IT for Developing Regions

Prof. Eric A. BrewerUC Berkeley

NEST RetreatJune 17, 2003

Hypothesis 1Current IT projects “trickle down” first-

world technology: Too expensive Assumes infrastructure, power Assumes IT knowledge and support Assumes literacy

We can directly attack these issuesMotes are a better starting point!

Hypothesis 2Thousands of IT projects, but

Focus on devices not infrastructure No single project can afford to build

infrastructure, but all of them would benefit.We can enable low-cost infrastructure

Enhance all of the existing projects Enable new projects that were previously

intractable

Population (in millions)

>$20,000

$2,000–20,000

<$2,000

Purchasing power parity (in U.S. dollars)

There is a market, too…

100

4,000

emerging‘mass’ markets

adjacentmarkets

2,000

source: Harvard Business Review © 2002

Big PictureEnhance and enable IT projects:

Novel technology (direct attack) Novel deployment/support Support for semi- and illiterate users

Two real-world deployments (validate)Great partners

Novel TechnologyDevice cost: 10-100 times reduction Infrastructure cost: 10-100 times

reductionDevice power: 10-100 times lowerSpeech recognition for obscure

languages and dialects

Three Layer Architecture Devices

1-70 users each, $1-10 Short range wireless

Proxies (basestations) 100-1000 users, $200 , < $1/user Mixed wired, wireless, satellite Transient storage

Data Centers >1M users, < $0.10 / user Full power, networking, persistent storage

Devices Co-Design Devices/Infrastructure

=> 20-40x lower cost Enables more functionality Storage, processing, human analysis Longer battery life

Novel low-cost flexible displays 10-50x cheaper, more robust Printed using an inkjet process

System on a chip => $1-5 per device Looking at 1mW per device (with radio!)

Low-cost Infrastructure Goal: 10-100 lower cost Key idea: intermittent networking

Most apps do not need real-time continuous communication

Asynchronous is 10-100 times cheaper? Feel: some spots are interactive, most are

more like e-mail Novel protocols, app support Exploit both 802.11[ab] and mote networks

Summary New approach for IT in developing regions Novel technology, infrastructure “direct attack” on the key challenges Real deployments Enable and enhance 1000s of projects

worldwide Long term: IT for self-sufficiency, stability

(not financial aid)

Exploiting 802.11Driver: coming of $5 chipsetsMix of local coverage and long-distance

links (50km)Multiple baseband channels?

Illegal in US, but fine for IndiaNovel MAC layer? Antennas?Summer goal: low-power low-cost relay

Current IT: $150, 30W

Real DeploymentsFirst one is in India (2005-6)

IIT Delhi, HP Labs India

Second outside of Asia (2006-7) Probably Africa, Mexico or US

Intermittent NetworkingKey overall questions:

How much cheaper?…than continuous real-time connectivity Savings from less coverage? Savings from BW efficiency? Savings from simplicity?

How much less power?Multiple physical networks

LEO, 802.11, short-range wireless (10m)

Novel Deployment & SupportMicro-franchise model for long term

Grameen PhoneRemote management for most thingsSelf-contained wireless proxies with ad

hoc networkingNo keyboard, monitor, etc. on proxies.Data Centers are widely shared

Literacy Novel speech recognition:

Easy to train Speaker independent Any language or dialect Small vocabulary (order 100 words)

A non-IT person can train the speech for her dialect

Also speech output (canned) May do recognition on the device, or on proxy

Adlai Stevenson, July 1965

We travel together, passengers on a little space ship … all committed for our safety to its security and peace;

We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave … half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all.

Five Application Areas Commerce Health Education Government Location-based services

Team includes social scientists: Stephen Weber, Isha Ray

Data is in the InfrastructureManage persistent state in the

infrastructureCan lose/rent the deviceEnables social science research (with

privacy)Enables group state

group calendars and news

Decouple Apps & Devices

Remote reprogramming over the network (authenticated)

Can upgrade/add services without changing the device!

Devices last longerDevices increase in usefulnessEnables flexibility and research

Reduced overall costFunctionality moved to the

infrastructure costs far less! Device utilization = 4% Infrastructure servers = 80% Ex: ISPs have 20-40 times less modems

than there customers, even though every connection takes one from each...

Admin & support costs also decrease

March 1, 2003

Transformation ExamplesTailor content for each user & deviceNoticeably faster than home PC + modem

1.2 The Remote Queue Model

We introduce Remote Queues (RQ), ….

1.2 The Remote Queue Model

We introduce Remote Queues (RQ), ….

65x

6.8x

10x

March 1, 2003

Refinement

Retrieve part of distilled object at higher quality

Distilled image(by 60X)

Zoom in to originalresolution

Grameen Phone Lady Micro-franchisee Usually with a micro-

loan ($200) Buy and manages the

cell phone Rents it out to her

village (10-70 users) Income goes up 2-3x

Pays back loan (98% !)

Grameen Phone Lady Micro-franchisee Usually with a micro-

loan ($200) Buy and manages the

cell phone Rents it out to her

village (10-70 users) Income goes up 2-3x

Pays back loan (98% !)Uganda

Great Partners HP Intel Grameen Bank UNDP Markle IIT Delhi

More welcome!!!

Other questions Avoid full routing?

Alternative is tree routing Route up and down a tree Forest of trees connected via normal IP

Power/BW tradeoffs Duty cycle BW depends on signal strength (and thus power)

Separate low-bandwidth channel? Think 2-way paging, emergency channel Connected all the time at very low bandwidth Used for meta data and control (not surfing)