MIMCom 2006: Deploying a campus area network for the University Teaching Hospital Lusaka – Zambia Midterm Presentation March 24th 2006 Project Team: Michael.

MIMCom 2006:Deploying a campus area network for the

University Teaching HospitalLusaka – Zambia

Midterm PresentationMarch 24th 2006

Project Team:

Michael Tembo

Pupuzyanji SichembeEmil Fredriksson

Newlove DogbeyHani Awad

Coach: Godfrey Chikumbi Principal: Andreas Heddini

MIMCom

• Subdivision of Multilateral Initiative on Malaria• Aims to improve communications for African

malaria researchers• MIMCom has provided Internet connectivity for

more than 25 research centers in Africa• The Internet is one of the most powerful

research tools available to mankind

Every 30 seconds a child in Africa dies from Malaria1

1:www.CDC.gov

School of Medicine University Teaching Hospital Malaria Research Unit

(SMUTH-MRU)

• University Teaching Hospital (UTH) located in Lusaka is Zambia's largest hospital and major referral health care institution

• The malaria researchers are scattered all over the hospital area in different buildings

• A CSD project in 2005 provided initial Internet access to a few researchers

There are an estimated 1 million deaths per year as a result of Malaria worldwide1

1:www.CDC.gov

Project goals (1):1. Creating a reliable and secure network

infrastructure for the malaria researchers at the UTH

2. Improve the research effort as well as patient care by implementing a health informatics system.

3. Improve usability by optimizing the limited Internet capacity

Project goals (2):

4. Investigate the possibility of using Voice over IP to improve communication

5. Raise public awareness of malaria and malaria research in Zambia by finalizing and publishing the SMUTH-MRU website

6. Attempt to connect a pilot remote site for resource sharing and telemedicine purposes

Network design (1)

• The vision of a campus wide network not only for malaria researchers

• To integrate malaria researchers

• To provide IT-services

• Pilot remote site – Telemedicine

Network Design (2)

• LAN inside buildings and buildings interconnected

• Interconnection technology- Fibre vs Wireless

• Fibre = capacity, security, reliability

• Connection to ISP via wireless link• KTH procurement process completed• Deployment of fibre network underway

Health informatics systemDevelopment of a malaria research database for easy storage, retrieval and use of information consisting:

• Patient records database• Patient referral system• Research statistics

Database will be located on a local server that will be accessible by both internal and remote researchers

Health informatics systemTelemedicine

• Enable remote access to the health informatics database for primary health care centres

• Provide store-and-forward communication (patient record entry)

• Providing intern staff with medical guidelines and procedures

The health informatics system is being developed in partnership with the CSD Telemedicine group

Voice over IP (VoIP)

• VoIP runs on our own network infrastructure – that guarantees low cost, reliability and control

• VoIP enables cheap international calls

• Firstly used to the remote site

• Team installed a test-bed with open source software such as Ser and Asterisk

Bandwidth management

• Very limited Internet capacity (128Kbit/s)

• Unreliable link with high delay - long range wireless link to provider with satellite connection

• Many users sharing this capacity, could reach 50-60 users

• This calls for bandwidth management to sustain acceptable quality of use.

Bandwidth management

• Allocate different amounts of bandwidth depending on institution/project

• Prioritize traffic depending on protocol- VoIP more important than mail

• Extensive web content caching by the use of proxy

• Bandwidth management will be implemented on the Linux based gateway

Authentication

• Patient records is sensitive data

• Multiple different projects using the network for Internet access

• Web based authentication for network access

• Central server redirecting to authentication page

• Server forwards traffic to Internet if user is authenticated and deny traffic if not

Status:

• Technical evaluations and preparations has been done

• Procurement completed, network installation has begun

• Health informatics system is being delivered by the Telemedicine group

The implementation phase

• We arrive in Lusaka, Zambia on Tuesday the 28th of March

• Supervision of network installation

• Network configuration

• Service deployment

• Testing

• Education of UTH staff

Questions?