Recently a poster asked about wireless mesh networks for a neighborhood setup up. While not knocking the technology, some people have really advised against such a system. My question especially in regards to dual band radios is why??
Take for example a rural setting of approx 100 users who want to share a satellite connection out of the village. The buildings are close enough where you can use a dual band radio to act as an access point, and as a backhaul link on two different frequency bands, and then connect out to the satellite. The users realize that this is a shared medium, and due to to cost of satellite bandwidth, high bandwidth intensive applications are expected to run poorly as more people are on line at the same time. But for generic email and surfing patterns, this kind of network runs good enough. Now of course when such systems are set up, we reduce power and use terrain and buildings to attenuate the signals to limit self interference, along with frequency planning (actually channel planning). This results in a system where the SNR is acceptable to the receivers to give the clients a decent connection. I am thinking that properly planned and implemented a wireless mesh network will work for a small geograpical area where buildings are close together.
Of course for some larger villages where people are separted by a distance, we use a combinaton of wimax base stations and mesh as needed. For small rural areas this appears to fit the solution of providing access to people. Now you must also realize that this villages are not on a road system, and the only way in is by small prop planes or barge.