Rethinking Wireless in the Developing World.
Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Sonesh Surana, Anmol N. Sheth, Sergiu Nedevschi, Rabin K. Patra, Melissa R. Ho, Eric Brewer · 2006
Many rural regions in developing and developed countries with low user densities do not have good connectivity solu-tions. To date, networking research has largely focused on urban areas of the industrialized world. In this paper, we make the case for research on new appropriate wireless tech-nologies that can provide low-cost, rapidly deployable con-nectivity solutions for low user-density regions. To this end, we compare and contrast the connectivity requirements that arise in the two domains and pinpoint the new research chal-lenges that arise in low user-density environments. We de-scribe our research efforts in this space and also share our initial experiences in deploying low-cost WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) networks in India, Ghana and the San Francisco Bay Area.