[Community] SCIFI in WACREN - Call for participation

[Omo Oaiya]

Colleagues,

One of the challenges in many of our NRENs and campus networks is
implementing scalable wireless networks within the often limited budgets.

WACREN is working with RNP, the Brazilian NREN to localise software
developed to address this challenge in a cost-effective manner.  I have had
discussions with a number of folks on the list about SCIFI (Sistema de
Controle Inteligente para rede sem FIo) and others may have come across it
elsewhere.

SCIFI is a software based controller for large scale wireless networks
developed by a university in RNP. Those familiar with Ubiquiti Unifi can
regard it as an open source alternative that works with OpenWRT compatible
access points, and there are quite a few of them -
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start

The project has recently received another round of support so it is a good
time to get involved.  An unintended benefit of using SCIFi is that the
installation caters for most of what is required to deploy eduroam, a
strategic requirement for our NRENs.

The existing documentation is in Portuguese but the AfricaConnect project
has offered support for its translation to French and English, however the
software is now undergoing rapid development so the docs will be of limited
benefit.  It is more useful in our opinion to participate, use the software
and contribute to its documentation and evolution.

Many of our sysadmins are familiar with the OpenWRT firmware or have the
requisite UNIX skills to jump in and gain knowledge by running labs or
doing a pilot.  For those that have students who want to be involved in the
projects that have research, education and entrepreneurship components,
there are many tasks that can be given, with different levels of
difficulty. Some folks might want to consider adding packages like Netdot
for automatic generation of network topologies or the Packetfence network
access controller for deployment of large-scale secured BYOD solutions
using inexpensive reliable equipment.

It is not difficult to get started and the typical campus lab for SCIFI
will do well with:

   1. one computer
      1. Core i3+
      2. 4GB RAM
      3. 500 GB disk
      4. KVM (keyboard, video and mouse)
   2. internet connectivity
      1. for remote support and work
      3. 2 switches
      1. vlan is desirable
      4. 3 Access points
   5. devices
      1. 2 laptops
      2. 2 mobile phones


We have we have created a space for this activity at
http://spaces.wacren.net/scifi-software-based-controller-efficient-wireless-networks.
 Interested folks should contact me or send mail to the *tech* list. (I
have copied the community list this time as a one off)

Omo
<http://www.wacren.net/>
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