because it took almost seven months to get permission from the government to use TVWS and VHF frequencies for the pilot project. Even if the Ministry of Information and Communication had accepted ENRD’s proposal for implementing the pilot project using TVWS and VHF, the bureaucratic process took a long time to make decision and to provide permission for the use of TVWS and VHF frequencies. After going through a long process, MoIC agreed to give permission to use some bands of TVWS and VHF frequencies for the APT J3 pilot project. However, Nepal Telecommunication Authority refused to provide permission to use TVWS and VHF frequencies to ENRD saying that ENRD is a NGO and that it is not formally an
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Internet Service Provide even if they knew that Nepal Wireless was started by ENRD. Therefore the permission to use 560 MHz to 578 MHz band of TVWS and 192.5 MHz to 202.5 MHz band of VHF frequencies for APT J3 project was formally given by Nepal Telecommunication Authority to Nepal Wireless, which is registered as a Rural Internet Service Provider. The fact is that Nepal Wireless Project was started by ENRD in order to build wireless networks and to bring Internet services to rural areas. In 2010, Nepal Telecommunication Authority had required ENRD to get license to legally become Internet Service Provider and we got it under the name of Nepal Wireless. Thus we had to establish ENRD and Nepal Wireless as two organizations even if the objectives of the organization are exactly same and the team members working for the wireless project are the same.
So far, Nepal Wireless did not have any problem running wireless networking project through ENRD because it had been using unlicensed frequencies (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) for all the wireless networking projects being built in Nepal. The issue as whom to provide the permission to use TVWS and VHF frequencies for the APT J3 pilot project came because we had applied for permission to use TVWS and VHF technology, which are licensed frequencies. That was why Nepal Telecommunication Authority had told that they can provide permission to use TVWS frequencies only to formally registered Internet Service Provider, which is Nepal Wireless. We are glad that the legal issues were solved and we became able to implement the APT J3 pilot project using TVWS and VHF technologies.
6.3 How the VHF and TVWS Wireless Equipment were Chosen?
It was not that easy to decide which equipment we should use for the TVWS pilot project. It is because there are not many options available to choose from. At present the TVWS equipment that are available in the market are made by Carlson Wireless Technologies (http://www.carlsonwireless.com/ ), 6harmonics ( http://6harmonics.com/ ), Doodlelab (http://www.doodlelabs.com/products/licensed-band-radio-transceivers ), and Adaptrum (http://www.adaptrum.com/ ) . All of these companies are based in the US. Saankhya Labs (http://www.saankhyalabs.com/products/white-space-base-station ) was the only TVWS equipment vendor available in Asia Pacific region, however, they told that their product would not be ready until the middle of 2017. Therefore the Carlson equipment was chosen after a thorough email discussion with the wireless experts working with different wireless projects. The experts Nepal Wireless consulted with were Steve Song from South Africa, Jonathan Brewer from New Zealand, Ermanno Pietrosemoli from Italy and Sebastian Buttrich of Denmark. After several email discussions, it was decided to choose Carlson equipment because that seemed like better than other TVWS devices available in the market. Therefore we applied to the government for permission to use the Carlson devices. After the permission was received to import and use the devices, we ordered equipment using TVWS frequencies from Carlson Wireless Technologies based in the US. The specification of the Carlson device is given in the appendix.
While we were in the process of choosing wireless devices, it was also found that Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc of Japan had also produced wireless equipment using VHF band. After a few rounds of discussion with the company, it was decided to use the VHF equipment as well
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because VHF technology uses even lower frequencies than the TVWS technology. The specification of the Hitachi device is given in the appendix. The good thing is that Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. decided to send their engineers for training to Nepal .
After the permission to use the VHF frequencies, we imported the equipment. The equipment using VHF bands (192.5 – 202.5 MHz) were donated by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. of Japan for free of cost. Equipment from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc was received in the first week of November.
6.4 Three wireless relay stations for the pilot project were built:
The plan of APT J3 pilot project was to build a hybrid wireless network for connectivity using a combination of Wi-Fi, TV White Space, and VHF technology and test their effectiveness and usefulness in different geographical terrains.
Relay Tower Installation in Laprak and Golbhanjyang
For the long range point to point back haul, 5.8 GHz and VHF band were used and for the last mile connectivity, 2.4 GHz and TVWS bands were used. Four relay stations were built to implement the pilot project for connectivity. The first relay station is at Laprak village of Gorakha, which is connected to the relay station at Bhacheck of Gorakha that already built by Nepal Wireless. The second relay station is at Golbhanyang of Dhading and the third at Nagarkot of Bhaktapur district. The fourth relay station was built in Lapsibot of Gorakha district. The schools and villages were connected from the relay stations as mentioned here.
TVWS base stations for five days were also built for testing purposes in Janakpur city, Kopundol of Lalitpur and Sangachok of Sindhupalchok. Those base stations in Janakpur, Kopundol and Sangachok were removed from there after collecting the test results.
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6.5 Landslide warning system installed in Keraunja village of Gorakha:
APT J3 pilot project had also planned to install and test emergency communication system and early warning system for the villages that are prone to natural disasters such as landslides and earthquake. Our technical partner for the implementation of the project was Technology Sales Pvt. Ltd. Thus ENRD installed landslide early warning system developed by them in Keraunja village of Gorakha district. The village was very close to the epicenter of the earthquake and heavily affected by a huge landslide coming from above the village .
Land Slide Warning System put in Keraunja village
Landslide detection and early warning system is based on reverse pendulum technology. When there is land displacement by centimeter or any vibration or shock, it detects its displacement and gives an alarm to the alarm center. The 120 dB outdoor alarm makes loud alert to the dwellers to seek safe locations. The panic remote are also deployed in different locations of village so that if someone realize any emergency one can press button and make alarm for the community. ENRD will be monitoring of the system in coming monsoon season because the chances of landslides are greater during monsoon season. ENRD will put more warning system in the Sirdibash area of Gorakha after the test results is received
7. Infrastructures Built for the Testing of TVWS Technology and Test Results:
For the APTJ3 pilot, team members decided to test them in different mountain terrains as well as in plain areas in the southern part of Nepal. The first TVWS base station was built att Mohare of Myagdi district at an elevation of 3,310m and then Yamgaun of Gorakha district. Also TVWS base stations were built at Janakpur city in the southern plain area of Nepal. From the Mohare TVWS base station the technical team of Jiban Phagami and Pritam Pun tested the links to villages named Thaban, Aula, Rima, Chinar, Nangi in none line of sight (nLoS) and LoS environment.
The summary of test results is as follows.
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Test Result of Carlson TVWS Link Testing In Myagdi Aerial Test Site Name of the Coordinates Elevation Distance Link Result Remark No. Test Sites of Test Sites (m) (KM) Base 28.371386°, Signal S.N. Mohare 3,310 0 Station 83.678978° Status 28.413590°, No Link, 1 1 Test1 Aula School 1,550 7.78 Non LoS 83.615316° Led light on No Link, 3 House Above 28.414926°, 2 Test2 1,635 7.85 Led lights Near LoS Aula Village 83.615619° on Linked, Rima WiFi 28.409542°, 3 Test3 1,920 6.39 Internet LoS Relay 83.630078° Received Linked, House Above 28.407742°, 4 Test4 1,837 6.26 Internet Near LoS Rima School 83.630061° Received No Link, 28.406862°, 5 Test5 Rima School 1,734 6.25 Only 2 led Non LoS 83.629072° lights on No Link, Karpakeli 28.394744°, 6 Test6 2,331 6.70 Only 2 led Near LoS Temple 83.615997° lights on Linked, Chinar 28.391182°, 7 Test7 2,360 6.23 Internet LoS Village 83.619651° Received No Link, Thaban 28.372710°, 8 Test8 2,209 2.73 Only 2 led Near LoS Village 83.651312° lights on Linked, 28.370936°, 9 Test9 Nangi Lodge 2,335 3.88 Internet LoS 83.639444° Received No Link, 28.370138°, 10 Test10 Pakha, Nangi 2,330 3.95 Only 3 led Near LoS 83.639653° lights on 28.363930°, No Link, No 11 Test11 Aunte, Nangi 2,256 4.24 Non LoS 83.636642° led lights on
Then the testing was done in Gorakha district of Nepal. From the Yamgaun TVWS base station of Gorakha, the team of Surya Subedi, Niraj Acharya, and Sherbahadur spent more than three weeks to installing and testing the wireless links to several villages in the region. The name of the villages where the link testing were done are Khoralabensi, Machhakhola, Khanigaun, and Lapu villages in near line of sight, none line of sight (nLoS) and LoS environment.
The summary of the test results done in different sites there has been given in the following table.
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Test Result of Carlson TVWS Link Testing in Gorakha Aerial Test Name of the Coordinates Elevation Distance Link Result Remark Site No. Test Sites of Test Sites (m) KM Base Station 28.203461, S.N. 1,960 0.00 Yamgaun 84.854615 Machhakhola- 28.2292, No Link, 1 Test1 870 3.50 Non LoS Near School 84.873195 No RSSI on Machhakhola- 28.2314667, No Link, 2 Test2 Budhigandaki 845 3.80 Non LoS 84.874511 No RSSI on Pari Khorlagaun, 28.243784, No Link, 3 Test3 1,644 4.70 Non LoS Saatkanya School 84.867408 No RSSI on Linked, One RSSI glow, Khorlabesi, near 28.255020, 4 Test4 896 6.40 2nd blinked, LoS Tatopani Schoo 84.884015 Network Received Lapubesi, No Link, 28.183681, 5 Test5 Prabhat Kiran 820 3.17 Only1 RSSI Non LoS 84.877764 School blinked. Linked, four RSSI on, Khanigaun, 28.194691, 6 Test6 1,570 1.00 Network LoS Gorkhkali School 84.858156 accessed from CPE Linked, Two RSSI Lapugaun, 28.181709, on and 3rd 7 Test7 1,787 2.44 LoS Kalratri School 84.858397 blinking, Network established Lapsibot1, 28.212780, No Link, 1 8 Test8 1,706 1.16 Near LoS School 84.861707 RSSI on Lapsibot2, near 28.212540, No link, 2 9 Test9 1,689 1.15 Near LoS to School 84.859621 RSSI on Linked, 3 RSSI on. Lapsibot3, near 28.212147, 10 Test10 1,700 1.16 Network LoS to School 84.859429 accessed from CPE 28.194603, No Link, 11 Test11 Gumda School 2,273 3.33 Non LoS 84.823197 No RSSI on
Doing link testing in those villages was challenging because there was not power available for the test. The team members had to carry back up power system such as batteries, solar panels to the sites through narrow mountain trails..
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Some pictures of the TVWS base stations built in Mohare, Lapsobot, Laprak and Janakpur for the APT J3 pilot project.
Backhaul Link in Laprak from Bhackek Lapsibot Base Station of Carlson TVWS
Carson Omni Antenna in Mohare Carlson Base Station in Khorala
Carlson Base Station in Janakpur Carlson CPE Station in Babhangawa
The following table shows the test results done in plain area of Janakpur, which is in the southern
E-Networking Research and Development/Nepal Wireless Page 11 part of Nepal. The elevation of the area is below 100m. There are lots of trees in the plain regions where the tests were done.
Test Result of Carlson TVWS Link Testing in Janakpur (Plain Areas) Aerial Name of the Coordinate of Elevation Distance Link Remark Test Sites Test Sites (m) (KM) Base 26.734526, S.N. Station(Sita 0 80 85.934983 Chok, Janakpur) Linked with Bhanuchok - Station. All Test Site 1 Bench test RSSI of all Radios on Poor link, Single RSSI Led on, Belahi Health 26.75969, could not Test Site 2 9 90 Near LoS Clinic 86.02049 connect to another modulation Linked with very poor link. Test Site 3 Laliya School 10 96 Near LoS Found one RSSI illuminated Found one RSSI 26.76062, on and second Test Site 4 Baghchura 8.3 88 Near LoS 85.99614 one was blinking No signal found after reinstalling Belahi Health 26.75969, Test Site 5 9 98 the antenna as Near LoS Clinic 86.02049 Carlson Team suggested Found two RSSI illuminated and Test Site 6 Babangawa 4 76 LoS third one was blinking
From the initial test results of the performance of Carlson TVWS devices collected from the mountainous terrains of Myagdi and Gorakha districts, it has been found that the performance was good in Line of Sight environment. However, the reception of the signals is poor in near Line of Sight (near LoS) situation. There is almost no link in none Line of Sight environment. Also from the test results received from Janakpur, the performance of the devices was not good as we had expected.
Our assumption was that the reception at the CPE site would be much better in the plain areas with lots of trees than in the mountain terrain because the vertical altitude difference between base station and CPE in the plains is not much. The testing is still underway and we will have to
E-Networking Research and Development/Nepal Wireless Page 12 wait for some time to get actual result.
The followings are the pictures of the base station set ups and some of the tests done in Janakpur.
Carlson CPE at Janakpur Carlson CPE at Bagchauda
Carlson CPE being raised at Bagchauda Carlson CPE at Belhi
In the original proposal submitted to APT, Nepal Wireless had not planned to test the performance of the TVWS devices in urban environment. Our goal was to use the TVWS technology only in mountain regions. After testing of the devices in mountain terrains and flat plains of Nepal, it was also decided to test the performance of the Carson devices in Lalitpur, which is densely populated urban area of Nepal with lots of concrete buildings.
Therefore base stations were built in a couple of sites mentioned below and testing were done for a four days only. The base stations in Lalitpur were built in Kopuldol and Jawalakhel for the testing . For the testing in Lalitpur, an engineer (Shamus) from Carlson Wireless Technologies, USA was involved in both for the training and for the testing.
The test results of the tests done in Lalitpur city are given below.
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Base I Arial Elevation S.N Name of Site Coordinates Distance Link Result Remarks (m) (KM) Base Station (NREN, 27.6888, 1 0 1303 Kupondol) 85.3104 Linked, a ll four RSSI 27.6897, 2 Gusingal House 0.3 1303 illuminated LOS 85.3078 and link was good No link, No 27.7311, 4 Sukedhara 4 1311 RSSI nLOS 85.34609 illuminated Milan Chok , New 27.70253, No link, No 5 1.5 1320 nLOS Banewshwor 85.32008 RSSI signal Base II 1 Base Station (Jawalakhel) 0 1350
Linked, 27.73113, 2 Sukedhara 6.34 1331 poor link, nLoS 85.34609 low uplink signal Linked, low 27.66362, RSSI, uplink 3 Imadole 2.8 1323 near LoS 85.33913 still low up to 8dBm
The followings are the pictures of the base station set ups done in Lalitpur.
Setting up base station in Jawalakhel Setting up base station in Kopundole
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8. Infrastructures Built for the Testing of VHF Technology and Test Results:
As for testing of the VHHF technology, a base station at Nagarkot was built with the help of Japanese experts . From there, the link was made to Jholunge village of Sindhupalchok district. The following table shows the statistics of radio connection. By setting the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) as QPSK 1/2, the throughput of uplink and downlink was obtained at 2 Mbps and 400 kbps, respecti vely, which enabled the network access.
Test Result of Hitachi VHF Technology Link Testing in Jholunge Aerial Name of the Test Coordinates of Test Elevation Link Distance Remark Sites Sites (m) Result KM Base Station 27.723628°, 85.524872° 1,890 0.00 Nagarkot Linked, Jholunge Non Test Site 27.729448°, 85.673850° 870 15.1 Network village LoS accessed
Statistics of VHF radio connection from Nagarkot to Jholunge Items Downlink Uplink 1 Burst RSSI [dBm] -71 42 Throughout [kbps] 2217.14 18.76 53 CINR [dB] 9 6 64 MCS and Coding rate QPSK 1/2 QPSK 1/2
The following photo shows how the VHF signals were received even in none LoS situation. The signals were received by pointing the antenna toward the hill on the left of Jholunge. This showed that the Hitachi VHF equipment works for none line of sight connection as well.
Hitachi VHF Set up in Nagarkot Hitachi Receiver at Jholunge showing path
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Path Profile between Nagarkot and Jholunge
Checking the state of the Internet connection at Jholunge Connected by QPSK modulation
After testing the link for two months in Jholunge, the VHF base station has been moved to Golab hanjyang of Dhading district to make link to Lapu of Gorakha and Re e villag of Dhading . The testing is underway now. The performance of Hitachi equipment has been found very good as we had expected.
9. Japanese Experts Visited Nepal for the T raining and Installation:
As planned in the proposal, ENRD invited experts from Japan for different training and installation programs as follows.
9.1 Mr. Subash Gurung from Nomura Engineering Company visited Nepal for the installation and training of Trekkers’ Tracking System:
Mr. Subash Gurung arrived in Nepal on October 14 to provide training and to help install the trekkers’ tracking system developed by Nomura Engineering Company. He provided training to the field technician of Nepal Wireless in Kathmandu and then moved to An napurana Base Camp region for implementing and testing the tracking system.
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Installtion of TTS and weather station in Chhomorong and Annapurna Base Camp areas
Since Annapurna Base Camp area is remote and far from the highway, it took more than three weeks for them to install and test the tracking system. The tracking system is in being tested now. The areas where the 10 repeater stations of the tracking system have been put are – Chhomorong, Sinawa, Deurali, Bagar, Machhapuchhre Base Camp, Annapurna Base Camp, Tadapani, Bayeli and Khopra.
The information of the tracking system can be viewed at http://nomuraeng.dip.jp:8011 . After the successful testing and performances are tested, the plan is to implement the tracking system in the trekking route of the Manaslu region of Gorakha district. For that, ENRD has applied for the permission to the government of Nepal. Weather stations were also installed at Chhomorong and Annapurana Base camp to get the real time weather information of Annapurna Base Camp area through Internet.
Location of Gateways and RRS of Tracking devices.
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9.2 Mr. Takeshi Kawabe from Japan Battery Regeneration Company visited Nepal for the training of lead acid battery regeneration project:
Mr. Takeshi Kawabe arrived in Nepal on October 19 with his staff Mr. Hiroshi Tominaga to provide training for the Nepali team members on how to regenerate the old lead acid batteries that are used for different purposes. Information about the battery regeneration system is at http://www.jimpex.org/media/projects/Battery_reviving_additive.pdf . The team from Japan worked with the team of Sapha Tempo (Electical Three Wheeler Vehicle) at their battery recharging station in Kathmandu. Mr. Baburaja Shrestha, who designed and built the three wheelers, also participated in the training program.
Mr. Kawabe abd Mr. Tominaga showing how to check baateries
The Japanese team also visited Bharatpur of Chitwan district with Rajendra Poudel of ENRD and studied the status of electric riksha and their battery condition. They provided basic training and provided some chemicals to one of the owners of the electric riksha, who runs 10 electric rikshas. Baburaja Shrestha is now working with his team members for the next phase of setting up the battery regeneration system in Biratnagar, which is located in the southern part of Nepal near Indian border. There are about 125,000 electric rikshaw now running in the southern part of Nepal. The goal is to support the owners and help them to improve the performance and save the lives of the batteries.
9.3 Mr. Junya Dosaka from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. visited Nepal to provide training and to install VHF radios:
Mr. Junya Dosaka arrived in Kathmandu on November 8, with Ms. Xue Yunjuan and Mr. Yanagisawa Kei of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc to provide training on the VHF equipment produced by their company. The daily allowance and air ticket for Mr. Junya Dosaka was paid by Nepal Wireless and the expenses for Mr. Yanagisawa Kei were paid by Hitachi. First they provided training to Nepali engineers and technicians in Kathmandu. After that they moved to the installation site in Nagarkot village and
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Jholunge village of Sindhupalchok district. It took two days for the installation and the link was made to Jholunge with the effort of Nepali and Japanese team members. Originally, it was planned to install and test the Hitachi VHF equipment in Chun valley of Gorakha district. It was not possible to install the VHF equipment there because the Japanese team members from Hitachi did not have enough time to go to the proposed site. It is in remote region and takes five days of walking just to go to the site in Chun valley and another one week minimum to install it. Therefore it was decided to install and test the VHF equipment in Sindhupalchok and do onsite training for Nepali engineers and technicians. Now the equipment has been moved from Sindhupalchok to Golbhanjyang Relay station of Dhading district for testing and gathering data.
Training run by Hitachi team for the Nepali engineers and installation of VHF equipment
Training run by Hitachi team for the Nepali engineers and installation of VHF equipment
9.4 Mr. Haruo Kaneko from Shiojiri City visited Nepal for training and discussion on early warning system installation in land slide prone areas:
Mr. Haruo Kaneko arrived in Kathmandu on November 8 and worked with the team of Technology Sales Pvt. Ltd and ENRD. The plan was to visit Keraunja area of Gorakha district to look at the early landslide warning system that was installed there. However, he
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could not go there because of the lack of time and bad weather, visit the site and look at the landslide situation.
Mr. Kaneko having meeting with the team of Technology Sales Pvt. Ltd and ENRD members
Mr. Kaneko ran a workshop and discussed with Nepali team on the different technologies they have been using in Shiojiri of Japan for the early warning of landslides and earthquake. In the mean time the team of Technology Sales also demonstrated the system they have developed for early warning system. Mr. Haruo Kaneko visited with the Hitachi Kokusai and Nepali team to Jholunge and helped to install the VHF wireless devices.
9.5 Mr. Shamus was invited to Nepal for the training and testing of the Carlson TWVS device.
During the testing it was found that Carlson TVWS devices were not performing well in mountains and plains regions of Nepal. It was not working the way it was supposed to work. Therefore ENRD invited an engineer from Carlson Wireless Technology for providing training to Nepali engineers and do some testing based upon what Carson is doing in other parts of the world. Shamus stayed in Nepal for eight days from June 12 to 20, 2017. Technical team member of Nepal Wireless got opportunity to work and to learn more information about the technology from Shamus.
10. Challenges Incurred During the Implementation of the Project:
While doing the APT J3 pilot project, one of the main problems that delayed the project implementation was slow reconstruction works of the schools and clinics in the villages. Even after two years the earthquake hit the region, most of the school buildings, health posts, and office buildings are still not ready. Some of the schools and health post buildings were under construction but the construction works had not started in many villages. The schools and clinics were running in makeshift rooms and villagers were living in temporary shelters. It was not possible to set up full fledge computer labs in the schools and find space for telemedicine programs. Since the rebuilding process of the damaged infrastructures by the government was going very slow, ENRD had to slow down the implementation of the project because of the unavailability of the spaces. It is going to
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take a few more years for the villages to be rebuilt and to run programs smoothly.
As already mentioned, the second reason that slowed down the implementation of the project was lengthy process to get permission. Getting the permission from the government to use the VHF and TVWS frequency was not easy. The government was in the process of reviewing their national broadband policy when we had applied for the permission. It took long time for them to finalize the policy. It was only after the policy was made, we were able to apply for the permission to use TVWS and VHF frequency. Thus, it took more than six months to go through all the bureaucratic processes of the government to get the permission to use VHF and TVWS bands for the APT pilot project.
11. Outcomes of the APT J3 Pilot Project:
The followings are the overall outcomes of the pilot project. However, these are not the final outcomes. It will be too early to tell how effective and affordable TVWS and VHF bands would be for rural broadband connectivity. It is because the technology is still in its early stage of the development. For example, before 2000 nobody believed that Wi-Fi technology would be so popular and so cheap. Now Wi-Fi has been enormously successful as an unlicensed technology. TVWS technology is an emerging technology for rural broadband connectivity now and there is good chance that it could be cheaper, affordable and easily available in future. The following are some early outcome of APTJ3 pilot project.
11.1 It is the first time Nepal government granted permission to use VHF and TVWS spectrum for pilot. Permission to use 192.5 MHz to 202.5 MHz frequency on VHF and 460 MHz to 478 MHz band on TVWS spectrum was provided to Nepal Wireless. Therefore we consider it as an outcome of the project and it will open a new window of opportunities for the wireless internet service providers in the rural areas of Nepal. Even if the permission has been granted for limited time to Nepal Wireless, we will lobby hard with the government to make the spectrum available for all Rural Internet Service Providers when TVWS technology will be developed commercially for rural broadband. 11.2 The second important outcome of the pilot project is that hybrid community network could be built using a combination of Wi-Fi, VHF and TVWS technology to bring broadband internet in remote mountain villages. Normally community networks around the world use only one technology for building network. Our technical engineers became able to learn about TVWS from the American experts and VHF technology from the Japanese experts and got to test them for rural connectivity. They will be working for several more months for testing the technology in different geographical environments and will be able to learn more. 11.3 The third outcome is that Nepal Wireless became able to test new and upgraded technology of tracking system developed by Nomura Engineering Company Japan. Actually the technology was tested in 2012 in Annapurna region, however, there were several technical issues that were needed to be improved. This time we became able to test the improved and upgraded tracking system again in Annapurna region and the test result is very good. The technical specification of the tracking system developed by Nomura Engineering is given in the appendix.
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11.4 The fourth outcome is that Nepal Wireless also became able to introduce battery regeneration system in Nepal developed by Japan Battery Regeneration Company. Our focus now is to use the regeneration system for three wheeler electric vehicles that are running in Kathmandu and southern plain regions of Nepal. There are more than 125,000 three wheelers running in Nepal that use Lead Acid batteries as the storage of power to run. Because of the lack of maintenance system, the owners of most of the three wheelers are required to change the battery in less than a year. It is hoped that the system will help the owners of the three wheelers to save money. The detail specification of the battery regeneration system is given in the appendix. 11.5 The fifth outcome is that Nepal Wireless became able to test the performance of VHF broadband technology developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. The performance of Hitachi was very impressive because we could make links even with a hill in between two points. The signal was actually reflected by a mountain slope. The results were similar is two tests that were done in two different environment. The detail specification of the Hitachi VHF band equipment is given in the appendix. 11.6 The sixth outcome is that Nepal Wireless became able to do pilot project to install the landslide early warning system in Keraunja village of Gorakha district. The system was developed by our Nepali partner Technology Sales Pvt. Ltd. The initial result of the testing is very good. We will have to test the system especially during the monsoon season when the chances of landslides are much more in the fragile mountains. The time is July and August for the monsoon. 11.7 The seventh outcome is that Nepal Wireless became able to bring broadband Internet in 15 villages of Gorakha, Sindhuparchok and Dhading district. Even if many schools, community clinics, and individual houses are under the process of rebuilding, Nepal Wireless has been able to bring Internet and build WiFi spots wherever it was possible. These are the villages where no commercial Internet Service Providers are interested to go to do businesses.
12 Sustainability Plan of the Project: Financial sustainability is the most import aspect of any project. Before discussing the plan for the sustainability of APT J3 pilot project, it is important for development workers to know as why there is almost no presence of broadband internet services in the rural areas of most of the countries around the world. The simple reason is that the commercial service providers cannot get financial return as they expect to get by investing money to bring broadband Internet in the rural areas. They need to invest huge amount of money to build physical infrastructure to bring Internet in sparsely populated areas but the number of users are very few. That is the main reasons why the commercial service providers do not go to rural areas in order to do businesses.
Thus sustainability is the most important issue any rural Internet service has to address. If the issue is not addressed, the community networks in the rural areas would collapse after some time due to the lack of financial resources. Thus it is not an easy task to make rural community networks keep sustaining for a long time; however, it is attainable to some extent After working for 15 years to bring Internet in remote communities and make them sustainable, ENRD has step by step learned how to make rural Internet services sustainable in its own way. The key is that the rural wireless network has to be owned and managed by
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the local communities. For the financial sustainability of the operation, the community centers, individual users, local businesses, rural schools and rural clinics are charged reasonable monthly connectivity fee of about USD10 to USD30 per month depending upon the bandwidth they use. The monthly fee will be used to pay for the Internet bandwidth cost and to provide incentive to the technical support team. For the technical sustainability, ENRD supports to build human capacity of local technicians. Most of the local technical support teams come from the rural areas. They are trained by Nepal Wireless engineers to troubleshoot and maintain the network. ENRD regularly runs training programs for them.
In order to make the APT J3 project in Gorakha sustainable, the same approaches as mentioned here is implemented in the new APTJ3 pilot project to build community based wireless network and make the project sustainable. ENRD will provide full technical support as long as it is needed for the rural community networks.
Moreover, ENRD had made some of the local governments involved in the process of building and maintaining the previously built community networks. The local governments provide support for paying the connectivity fee for the schools and clinics, which is around US1,000 per local government. ENRD would also try to involve the local governments of Gorakha for the sustainability as much as it is possible. Right now the local governments there are involved in the rebuilding processes of the infrastructures damaged by earthquake.
13. Recommendations:
ENRD would like to make some recommendations based on the pilot projects done with the support of Asia Pacific Telecommunity under APT J3 program. Before making some recommendations, it is better to remind a fact that all of us know.
During the early days of WiFi technology nobody did know how useful and popular it would be around the world. Now we have seen the huge usage of unlicensed spectrum at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz and it is growing at very fast pace. Wi-Fi technology developed so fast because it was unlicensed for public use. TVWS has also the same or even more potential for the last mile broadband connectivity. Based on this fact, our recommendations are as follows.
13.1 For those, who are seeking wireless technology to make long range point to point connectivity in non-line of sight environment, the VHF equipment produced by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc, Japan is a very good option. It worked even in a non line of sight environment without any problem. 13.2 From the test results of the TVWS equipment developed by Carlson Wireless Technology, we can clearly see that TVWS works better than Wi-Fi in terms of coverage and connectivity in difficult terrains. If the TVWS technology is improved more, the future users of the TVWS technology will be the community wireless network operators that are providing internet services in rural areas. Therefore the recommendation to International Communication Union (ITU) and governments around the world is that at least 20 MHz band in TVWS spectrum should be made freely available for public use and for encouraging rural internet service providers to expand the broadband services to rural areas. If that is done, commercial companies will start
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producing the TVWS devices in volumes and the equipment would be cheaper. Thus it will help to reach the billions of unreached people. Seeing the great potential of TVWS, big organizations like Microsoft, Google and BT are implementing TVWS pilot projects around the globe. Big companies like Microsoft and Google are investing a lot of money in TVWS technology and are doing field testing in African countries and even in the US. More than that, Singapore is also planning to use TVWS spectrum for broadband connectivity and is doing huge pilot project. 13.3 For those seeking to implement low cost tracking devices for the children, trekkers, and even domestic animals, the technology developed by Nomura Engineering Pvt. Company is a good option. The system runs on solar power in remote regions and uses very little power for a long period of time. 13.4 For those seeking solutions to improve the life of Lead Acid batteries used in vehicles, electric cars, solar powered systems, the technology developed by Japan Battery Regeneration Company is a very good options. The technology is simple and the chemical that is developed by them is cheap. ENRD has tested in electrical vehicles in Nepal and it works. 13.5 Initial test result of the Carson devices using TVWS frequencies in the range of 460 MHz and 478 MHz were not as good as what it was told and what it was expected. In most cases we could make good link in the Line of Sight (LoS) environment, however, the quality of the link was found not good with some obstructions on the path of the signals. However, it will be too early to conclude that the penetration of TVWS technology is no good for rural broadband. We will have to do a few more rounds of testing for longer time in different geographical environments to draw a conclusion. Also it is necessary to wait some more time for the technology to be developed. Moreover, there are TVWS equipment developed by other companies such as Adaptrum, Doodlelab, 6harmonics etc, that were not tested by ENRD for comparative performances analysis. Comparative performance testing of those devices is also recommended under different climate and geographical conditions.
14. Conclusion:
As mentioned before, TVWS is an emerging technology. It will take some more time for the technology to get developed and matured to come to the position where WiFi technology is at now. APT J3 project made possible for testing the effectiveness of VHF broadband technology developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. and the performance was found good as it was claimed. The pilot project made possible to build and test hybrid network for rural broadband connectivity that was not done before. Through the APT J3 grant, it was also possible to test the performances of the trekker’s tracking devices developed by Nomura Engineering and to test the effectiveness of the battery regeneration chemical and system developed in Japan. ENRD/Nepal Wireless is thankful for the support from APT
*** THE END***
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APPENDIX 1: Technical Information of the Equipment Used in Tracking System
SRPC TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION 1 Frequency 433MHZ 2 Module Model no TS02EJ-S mdm4LDM 3 RF Power 10mW 4 Communication Distance 2 to 3 Km 5 Operting Temp 10 ∼60deg Centigrate 6 Current Consumption@ ON 40mA 7 Stand By@ OFF 250μA 8 Output Voltage 3.5v max 9 Solar Panel 8mW lithium battery 10 Battery 10000mAh@2 High-Low voltage cutt off 11 Protection Type systm 12 Weight 1kg 13 Dimenson 240X173X48X148cm
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Solar panels and battery 1）Solar module RRS (Reader and Relay Station) and RS (Relay Station) Parts name: NME4.0V1194MA Solar module: 4.7W (4.0V 1194mA) Size: 240x173x4 (mm) with mounting hole φ3.2*4 cable length: 400mm Operating temperature: -30 to 80 degree C weather resistant elastomer coating 2) Battery pack Panasonic Eneloop HR-1UTG-1BP*2 2.4V, 5.7Ah (serial connection) Life cycle: 2000 Operating temperature: -20 ~ 60 degree C
Appendix 2: Specification of Equipment Developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.
1. Product specifications No. Item Specifications Comments 1 System standard ARIB STD-T103 2 Range of frequencies VHF 172.5~202.5MHz 3 Channel bandwidth 5MHz 4 Occupied bandwidth 4.9MHz 5 FFT size 1024 6 Subcarrier spacing 5.47kHz 7 Multiple access / Duplex OFDMA / TDD 8 Frame duration 10msec 9 Modulation method QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM 10 Coding scheme Convolutional Turbo Code 11 Coding rate 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 Uplink: 8.0Mbps Obtained by setting 12 Maximum throughput Downlink: 10Mbps higher priority to uplink. Antenna interface Type-N connector 13 (impedance: nominal 50 Ω) 14 Transmission power ≤5W 15 Diversity function Receiver diversity maximal ratio combining 16 Dimensions (mm) Approx. 240(W) x 300(H) x 180(D) 17 Weight ≤8kg 18 LAN interface 100BASE-TX 19 Cooling system Natural air cooling 20 Power supply DC13.8V ±10% 21 Power consumption ≤ 80VA
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Range of ambient -10 °C~+50 °C 22 temperature 23 Ambient humidity 90% (25 °C) 24 Vibration JIS C60068-2-6 Standard 25 Display function Status indication with external LED
2. Hitachi Device appearance
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Appendix 3: Specification of Equipment Developed by Carlson Wireless Technology.
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Appendix 4: Report on visit to Kathmandu &Chitwan in Nepal in October 2016
From: Japan Battery Regeneration, Inc. T. Kawabe and H. Tominaga
As APT-J3 project, we visited Nepal to study actual situations in Nepal so they can build battery recycle centers in Nepal. And, we visited Nepal to supply necessary knowledges and information on top of Super-K additive and necessary equipments for regeneration charging.
(1) Safa Tempo battery charge center: (a) * There are 750 Safa Tempo electric rickshaws in Kathmandu. Each rickshaw Uses 12 battery packs (Trojan T-125 6V 195Ah/5h). Each electric rickshaw owner has one set of extra battery packs (i.e. 12) for each Rickshaw. Total number of batteries currently used is 750 x 12 x 2 = 18,000. Battery cost for each Electric Rickshaw is approx. 190,000 Yen. Average battery life here used to be 27 months, but with same brand batteries purchased recently can be used only for one year sometimes. Quality of the same brand battery is becoming poorer. It is creating heavy Burden of battery cost to the E. Rickshaw operators recently.
(b) We demonstrated/taught followings: How to prepare before start of regeneration charging with Super-K. Visual inspection of each battery Water level check of each battery Specific gravity of each battery Voltage of each battery Adding purified water for necessary batteries How to add Super-K (required amount for each type battery) How to do regeneration charging How to judge (rate/classify) recovery level of each Battery’s capacity (by doing quick discharge tests). How to sort out batteries after regeneration charging, and Classify into some groups (like S, A, B, X etc.) To load good regenerated batteries of the same grade (like S grade or A grade) into one electric rickshaw. How to use electric rickshaw batteries cleverly so that they can get Maximum battery life.
Super-K was put in 12 pcs. of old batteries and regeneration charging was done. More than 80 % of old batteries could be regenerated successfully, and those Same capacity level batteries were used for next day’s use. If they keep using same Level & good capacity batteries in one vehicle, they should experience dramatically Increased battery life. They used 10 good result regenerated batteries and 2 poorly Regenerated batteries. When they mix different grade (different recovered Capacity level) batteries, poorer grade batteries will be overdischarged and result
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Becomes poor. If they use only same grade good capacity batteries, they can extend Battery life dramatically.
(c) Points to be improved at Safa Tempo Battery center: - Need better knowledge on battery, on how to run electric rickshaw for maximum battery life. - Need better battery mainteneance - Need to do good data/tracking record - Need good understanding of selecting same level of regenerated batteries, and use only the same class of battery capacity in one electric rickshaw. Do not mix new batteries, S grade, A grade, etc. - Need battery meter and odometer in each rickshaw. Do not run when battery remaining level is very low. (Currently they run for 4 hours or 60Km.) - Need good coordination and good continuing efforts/follow up works to do Regeneration charging with Super-K.
(2) Tuk-Tuk 4 passenger electric tricycle center in Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal: (a) One Tuk-Tuk uses 4 pcs. of 12V Exide battery (100Ah/5h rating). Runs 8 hours a day after overnight charging. Max. battery life seems to be 8 months. They don’t have any knowledge/information about battery/battery maintenance/ Charging technique/specific gravity (b) We demonstrated/trained the same things/procedures described in item (1)(b). (c) Points to be improved at Tuk-Tuk charger center: - They have no knowledge at all about battery. - No acceptable quality battery charger - No good quality voltage/current measuring equipments and specific gravity Meters. - No good quality purified water - No engineer, no technician - In addition to above points, all the points described in item (1)(c) apply to this center.
(3) Our recommendations: We received Field Test Report on Battery Regeneration using Super-K at Global Safari Tuk-Tuk, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal from Messrs. SurajKarki and Ran Raj Khanal, and it was a great report/info for us too. We could confirm very good results With Super-K and our regeneration charging technology. - It is recommendable to focus in one location to start building battery regeneration centers where they can obtain necessary cooperation, coordination, and where they can find highly interested and motivated people. Focusing in one location is necessary to focus in one specific type of lead-acid batteries used in one specific type of electric vehicles. After one complete successful result with one location, they can extend to any regions, to any type of electric rickshaws/tricycles easily at 2 nd step. - One dedicated and well-educated field engineer should be sent to the location. - Need them to design and make good chargers which can do same functions as our
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ITE designed slidax chargers. - A complete operation manual should be created and translated into Nepali language. - We know Super-K and our regeneration technology works. Very important Part is not the powder (Super-K) itself, but education to make use of Super-K and our regeneration technology. Educate people so that local people can Learn how to use battery correctly and how to recharge battery correctly using Super- K, and maximize battery life on electric rickshaws and tricycles. Educate how to classify/grade regenerated batteries, and how to combine for same capacity level batteries for use in one vehicle. Educate how to keep good data/track records of regeneration charging and battery conditions.
When they obtain one solid success story in one location in one type of battery/one type of electric vehicle, those old batteries regenerated by Super-K can be used in different equipments/fields like electric storage batteries for solar PV system. This will be very beneficial for Nepal. Old abandoned lead-acid batteries regenerated with Super-K can be widely used for ICT in Nepal in the remote non-electrified regions.
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