WiFi Hotspots for Reindeer Herding and other Delay-Tolerant Applications

Sammanfattning: Despite continuous advancements in mobile communication technologies, there are rural areas even in developed countries like Sweden that still lack basic forms of connectivity. Sweden’s arctic region suffer from a low cost effectiveness of mobile telecommunication infrastructures which results in a lack of cellular coverage in many areas. In response to these challenges, Tannak AB was founded by two Saami women who had their own solution for the reindeer herding industry. With Tannak’s telemetry network, reindeer are tracked with GPS-equipped collars and information is forwarded in-between base stations before transmitted through the regular cellular network. While reindeer inside these areas may now be tracked, reindeer herders still need Internet access to retrieve this information - which they in some places don’t have. This thesis explores how Tannak’s network could be further utilized to also provide limited connectivity and services to end users, primarily to allow access to tracking information directly form the network. The presented solution includes an interface to Tannak’s network in the form of portable WiFi hotspots, which would be hosted by mobile base stations in the network. The service of accessing tracking information is here implemented and tested between an Android device and a laptop controlling a WiFi module. A developed map based Android application allows viewing reindeer information both from the web and directly from the field network. Furthermore, introducing a power saving schedule specifically adapted to the delay-tolerant nature of the tracking network has shown to decrease hourly battery consumption of the WiFi module by 4/5 to merely 6.8 mAh. This is compared to not using the power schedule, while doing four transmissions per hour over the WiFi interface. The results indicate that the solution could be a valid approach as an end user interface to the tracking system. Based on the properties of the tracking network other possible applications are suggested to be included as well, one being the transmission of text messages to phones in the GSM network.