Low-Cost, High-Latency, Unlimited-Bandwidth Communication

Kentaro ToyamaAssistant Managing DirectorMicrosoft Research India

WWW 2007Banff – May 9, 2007

“Technology for Emerging Markets”

Research goals:

• Understand potential technology users in economically poorer communities

• Adapt, invent, or design technology that contributes to socio-economic development of poor communities worldwide

Computer-skills camp in Nakalabande, Bangalore(MSR India, Stree Jagruti Samiti, St. Joseph’s College)

Microsoft Research India

Interdisciplinary ResearchAishwarya Lakshmi Ratan

– Public Administration and International Development

Jonathan Donner– Communications

Nimmi Rangaswamy– Social Anthropology

Rajesh Veeraraghavan– Computer Science and

Economics

Indrani Medhi– Design

Kentaro ToyamaKentaro Toyama– Computer ScienceComputer Science

Randy Wang

Udai Singh PawarUdai Singh Pawar

–

–

Computer Science

PhysicsPhysics

Society

Group

Technology

Individual

Society

Group

Technology

Individual

Innovation

Understanding

Impa

ct

Innovation

Understanding

Impa

ct

MSR India: TEM

A rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh, India

Very Poor Communities

• 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

Traits relevant to information dissemination

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• DakNet / First Mile

Solutions

– DVDs via physical mail• This talk!

phttp server

phttp client

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

Randy Wang, Researcher, Microsoft Research India

A DSH class in Uttar Pradesh, India

Goal: transfer of good pedagogy to rural schools

Content: DVD recordings of classes taught by good teachers

-- Sent via post on DVD --

Usage: Rural teachers use DVDs as base material for interactive lessons.

eSaguProf. P. Krishna Reddy, Int’l Inst. of Information Technology, Hyderabad

Some photographs of a cotton crop(and written notes) collected by eSagu

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

Netflix

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.

DVD over post works elsewhere…

Jim Gray

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

Data over post is fastest and cheapest

• Zero electricity

• Poor postal service

• Not enough financial resources for supporting DVD/VCD playback

• No need for high-bandwidth

Not the right model if there is…

Summary

The Internet may need non-standard channels for poor rural areas.

Data transported physically can provide the highest-bandwidth, even in communications-rich economies.

DVDs by mail offer a low-cost, high-bandwidth, high-latency alternative!

Thank you!http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem

kentoy@microsoft.com