Bridging the Digital Divide with the Intel®-based Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP)

I magine life in a remote rainforest in Panama, where people live in villages accessible only by boat and are further isolated from the world by their lack of Internet access. That’s where Intel engineers Meghan Desai and Jeffery Galinovsky trekked in April 2007 to install new technology that, for the first time, has given the villagers affordable Internet connectivity. Similar situations exist around the globe, where more than 5 billion people—83% of the world’s population— reside in areas that lack affordable connectivity. The result is a world filled with stranded communities—communities that often struggle to survive (and thrive) without Internet and regional connectivity and without the vital access that it provides to health care, education, government resources, and economic growth.

For years, Intel has worked on developing affordable computer and communications technology that can aid these communities and reach the “next billion” Internet users. Today, the Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP) offers a greater reason for hope. RCP combines simple hardware components with innovative time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) software developed at the Intel Research Berkeley Lab. The Emerging Markets Platform Group (EMPG) is now working with OEMs to take the RCP reference design from the Intel Research Berkeley Lab and turn it into a commercially available product. This product would help move us closer to our goal of providing rural communities with the connectivity they need to participate in the global economy.

The Rural Connectivity Challenge

One need only return to the image of those Panamanian villages to understand the connectivity challenges that are endemic to rural locations. For years, the villages’ challenging climate and terrain and their reliance on only limited, intermittent solar power were among the factors that combined to make Internet access seem impossible. To succeed, rural connections around the globe must overcome these and numerous other challenges. Initial and ongoing connection costs must be minimal, which is especially difficult because rural areas have limited demand, dispersed populations, and an overall lack of economies of scale. Along with being low in cost and easy to install and maintain, rural connections must run on extremely low power and tolerate unreliable power. Licensed spectrum may not be available and harsh environmental conditions are often a constant threat including high temperatures, humidity, rain, storms, and more. Additionally, geographical barriers—islands, mountains, forests, and jungles—must be overcome.

As shown below, conventional Internet backhaul solutions like satellite, wired digital subscriber line (DSL), and pointto- point microwave each overcome some, but not all, of the challenges to providing affordable and robust Internet connectivity. This has led most telecommunications companies to conclude that the return on investment (ROI) does not warrant investment in conventional connectivity solutions for remote, rural areas.

Figure 1: Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP).

Figure 2: RCP end point and relay units depicted here with radiating rings to indicate the degree to which RCP connectivity is distributed.

The Benefits of RCP

In conjunction with Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, researchers at the Intel Research Berkeley Lab have been working on a rural connectivity solution for the past two years. They recognized that existing infrastructure is useful and costeffective in high-density urban areas, where costs can be spread over many users. Yet that infrastructure is much less suitable in sparsely populated rural areas. As an alternative, they began to develop an integrated “combox” prototype and robust communications middleware—what eventually became the Rural Connectivity Platform.

As a low-cost, point-to-point wireless backhaul, RCP is specifically designed to address the unique challenges of rural Internet and community-to-community connectivity. RCP is a high-bandwidth, low-power solution that can easily be scaled across long distances. In addition, it can cost an order of magnitude less than most conventional Internet backhaul solutions.

Deploying RCP in rural locations is meant to be easy and inexpensive. The equipment is lightweight enough that it can be extended on a long pole using simple guide wires. Plus, the embedded software makes the installation and deployment of RCP simple and does not require skilled technicians. Because RCP is based on standard Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) protocols, licensed spectrum is typically not an issue. In addition, low power consumption (less than 6 W) helps limit the Bridging the Digital Divide with the Intel®- based Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP) by Robert Fogel, Intel Corp., World Ahead Program, Principal Education Architect Rural Wireless Connectivity Rural Wireless Connectivity 22 | Embedded Intel® Solutions — Winter 2007 | www.embeddedintel.com Sp ecial Feature undesirable effects of power shortages, brownouts, spikes, and outages.

RCP also addresses the issue of affordability, which has always limited options for rural connectivity. The technology enables communities to create local connections between multiple villages, schools, or hospitals. In some cases, RCP may be used to develop a rural-user-base community network, potentially leading telecom service providers to see financial advantages in servicing the area.

RCP Specs In its simplest configuration, RCP has at least two end-point units that can be separated by line of sight (LOS) up to 100 kilometers (62 miles). RCP relay units can be used to extend the communications path across geographical barriers or to make “drops” to other communities between end-point units. Each RCP relay can add up to 100 kilometers of LOS to the communication path between end-point units.

The hardware and software for the RCP end-point and relay units are designed to be reliable in highly challenging rural environments. The end-point and relay units utilize a single-board computer with an embedded 533 MHz Intel® IXP 425 network processor, Compact Flash Storage, 10/100 power-over- Ethernet (PoE) -capable Ethernet ports, long-haul radios (one to three depending on the configuration), and support for a Wi-Fi 802.11 access-point radio. The hardware is protected from the elements by an industrial die-cast aluminum enclosure.

The long-haul radios, which are commercially available from many suppliers, can be selected to accommodate different frequencies. They can potentially be upgraded to support WiMAX technology. RCP also utilizes parabolic antennas radiating in 900-MHz, 2.4-GHz, or 5.8-GHz spectrums to address tradeoffs associated with licensing, distance, and interference.

The internal software in the RCP end-point and relay units is the unique ingredient that makes RCP particularly suitable as a rural connectivity solution. RCP uses Wi-Fi frequencies because they are part of an unlicensed spectrum. But the standard Wi-Fi protocol typically becomes inefficient as end points are moved farther apart. This concern is critical, given the distances that must be traversed to reach rural areas. RCP software addresses this issue by using TDMA operation to synchronize the end-point and relay units. It assigns a specific slot to each, which (along with highly focused antennas) greatly increases signal-tonoise characteristics over long distances.

The RCP software runs on a Snap- Gear** embedded Linux operating system. The end-point and relay units are auto-configuring to enable a plug-andplay setup. In addition, a browser-based graphical user interface (GUI) can be used for monitoring and manual configuration. Once the wireless signal reaches its rural destination, each end-point and relay unit can be used as a local Wi-Fi access point to connect Wi-Fi-enabled devices like laptops, desktops, and VoIP phones. Beyond the RCP-provided access point, wired and wireless distribution mediums like Ethernet, Wi-Fi mesh, and WiMAX can be used to further distribute the connectivity that RCP has provided.

Real-World Solutions

To complete their plug-and-play installation in the Panamanian villages, Galinovsky and Desai used nothing more than simple tools to install one RCP end point on the rooftop of a hotel, 15 stories high, which had Internet connectivity. They installed the other end point at the top of a pole formed from a tall, narrow tree trunk in one of the villages. With less than 6 W of power delivered over PoE from the village solar panels, two villages now have a reliable, cost-effective Internet connection to help grow their eco-tourism and craft businesses as well as improve the quality of education for their children.

The Intel® World Ahead program (www. intel.com/intel/worldahead) is working with EMPG and the Intel® Research Berkeley Lab on additional pilot programs in South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam, India, and other countries around the world. The goal is to use RCP along with other technologies, such as Wi-Fi meshes and WiMAX, to help connect the next billion people and give them access to new resources for education, medical care, commerce, and more. RCP is also an enabling technology that increases the value of other elements in World Ahead solutions including the Intel®technology-based classmate PC (classmatepc.com), skoool™ (www.skoool.com) content, and other Intel educational products and programs.

Connecting people in remote and rural communities around the globe is an ambitious goal and one that requires input and ideas from the wider Intel community. If you know of an opportunity where we might be able to deploy RCP or you want to offer support from a technology perspective, please contact EMPG’s Meghan Desai at meghan.desai@intel.com.

As the principal education architect for Intel’s World Ahead program, Robert Fogel works closely with government officials, NGOs, content providers, local businesses, and educators to deploy cost-effective 1:1 education solutions worldwide

As senior product line manager for both Classmate PC and RCP in Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, Jeffery Galinovsky travels all over the world working to understand how technology can help the social and economic conditions of developing countries and drive that knowledge into Intel’s emerging market products.

As a technical marketing engineer in Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, Meghan Desai drives the link between market needs in these emerging markets and the technical requirements for both the RCP and Intel® technology-powered classmate PC products.

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