Rethinking Wireless for the Developing World

Many rural regions in developing and developed countries with low user densities do not have good connectivity solutions. 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 technologies that can provide low-cost, rapidly deployable connectivity 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 challenges that arise in low user-density environments. We describe 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.