Sustainable rural areas : network-based architecture

Communication technologies and broadband networks offer interesting solutions for improving human quality of life. However, the improvements are less prominent in the rural areas and in developing countries. Partially, this may be related to cultural and social acceptance of such technologies in rural areas. It can also be associated with the lack of a proper architecture for utilization of such technologies in those areas. This work in progress is an attempt in developing such architecture. It is based on mapping of existing or upcoming information and communication technologies to services and applications needed for sustainable rural areas. Based on analysis of the existing infrastructure and technical requirements, we show that wireless and cellular technologies are the most suitable choices for this purpose. Integrating these points, a network-based architecture, referred to as eVillage, is designed. To investigate the underlying issues, simulation studies for several interactive services in such an environment, using OPNET are then carried out. These studies show that the proposed architecture is capable of supporting a reasonable number of clients while meeting basic Quality of Service requirements.