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SUMMARY:Adaptive and Resource-Efficient Rural Area Networks - Veljko Pejov
 ic (University of Birmingham)
DTSTART:20131030T130000Z
DTEND:20131030T140000Z
UID:TALK47065@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Eiko Yoneki
DESCRIPTION:Internet connectivity represents a key factor in the overall d
 evelopment of any nation. It enables competitive participation in the glob
 al economy\, serves as a valuable source of education and facilitates demo
 cratisation of a society. Unfortunately\, connectivity opportunities diffe
 r drastically among regions. Consequently\, this difference\, termed "the 
 digital divide"\, creates a gap in many aspects of human development: livi
 ng standard\, education\, and health care\, among others. The essence of t
 he problem lies in a general lack of understanding of developing area dwel
 lers' needs\, and in the design of information and communication technolog
 ies (ICTs) without consideration of peculiarities of these areas.\n\nIn th
 is talk I will present a holistic approach that aims to improve local and 
 global connectivity of rural\, underdeveloped regions.\nFirst\, we perform
  an in-depth analysis of the usage of existing technologies in one of the 
 world's most infrastructure-deprived regions - rural Africa. Our findings 
 show that limitations of current technology severely inhibit higher usage 
 and utility of ICTs in rural areas. We proceed with designing computer net
 working solutions for rural regions. To cover vast under-populated areas w
 e propose long-range wireless networks based on newly-freed white space sp
 ectrum. We develop solutions to physical and MAC layer for white space com
 munication geared towards optimal utilization of limited energy and spectr
 um resources\, and support voice and video\, applications that are of prim
 ary importance in areas with low population literacy. To avoid over-conges
 ted satellite links and reduce unnecessary communication delay we devise a
  suite of network traffic localization techniques that facilitate local co
 ntent generation and sharing\, enable free local cell phone communication\
 , and improve online social networking in rural areas. We design our solut
 ions after a careful investigation of issues that exist in rural regions a
 nd that are relevant to the target population. We strive to go beyond pilo
 ts\, and\, through collaborative work with local stakeholders and research
 ers\, create solutions that will become integral parts of rural lifestyle.
 \n\n\nBio:Veljko Pejovic received a PhD from the Department of Computer Sc
 ience\, University of California Santa Barbara. Currently he is a postdoct
 oral Research Fellow at the School of Computer Science\, University of Bir
 mingham\, UK. His research is focused on adaptive and resource-efficient 
 wireless technologies and their impact on the society. He is broadly inter
 ested in mobile computing and sensing\, wireless networks\, machine learni
 ng\, and technologies for development.\nMore details available at www.cs.b
 ham.ac.uk/∼pejovicv.\n
LOCATION:LT2\, Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Builiding
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