Update: setting up WiFi at university in rural Uganda

After the overwhelming amount of replies (thank you!!!) to the previous post I wanted to give you a quick update on where the project stands. The original post made me realize how little I knew, and how helpful it would be to a) get more information on what their current setup looks like and b) to have someone on board that has done this stuff before. Since that original post I've been talking and working with /u/SuperQue, who like me happens to live in Berlin and is very (very) experienced in basically any kind of network stuff. So, together with him I've been trying to figure out how to deliver this project.

Basically, we spent the last week or so information gathering and doing some planning. It was clear that we needed more information in order to move forward. We initially assumed that there was not much of a network, and we would have to do most of it ourselves. We started designing for a completely independent Unifi network that would handle all WiFi needs. What we designed came in at around €3000.

But, we were both very uncomfortable trying to plan network changes without involving people there. It was very likely that we would be overbuying, or that we had assumptions that were just not true.

Eventually we were able to get in contact with the network administrator at Gulu University (it took some political maneuvering). He sent us their network documentation, and some photos of what's on site. It turns out things are vastly different from our expectations.

Here's what's available on their network (this is all /u/SuperQue by the way, not me 😁):

Core:

• Cisco ASA 5525-X
• Cisco C3850 24-port fiber distribution switch

Edge:

• Cisco 2960-X (No PoE, sadly)

Wireless:

• Aruba 7010 controller
• Aruba AP-215 - 6x (Indoor 11ac)
• Aruba MSR2000 - 8x (Outdoor 11a/n)

There are basic UPSs attached to all of the distribution switches. I haven't confirmed what kind of backup power they have in their NOC.

From what we've been told so far, 90% of the buildings are covered by their fiber network backbone. This is supposedly working ok, except for likely poor setup of the ASA. The network admin said that it was installed by someone else, but the University was given no training on how to maintain it.

But, the wireless is "not functioning". The network admin said that they had a WiFi range of 5 meters from the access point, so they had coverage issues (as he put it). My first obvious guess is that the APs just aren't getting adopted by the controller, or there is some other problem with the controller. We've been told that the MSR2000 APs have always been mostly useless and that the coverage they provide is minimal.

So my new tactic is to see if we can revive the Aruba gear.

• Get access Aruba controller.
• Find out what release they're on and debug whatever is wrong with it.
• Likely old release, research upgrading to ArubaOS 8.
• Price out a second 7010 so they have more capacity and failover.
• Price out replacement outdoor Aruba APs (AP-275, AP-365) for the old MSR2000 (I've been told that they probably won't work with ArubaOS 8)
• Price out additional indoor Aruba APs.

Other ideas:

• Research replacing the 7010 with a virtual controller setup. This way they can run the controller on commodity hardware.
• Used (ebay?) source a second 7010 (~700 EUR) for backup + capacity.
• Used source slightly outdated APs.

If it turns out the 7010 is a lost cause, we will go back to considering the Ubiquiti replacement plan. The cost to repair with Aruba is now the more than the cost to replace the whole setup with cheaper gear.

It's a difficult decision, given that the most basic Aruba APs are three times the cost of Ubiquiti. /u/SuperQue has experience with Aruba gear, and knows how and why it's better for this kind of campus network. But we would have to use all our cash just to replace the 8x outdoor APs with newer models. This would probably improve coverage anyway, as they're much better MU-MIMO radios.

Any help on sourcing Aruba APs either in Uganda or German, especially if we can get EDU discounts, would be amazing.

Finally, we're on a very tight planning here, and whether or not the original timeline is feasible (to install everything by early May) is very much questionable. There are other parts that need to be done as well, for example the selection & installation of the server, and the pre-loading of that server with relevant videos. The tip to consider YouPHPTube for the video part of this project was extremely helpful, I've installed it with docker compose and I think this will be the basis on which we build this project. Anyway, thank you so much for all your input, it was extremely helpful and the project is in a much better place because of it!