Towards an IEEE 802.22 (WRAN) based wireless broadband for rural Bangladesh — Antenna design and coverage planning

In accordance with the global awareness and national agenda of providing digital services to the rural population of Bangladesh to improve their quality of lives, broadband internet connectivity to the remote corners of the country has been a major infrastructural concern. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of IEEE802.22 Wireless Regional Area Network (WRAN) to serve this purpose. The initial hypothesis was that due to the flat nature of terrain in most areas of the country, it would be economic to deploy WRAN infrastructure in the unused TV white spaces covering large flat areas. However, establishing Point-to-point(P2P) links might be challenging due to the same reason. To come to a concrete conclusion about the technical feasibility of this technology and an infrastructural estimate, we started this project from scratch, i.e. from designing necessary antennas, up to evaluating their coverage and P2P performance in a computer simulation tool. We have concluded that, it is possible to cover a significant amount of the country's territory using only around 25 antennas. However, to establish P2P links, the number would be higher. Hence, we conclude that wireless broadband access using WRAN, with wired or wireless backhaul, is an economic and recommended approach, where secure P2P links could also be deployed if the application of it is deemed necessary for specific purposes. The design parameters of antennas and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) are discussed in detail in the paper.