[Community] SCIFI in WACREN - Call for participation

[Ibrahim ALIO SANDA]

Thanks Omo for sharing.
I discover two tools with your email : SCIFI and Open Altrium.
Will try them both. 

And see how to propose them to our members (the most difficult one!!).

And as with Ubiquiti, I'm gonna develop business around them in sha Allah :).Thanks a lot! 


Le Mardi 19 août 2014 18h33, Omo Oaiya <omo at wacren.net> a écrit :
 


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 
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