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SUMMARY:Towards focusing research and innovations on local needs: If wirel
 ess technologies are to connect the wireless continent - Dr Idris A. Rai -
  Makerere University
DTSTART:20090714T100000Z
DTEND:20090714T110000Z
UID:TALK18949@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Microsoft Research Cambridge Talks Admins
DESCRIPTION:\n*Abstract:* By 2007\, only 0.21% of population in Africa was
  estimated to have subscribed to Internet compared to 28.49% subscriptions
  of mobile phone lines. Mobile phone penetration rate in developing countr
 ies has been more than double the global average for a number of years\, w
 hereas broadband subscription hasn’t seen similar explosive growth. This
  is due to a number of reasons\, mainly the lack of fixed lines and cost i
 neffective connectivity to the Internet based on satellites. Africa is the
 refore still a wireless continent. This offers an advantage for Africa to 
 easily leapfrog to the newly emerging wireless broadband technologies. In 
 this talk\, we shall first present a review of the status of broadband acc
 ess in Sub-Saharan Africa\, and then discuss some unique challenges\, abse
 nt in the developed world\, which should be considered for the emerging te
 chnologies to satisfy the local needs. For instance\, adoption and large-s
 cale diffusion of WiMAX in developed world will inevitably be hindered by 
 the fact that each residential house is already connected to the Internet 
 by up to 8Mbps. This\, in turn\, is likely to limit new research and innov
 ations on the technology. In developing countries\, however\, WiMAX has a 
 potential to revolutionize Internet access. Mobility and mesh supports of 
 WiMAX combined with the already popular mobile voice communications and th
 e existing lack of Internet access are likely to derive huge demands for m
 obile/wireless Internet access in developing countries that will significa
 ntly surpass the demand for WiMAX access in the developed world. To satisf
 y this demand however\, the technology must be properly engineered so that
  it can scale to accommodate millions of potential users. In particular\, 
 there is a need to develop research on protocols\, algorithms for scalable
  high speed mesh networks with self-organizing\, self-healing\, mobility\,
  efficient handover mechanisms\, and QoS guarantees by taking into account
  the unique challenges that face the continent. 
LOCATION:Small public lecture room\, Microsoft Research Ltd\, 7 J J Thomso
 n Avenue (Off Madingley Road)\, Cambridge
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