Internet access is so critical it has been declared a “human right” by the United Nations. In developing nations Internet access can critically influence socio-economic advancement, and can enable democratic change, wide-spread education and improved health care. In times of emergency Internet access provides vital, and at times life-saving, information. Despite its value to society, 60% of the global population still lacks Internet access due to geographic remoteness and issues of affordability. Moreover, societies that typically have access to the Internet can lose access under oppressive government regimes and during times of disaster and emergency.
In this course, we will study factors that lead to the discrepancy in Internet availability throughout the world. To do so, we will study a variety of network analyses to understand how Internet and cellular network traffic and usage can be used to more deeply assess network performance and usage in these contexts. We will then use the results of these analyses to motivate our study of network, system and application solutions that are designed specifically for such infrastructure-limited environments.