Low-Cost, High-Latency,
Unlimited-Bandwidth Communication
Kentaro Toyama
Assistant Managing Director
Microsoft Research India
WWW 2007
Banff – May 9, 2007
“Technology for Emerging Markets”
Microsoft Research India
Research goals:
• Understand potential technology
users in economically poorer
communities
Computer-skills camp in Nakalabande, Bangalore
(MSR India, Stree Jagruti Samiti, St. Joseph’s College)
• Adapt, invent, or design technology
that contributes to socio-economic
development of poor communities
worldwide
Interdisciplinary Research
MSR India: TEM
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan
–
Public Administration and
International Development
Jonathan Donner
–
Society
Communications
Nimmi Rangaswamy
–
Social Anthropology
Rajesh Veeraraghavan
Group
–
Computer Science and
Economics
Indrani Medhi
–
Individual
Design
Kentaro Toyama
–
Technology
Computer Science
Randy Wang
Innovation
–
Computer Science
Udai Singh Pawar
–
Physics
A rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh, India
Very Poor Communities
Traits relevant to information dissemination
• Meager economy
– High cost of hi-tech
• Terrible electrical and
telecommunications
infrastructure
– Poor real-time Internet
experience
• Low literacy
– Multimedia helpful
• Slow pace of life
– Real-time interaction rarely
critical
Kodia village, Madhya Pradesh, India
Low-Cost, High-Latency, High-Bandwidth?
Alternatives to real time:
– Delay-tolerant
networking
• Data trickling with…
– satellite
communications
– mobile phones
– point-to-point wireless
– Vehicles and WiFi
phttp server
• DakNet / First Mile
Solutions
phttp client
– DVDs via physical mail
• This talk!
Digital StudyHall: Problem
Poor teaching quality in rural schools
Rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh
Digital StudyHall: Problem
Good teachers drawn to city with
higher salaries and better
environments
Urvashi’s StudyHall private school in Lucknow
Digital StudyHall: Solution
Goal: transfer of good
pedagogy to rural
schools
Content: DVD recordings
of classes taught by
good teachers
-- Sent via post on DVD -A DSH class in Uttar Pradesh, India
Usage: Rural teachers
use DVDs as base
material for interactive
lessons.
Randy Wang, Researcher, Microsoft Research India
eSagu
Prof. P. Krishna Reddy, Int’l Inst. of Information Technology, Hyderabad
Goal: “queryless” delivery of
agriculture advice to
farmers
Content: Digital photographs
of farms and crops
collected by paid workers in
villages
-- Sent via post on DVD -Usage: Photos are analyzed
by agriculture experts who
diagnose and prescribe
remedies
Some photographs of a cotton crop
(and written notes) collected by eSagu
Netflix
DVD over post works elsewhere…
Goal: painless movie delivery to
households at a low monthly
rate
Content: full-length movies
-- Sent via post on DVD -Usage: DVDs watched by families
in the comfort of their homes;
trips to video rental stores
eliminated.
Jim Gray
Data over post is fastest and cheapest
Storage capacity doubling each
year
- 1970: 20MB disk cost $20K
Bandwidth improving only 10% a
year
For large stores, FedEx-ing
harddrives cheaper and faster
than any other method.
“The biggest problem… is
customs.”
http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=43
Not the right model if there is…
• Zero electricity
• Poor postal service
• Not enough financial resources
for supporting DVD/VCD
playback
• No need for high-bandwidth
Summary
The Internet may need nonstandard channels for poor
rural areas.
Data transported physically can
provide the highest-bandwidth,
even in communications-rich
economies.
DVDs by mail offer a lowcost, high-bandwidth,
high-latency alternative!
Thank you!
http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem
kentoy@microsoft.com