WELCOME

Dak Net A Road to Universal Broadband Connectivity

Background On Rural Communications

A rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh, India

Low-Cost, High-Latency, Unlimited-Bandwidth Communication Kentaro Toyama Assistant Managing Director Microsoft Research India WWW 2007 Banff – May 9, 2007

DakNet: Rethinking Connectivity in Developing Nations DakNet provides extraordinarily low- cost digital communication, letting remote villages leapfrog past the expense of traditional connectivity solutions and begin development of a full-coverage broadband wireless infrastructure.

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society -- promoting the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our members."

 The family includes over-the-air modulation techniques that use the same basic protocol.  The most popular are those defined by the b and g protocols, which are amendments to the original standard.

The Wireless Revolution ► ► Wireless = leapfrogging opportunities ► ► But what kind of wireless? – Radio links (1-100Mhz) – Cellular/ WLL – Satellite/VSAT – WiFi LAN/WAN ► ► Insight: Same factors driving WiFi revolution in developed world can drive a revolution in developing world: – Low cost for users and providers – East of setup, use and maintenance – Bandwidth and scalability – Spectrum delicensing

Vision Local entrepreneurs within developing countries will use WiFi to: – Overcome infrastructure cost barriers – Innovate and experiment with applications and content. – Stimulate the development dynamic for rural first mile communities. – Grow the infrastructure according to first mile needs and demands, scaling up to universal broadband connectivity

MOBILE AD HOC CONNECTIVITY

DakNet operation thus has two steps: 1) As the MAP-equipped vehicle comes within range of a village WiFi-enabled kiosk, it automatically senses the wireless connection and then uploads and downloads tens of megabytes of data. 2) When a MAP-equipped vehicle comes within range of an Internet access point (the hub), it automatically synchronizes the data from all the rural kiosks, using the Internet.

The Rural ICT Market Latent demand for information and communication services The needs of the “endusers” come first = the first mile But need low-risk seed infrastructure to see what is demanded. – User adoption takes time – Service adoption also takes time

Asynchronous is Sufficient ICTs introduced as shared resource But this has drawbacks for realtime infrastructures: – High level of adoption required to achieve cost recovery. – “Who am I going to call?” problem – Shared communications infrastructure tends to be asynchronous.

The total cost of the DakNet MAP equipment used on the bus is $580, which includes A custom embedded PC running Linux with b wireless card and 512 Mbytes of compact flash memory; A 100-mW amplifier, cabling, mounting equipment, and a 14-in omnidirectional antenna; and An uninterruptible power supply powered by the bus battery

Some Applications Text-messaging/ – eGovernance – eLearning – Telemedicine Audio/video messaging – Communication for semi-literates Non-real time Internet searching and browsing FTP mechanism for Village websites VMOIP & WiFi Phones

Bhoomi initiative in India ► First National eGovernance Initiative in India ► Computerization of all land records in state of Karnataka – Manual land record illegal ► Some 500,000 land record transactions/month ► Seeking means of decentralizing its database using wireless technology

A local entrepreneur using a DakNet connection to sell e-services like voice mail and to residents in a rural Indian village.

“Technology for Emerging Markets” Research goals:  Understand potential technology users in economically poorer communities  Adapt, invent, or design technology that contributes to socio- economic development of poor communities worldwide Computer-skills camp in Nakalabande, Bangalore (MSR India, Stree Jagruti Samiti, St. Joseph’s College) Microsoft Research India

Digital StudyHall: Solution Randy Wang, Researcher, Microsoft Research India A DSH class in Uttar Pradesh, India Goal: transfer of good pedagogy to rural schools Content: DVD recordings of classes taught by good teachers -- Sent via post on DVD -- Usage: Rural teachers use DVDs as base material for interactive lessons.

DakNet support of the Bhoomi e-governance project. Map shows route between Bhoomi database and village kiosks.

Semi-Rural WISPs WiFi “hotspots” for semirural communities Enables affordable devices and services Stepping stone for surrounding WiFi footprint

Store-and-Forward Wireless

Multi-Hop

Private Adoption & Meshes

The Internet Motoman project in Cambodia. (a) The main hospital, with its VSAT connection to the Internet, acts as the hub. (b) Because the roads are so bad during rainy periods, MAP-enabled Honda motorcycles are used to connect schools to the hub. (c) For locations with particularly challenging terrain, there is even a MAP-equipped ox cart.

Physical, Hardware Layer -IEEE b (11Mbps) wireless LAN cards -Mobile Access Point: Custom Embedded PC -Omnidirectional and Directional (terrain-dependent) Amplified Antenna Configuration Operating System Layer -Mobile Access Point running on Linux Debian -Client software runs on Windows family or Linux Network Protocol Layer -TCP/IP MAC Address Restriction -Ad-Hoc wLAN Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) Security Transport Layer -Intranet File Transfer MAP “Heartbeat” -SMTP Internet Mail Transfer Client Web Server Integration Layer -Routing/naming protocol Import/Export Function -Batch Processing Asynchronous DB emulation Applications Layer -Text messaging Audio/Video messaging -Non-real-time Internet browsing DB synchronization

CONCLUSION DakNet’s low deployment cost and its enthusiastic reception by rural users has motivated dozens of inquiries for further deployments. In addition to its tremendous cost reduction, a critical feature of DakNet is its ability to provide a seamless method of upgrading to always-on broadband connectivity.

THANK YOU…….! ANY QUERIES ?.....