This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project develops WiFi-based Rural Extensions (WiRE), a new wireless architecture that can provide high bandwidth connectivity to rural regions at extremely low costs. WiRE is a comprehensive rural connectivity solution that can support a wide range of applications with performance, robustness and functionality guarantees. The design of WiRE addresses several research challenges across different protocol layers including: (1) an adaptive, high-performance unified Medium Access Control layer that seamlessly works across different network environments; (2) a secure and scalable naming and addressing solution to enable cellular access using mobile devices; (3) robust solutions for fault-tolerant network design, failure recovery, network management and unreliable power; (4) Quality of Service mechanisms to provide predictable end-to-end performance. The project enhances the understanding of networking and systems challenges in the developing world and can have enormous societal benefits to billions in rural regions. It makes fundamental advances in wireless networks including understanding complex interference interactions, protocol design and mobile applications.
The research activities in this program include cross-disciplinary collaborations in the areas of electrical engineering, economics, public health and sustainable development. The PI has organized several important workshops and conferences to increase the awareness of important computer science research challenges in the rural areas and the developing world. The education plan for this project includes new curricular development for this emerging area, inter-disciplinary education, mentoring students from various disciplines and training of underrepresented groups in rural regions.
