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Meraka Institute
South African wireless community networks are wireless networks that allow members to talk, send messages, share files and play games independent of the commercial landline and mobile telephone networks. Most of them use WiFi technology and many are wireless mesh networks. A wireless community network may connect to the public switched telephone network and/or the Internet, but there are various restrictions on connectivity in South Africa. Wireless community networks are particularly useful in areas where commercial telecommunications services are unavailable or unaffordable. Wireless User Groups (WUGs) in South African cities build up infrastructure and applications, as well as training members in wireless technology skills. Therefore, WUGs provide a fertile ground for new technology and applications that may have large social benefits in informal communities and rural areas of South Africa and neighboring countries. Background: South African Telecommunications Environment Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Map Of South Africa
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although most commonly used to depict geography, maps may represent any space, real or fictional, without regard to context or scale, such as in brain mapping, DNA mapping, or computer network topology mapping. The space being mapped may be two dimensional, such as the surface of the earth, three dimensional, such as the interior of the earth, or even more abstract spaces of any dimension, such as arise in modeling phenomena having many independent variables. Although the earliest maps known are of the heavens, geographic maps of territory have a very long tradition and exist from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the , wherein ''mappa'' meant 'napkin' or 'cloth' and ''mundi'' 'the world'. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river"), roughly west-southwest of Johannesburg and east-northeast of Klerksdorp. Etymology Several theories exist about the origin of the city's name. According to one theory, it originates from ''Potgieter'' + ''Chef'' + ''stroom'' (referring to Voortrekker leader and town founder Andries Potgieter; "chef" indicates the leader of the Voortrekkers, and "stroom" refers to the Mooi River). Geoffrey Jenkins writes, "Others however, attribute the name as having come from the word 'Potscherf', meaning a shard of a broken pot, due to the cracks that appear in the soil of the Mooi River Valley during drought resembling a broken pot". M. L. Fick suggests that Potchefstroom developed from the abbreviation of "Potgieterstroom" to "Potgerstroom", whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voice Over Internet Protocol
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service specifically refer to the provisioning of communications services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) over the Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN), also known as plain old telephone service (POTS). Overview The steps and principles involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional digital telephony and involve signaling, channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signals, and encoding. Instead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network, the digital information is packetized and transmission occurs as IP packets over a packet-switched network. They transport media streams using special media delivery protocols t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WiMAX
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX Forum was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability, including the definition of system profiles for commercial vendors. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL". IEEE 802.16m or WirelessMAN-Advanced was a candidate for 4G, in competition with the LTE Advanced standard. WiMAX was initially designed to provide 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates, with the 2011 update providing up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations. WiMAX release 2.1, popularly branded as WiMAX 2+, is a backwards-compatible transition from previous WiMAX generations. It is compatible and interoperable with TD-LTE. Terminology WiM ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands or bantustans of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province. The central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the indigenous Xhosa people. In 1820 this area which was known as the Xhosa Kingdom began to be settled by Europeans who originally came from England and some from Scotland and Ireland. Since South Africa's early years, many Xhosas believed in Africanism and figures such as Walter Rubusana believed that the rights of Xhosa people and Africans in general, could not be protected unless Africans mobilized and worked together. As a result, the Eastern Cape is home to many anti-apartheid leaders such as Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polokwane
Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Province. City of Polokwane official website. Retrieved on October 15, 2009.), also known by its former name, Pietersburg, is a city and the capital of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. It is South Africa's largest urban centre north of Gauteng. Polokwane was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. History In the 1840s, Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Potgieter established Zoutpansbergdorp, a town to the northwest. This settlement had to be abandoned because of clashes with the local tribes.( Langa & Ledwaba clans) They founded a new town in 1886 and named it "Pietersburg" in honour of Voortrekker leader Petrus Jacobus Joubert. The British Empire, British b ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Communications Authority Of South Africa
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the public interest. Traditionally, telecommunications and broadcasting services operated separately and so has the regulation of the sectors. Broadcasting in South Africa was regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), whereas telecommunications was regulated by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Rapid technological developments have led to the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications services. This also had an influence on the convergence of regulation resulting in the merging of the IBA and SATRA. ICASA functions under the Department of Communications (DoC). It was initially composed of seven Council members. The ICASA amendment Act of 2006 included the Postal services, previously regulat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (also known as the City of Tshwane) () is the metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of northern Gauteng Province, South Africa. The Metropolitan area is centred on the city of Pretoria with surrounding towns and localities included in the local government area. History The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality was established on 5 December 2000, comprising 13 former city and town councils and managed under an executive mayoral system. The Metsweding District Municipality was incorporated into the municipality with effect from 18 May 2011 (the date of the 2011 municipal elections). Geography The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality's land area increased from in 2010 to after the incorporation of Metsweding, making it the largest Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa. The Tswaing crater is in the northwest of Soshanguve. Constituent areas The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality consists of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadband Networks
The ideal telecommunication network has the following characteristics: broadband, ''multi-media'', ''multi-point'', ''multi-rate'' and economical implementation for a diversity of services (multi-services). The Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) was planned to provide these characteristics. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) was promoted as a target technology for meeting these requirements. Communication services Personal computing facilitated easy access, manipulation, storage, and exchange of information, and required reliable data transmission. Communicating documents by images and the use of high-resolution graphics terminals provided a more natural and informative mode of human interaction than do voice and data alone. Video teleconferencing enhances group interaction at a distance. High-definition entertainment video improves the quality of pictures, but requires much higher transmission rates. These new data transmission requirements may require new tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
