Irish Island wireless project - network monitoring tools

[adrianlegg]

Hello All,

I am just starting as a network engineer for a rural island project to bring a broadband wireless network to remote Irish islands just of Co. Cork.
It is a community project and I am looking into network monitoring tools.

Our Pioneer stage of this project will consist of 12 dwellings linked by wireless routers to create a high speed network backbone on 802.11g and spanning 3 islands.
These 12 pioneer points will in the end support a total of 137 dwellings. We have completed our first site survey and are preparing to install the hardware + antennas next week!

I am looking for a network monitoring tool to span across all this. I basically want to monitor all speed and power activity and also be able to monitor link status. (Running on Windows)

I also want to have a bandwidth control unit software/hardware running, especially as later we want to run a multicast streaming video servers internally. (packteer anyone?)


I would really like a system that informs me by mobile phone text message when there is a network problem or a link status drop out.
Also if it ran on a hi-end ipaq would be great.

Any suggestions anyone?

For a bigger picture of the overall project please see our simple webpage at
http://www.intelligentislands.com
Thanking You,

Adrian Legg

[a13088]

Can 802.11g protocol be used for outdoor long distance point to point or multipoint connection ? It is indoor protocol. Just as 802.11b, some of my friends used for outdoor long distance point to point connection (especially over 4 -5 KM) and found many problems. The performance is not so stable and lost packet problem is very serious.

[BER_vs_SNR]

Of course, it depends on the distance between the islands and the size of the islands themselves.

You may be able to look into 802.11g or even maybe 802.11a (which has good characteristics over open spaces (meaning without absoprtion from walls etc.) but which transmits at shorter carrier wavelengths and consequently experiences faster losses and shorter range for a given level of power,) for "on the island transmissions" but then you will probably need to look into LOS equipment (either RF or even optical) between the islands and bridging between the two realms. Some analysis of water absorption data should be warranted as not all media transmit through fog or rain or over sea clutter likewise.

The bridging idea is not within the reach of the average Joe but it CAN be done.

[adrianlegg]

I am happy to say that the previous site engineer's have completed the original site survey and concluded what equipment and antenna's are required. This will be a mix of mesh, omni, panel and sector antenna's in ranges from 21dbi to 10 dbi. The Mesh 21dbi antenna's will be used for cross island communications.

We have taken into account multipath across water and fog etc and will be raising the antenna's on very tall masts to avoid bouncing of the water.

I might of been presumptuous that we are using 802.11g as the backbone, but we are defiantly implementing it in some sectors. However we will not be using 802.11a anywhere.

So my question remains, how do you monitor all the routers a and the traffic its handling from a central location?

Tanx
Adrian

[BER_vs_SNR]

I don't know how familiar you are with SNMP-based tools and custom programming with RMON and MIBs from the routers that will give you all the ingredients of what you want.

However it starts becoming a little trickier if you want to manage the bandwidth, as I am afraid you may need to develop it by yourself or have it developed. I am not familiar with any commercial product that does all of that ready off-the-shelf.

Talking about video streaming over the network with probably some guaranteed levels of quality fo service will require some network processing inside the routers to ensure packet traffic is shaped, policed and enforced along very specific flow-scheduling and buffer management priority schemes. In other words I see two layers of challenge in front of you:

QoS-based managing the resources and SNMP-traps reporting to a network manager on top of it. Not to mention the interface with the cellular network to automatically send you alerts seamlessly.

What is your budget and timetable?

You truly have got your work cut out for you!

[adrianlegg]

Whoooa,

I have no experience of RMON and MIBs or even custom development of software for this purpose. Do you think I am biting off more than I can chew?

I have found the following software since posting:
http://www.brilan.com/
and the one that looks great but does not handle 802.11g
http://www.netinst.com/html/observer.html

Anyone got any feed back on these tools?

I think I may of been asking too much for text messaging and ipaq compatibility.

Thanks for all your help

Adrian

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