This chapter contains conclusions as they were made for the Mobidot infrastructure project. An ab- stract overview of the project is given, further some sub-optimal approaches will be discussed from which can be learned for future projects. Finally a discussion about how the project was perceived, the overall feeling of the author is described. The chapter ends with a discussion containing general conclusions about how the entire study at the Technical University of Delft was perceived.
6.1. Project specific conclusions
In this project an infrastructure has been designed and built which is used to provide the user with a wireless connection to the Internet. While the hotspot visitor is the main user of the product, it is not the main actor we are aiming at. The problem that was perceived is the fact that current solutions are quite expensive, too expensive for low budget institutions such as small hotels and small restaurants. The intention of this project was to create a working solution for public wireless networks at a frac- tion of the cost of current solutions. The two largest cost factors with current solutions are the in- vestment in the equipment and the installation and maintenance by a mechanic. As such, we are aiming at the managers of public (low budget) institutions. The project is renewing in that it reaches near full automation. This is achieved by making the product plug 'n play, and by applying active monitoring of the devices. Since the solution is aimed to be low budget, broken installations can easily be replaced by new ones. Thus keeping down times to a minimum and at the same time keep- ing maintenance costs low. Another renewing aspect (to a lesser extent though) of the project is the fact that roaming will be possible, even though the solution is low budget. This means users of other Wi-Fi suppliers can roam to the Mobidot network, keeping their number of contracts for digital communication services to a minimum.
This project has aimed at creating a well thought out design, instead of a fully working solution with a bad design. This means most of the time has been put in the design, and less in the implementa- tion. As such not all functionality is implemented, although most of it is. Things that have been de- signed but not implemented include monitoring, setups with multiple cooperating access points and VPN security on the WLAN. After this project is finished it is easily possible to add these features to complete the solution to a production ready system.
Especially the first two phases of the project, the analysis and design, took a lot of time. In this case the problem domain is hard to grasp. This is because it is very unclear at the start of the project which systems and actors play a role in this infrastructure, as there are quite a few. Once all require- ments, needed functionality, involved actors and systems and dependencies between systems had been defined and modeled, implementation could be quickly done.
The project suffered some failings mainly because of external factors. Due to the fact that the project plays in a new field, and is dependent on quite a few other products, the possibilities for a thesis project are limited to what these products can deliver. The largest problem in this was the firmware for the access points. All firmware except one were found to be badly designed and not useful for this project. The firmware that was found to be well designed and useful, OpenWRT, had some maturity problems though. Once this firmware matures, the solution can be finished to be a production ready system.
less technology in itself were new to the author. It was interesting to see how one can develop from knowing near to nothing about a certain subject, to building an entire system in the respective sub- ject. During the study only small, confined exercises have been performed. Never before there's been a large solitary project such as the thesis project. It is interesting to see how one develops from having no idea on how to solve a certain problem, to having extensive knowledge of the various ways to solve such a problem, and design and develop a system to fit that solution. During the study, various courses have been given on a wide variation of subjects. During the thesis project this know- ledge is structured and organized, and this has happened in a satisfactory way. A system has been created in a project which was walked through completely from inception to completion, applying previously gained knowledge and researching needed new knowledge. Getting the responsibility to make the necessary choices and accepting that responsibility to the fullest, shows that the study as provided by the TUDelft has attained its goal: to deliver quality engineers.
The guidance in the project was perceived as pleasant. The emphasis of the guidance was exactly in the right area, where it was needed: overall project management, and documentation. Especially de- termining the right audience, and aiming the documentation at that audience was needed and was guided in an excellent way. Finally, the guidance was excellent in the design of the system. While system design has been educated at the university, it has only been practiced minimally. Applying it to a large project was a large step to take, and the guidance in this was very satisfactory. The overall project was perceived as very useful and contributing a lot to personal growth, both in the field of work of ICT, and in the field of finding a barrier between work and free time and making sure that barrier wouldn't shift too much.
6.2. General conclusions
After almost eight years of studying at the TUDelft, the end of this life period is quite near, getting ready to transition to a completely autonomous existence. The time spent at the TUDelft overall has been perceived as pleasant.
The study period not only has made me grow from novice to expert on a professional level. It has also made me grow on a personal level, in relation to being with other people, getting to be more open to other people and getting a broader perspective upon the world. Personally, one of the most interesting aspects of the study was the fact of getting in contact with people from varying religious and cultural backgrounds. Getting to know these people and their backgrounds was a privilege, and an eye-opening experience. An experience of personal growth that, I believe, many conservative people lack. I've met people both with quite strict religious beliefs and quite loose religious beliefs. During this study some people were more important to me than others, mainly because a lot of my personal growth can be contributed to them. Michele Buonaiuto, an Italian from Napoli, who has been my study partner for nearly the entire study (except for the first quarter) has played an import- ant role in my pleasure of studying at the TUDelft. Doing a lot of projects with him was a joy, I've been with him through better and through worse. Another important person during my study was Vahid Shafiei (Iranian). One of the reasons my study took eight years instead of five is the amount of maths. Vahid was the one with whom I found the needed discipline to finish most remaining maths courses in the fourth year: maths for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 9 months. Solving a dif- ficult exercise was a joy and would always go hand in hand with a necessary dose of humor. His view upon the world and his intellectual thinking (he has done a philosophy study in Iran) made it a joy to spend time with him. During later phases of my study, I started to work as a student assistant for the TUDelft. First for the Computer Organization course (2001, 2003), from September 2003 on
as a helpdesk employee at the Practicumgroep Zuid-Plantsoen. It was here where I met Wim Haan of whom I found out to be quite the same person as I am. Sharing much of the same beliefs and working together fluently has resulted in starting our own business together. Finally Lucas Breedveld, Mohammad Sobat and Shuai She, whom I have enjoyed working with on various projects but also outside college hours.
When it comes to the study itself, I'm for the most part pleased with how things went. With true Computer Science courses I didn't have much trouble passing them. First of all I'm quite interested in a diverse set of subjects, which made it even easier. With maths courses I had more problems however. While the material isn't that fundamentally difficult, my old studying method didn't work for these courses, a lot more discipline and dedication was needed to pass these courses. Finally, when it comes to societal courses, things were quite a lot worse. I find that the respective teachers have a hard time bringing the learning material in an enjoyable way, much like my history classes in high school. About the only examination method with these courses was to ask for lists of dates (milestones in history), characteristics of something (name all advantages and disadvantages of a particular approach), etc. Such educational methods don't make the material interesting, and thus fail to being effective in transferring knowledge. One other unfortunate thing is that I had to put quite some time into maths, which makes it look like maths is all I did in my study. One thing I structur- ally missed in the study is ongoing practice in software design and project management. There are only about two courses dealing with software design, and only halfway the third year, project man- agement is taught. More attention is given to programming, while this should be the other way around, since a university (I think) is supposed to aim at a more abstract level.
When it comes to the TUDelft as an organization, I believe in essence it means well, but fails to be- come one of a kind. This is reflected in the latest reorganization plans, in which a way of working much like the University of Twente and TU of Eindhoven is trying to be achieved. Instead the TUDelft should find its own way of doing things best. One of the things in which TUDelft excelled, and for which many foreign students came to Delft, was Information Systems. Instead of dumping this at another faculty, it should have gotten more privilege.
All in all, I had a great time at the TU Delft. Thanks to everyone who made it a wonderful experi- ence, including: Michele Buonaiuto, Wim Haan, Vahid Shafiei, Mohammad Sobat, Lucas Breedveld, Shuai She, Hattat el Hammouchi, George Stere, Naim Larbi, Abdulhakim Boztas, Firas AlHassany, Noureddine Ou-Aissa, Chakib Boucharraba, Nahil Celikoglu, Aqab Bin Talal, Sabit Asholi, Ravi Chablani, Joost Hietbrink, Michele Nijhuis, Wijnand Post, Hamid Safari, Leon Planken, Azad Imamoglu, Serap Boduc, Bas Schopman, Amros Karbor, Amad Zawity, Denis de Leeuw Duarte, Jun Chen Chen, Michel Meulpolder, Sander Koning, Mustapha Idrissi, Reza Sum- ampouw, Miriam ter Brake, Ronald Huizer, Lieuwe Jan Koning, Serkan Eskici, Osman Zemouri.