The aim of the Portable Wireless LAN trial programme by JANET [1], under which this work is being carried out, is twofold. Firstly, we needed to develop a portable and easily carried Wireless LAN (WLAN) kit that should be able to provide local and global connectivity to the devices individuals carry for an academic study or module outdoors. In simple terms, the portable WLAN kit should provide local connectivity to devices around it, in the form of a 802.11 b/g wireless network, and global connectivity with the aid of a backhaul connectivity option, such as a Satellite, 3G/UMTS or WiMAX link or by establishing its own connection to the Internet if that is feasible. We have successfully designed and developed a mobile and portable WLAN prototype that is able to satisfy the aforementioned requirements. Our design and implementation decisions, combined with our thorough tests are reported in the companion deliverable by Lancaster University, entitled “Developing a Portable Wireless LAN kit”* 2+. Secondly, the project needed to study the backhaul connectivity options that could be utilized in the above context, so that we could identify and evaluate the suitability and applicability of the backhaul connectivity options that the Portable WLAN kit could utilize to establish a connection over.

Therefore, Section 2 of this document, studies theoretically three possible backhaul connectivity options, namely Cellular networks (Section 2. 1), Satellite Communications (Section 2.2) and WiMAX network (Section 2. 3) in an effort to give an insight of their characteristics. The report provides a brief discussion on how these technologies work and is by no means complete as these communication technologies are being evolved continuously and such a lengthy discussion would go beyond the goal of this project. However, the report focuses on the mobility characteristics of these backhaul options, which are of particular interest for this project. Section 3 that follows, provides a hands on experience on three different backhaul options that we tried and are applicable in the context of this project. To be specific, Section 3.1 reports networking tests from GRPS and HSDPA tests that we carried out, using the GSM modem that is part of our Portable WLAN prototype. Section 3.2 reports our deployment and networking tests of the Astra2Connect Satellite service which, even though not ideal, is a suitable backhaul connectivity option for the requirements of this project. Section 3.3 that follows reports similar deployment and networking tests’ results of the Inmarsat service, using a small and lightweight BGAN terminal, the Explorer 500. Finally, Section 4 concludes this report and summarizes our thoughts on the availability and suitability of the backhaul connectivity options we examined theoretically and practically for the requirements of the Portable WLAN project.