Congestion control mechanisms, by which network users share constrained capacity
on Internet links, are heavily studied in computer science. Such mechanisms are
traditionally automated, assuming that users do not wish to be involved in
addressing congestion. However, in community-owned and operated…
While only generating a minuscule percentage of global traffic, largely lost in
the noise of large-scale analyses, remote rural networks are the physical
frontier of the Internet today. Through tight integration with a local
operator’s infrastructure, we gather a unique dataset to characterize and…
Hundreds of millions of people still live beyond the coverage of basic
mobile connectivity, primarily in rural areas with low population
density. Mobile-network operators (MNOs) traditionally struggle to
justify expansion into these rural areas due to the high
infrastructure costs necessary to…
The radio interfaces and network architectures of WiFi and cellular
systems are converging along many dimensions. While both systems are
largely adopting the centralized architecture of traditional cellular
deployments, this design comes with fundamental disadvantages that
limit how these networks…
Repair and maintenance requirements limit the successful operation of
rural infrastructure. Current best practices are centralized
management, which requires travel from urban areas and is
prohibitively expensive, or intensively training community members,
which limits scaling. We explore an…
In a setting of economic and infrastructural collapse, the inability
to manufacture and maintain computing resources will be an enormous
limitation on the continued use of technology. The concept of “rot”
exists for both hardware and software, referring to a slow loss of
functionality…
This paper analyzes the processes and challenges of technology repair
in remote, low-income areas far from standard ICT repair
infrastructure. Our sites of study are the fishing and farming
villages of Dibut, Diotorin, and Dikapinisan in Aurora Province,
Philippines, located in coastal coves against…