Low-Cost Internet Access Using KioskNet

1. Low-Cost Internet Access Using KioskNet Earl Oliver PhD Student Tetherless Computing Research Group University of Waterloo (Canada) With: S. Guo, H. Falaki, S. Ur Rahman, A. Seth, M. Zaharia, U. Ismail, and Prof. S. Keshav

2. Key points • Robust, reliable, and low-cost network connectivity for rural regions • Supports incremental deployment by franchisees (secure) • Secure communication between users and the Internet • Supports future network availability (ex. WiMAX, cellular, etc.) • Available today, free for download

3. Why low cost networking? • Access to timely, context-specific information can greatly benefit citizens of developing countries • Farmers • Best agricultural practices • Crop inputs and treatments • Market prices • Health workers • Diagnosis • Treatment • Citizens • Government services • Communication (email)

4. Example • aAqua project (IIT Bombay, Maharastra, India) • Bulletin board system allows farmers to consult with agricultural experts • market opportunities • fertilizers • pricing • Sample questions: • How much money can you make from a Jersey cow worth Rs. 20,000 in a year? • I want information of producing and implementation of Jatropha plant for Bio-Diesel. • We have at our disposal 10-12tonnes of aloe vera plants/leaves for sale. Parties interested in purchasing please catch us at 0-9864031770

5. Low cost communication andaccess to information… • Allows better decision making • Improves worker productivity • Integrates economies into the world market • Prevents `leakage’ of development funds • Promotes an informed citizenry and a participatory democracy

6. How to provide low-cost access to information?

7. Information access today • Mostly one-way • Radio • TV • Newpapers • Magazines • These solutions are inadequate

8. Two way information flow • Possible using newer technologies • Cell phones • Internet • But can be expensive • Rural poor are unlikely to get good connectivity any time soon • Revenue per sq. km << cost per sq. km • Can we provide reliable connectivity for only a few dollars / person / year?

9. How to reduce costs? • Sharing the cost of the technology • Sharing the cost of knowing how to use the technology • Information kiosk

10. Kiosk connectivity • Dial-up • Slow (28 kbps) and flaky • Satellite (Very Small Aperture Terminals) • Expensive and slow • Spare parts are hard to get • Long range WiFi / WiMax • Experimental • Expensive up-front cost (for 18m tower) • Cellular broadband (3G) • Low penetration because of high upfront costs

11. Mechanical backhaul

12. Kiosk

13. The Kiosk controller • Headless, keyboardless, low-cost, low-power single board computer. • Powered by solar power + battery • (near full uptime) • Supports wide range of network interfaces • Choice of interface is policy driven at the session layer

14. Kiosk controller cont’d • Two access modes: • Terminal: recycled PCs netboot from a read-only image stored on the kiosk controller. • Direct: access the controller (or bus or gateway) like a WiFi hotspot.

15. Ferry

16. Gateway

17. Ferries and gateways • No processing of data – only store and forward • Without power restrictions • Recommended to have faster CPU, higher memory than kiosk controller • Gateway has an always-on connection to the Internet (proxy)

18. Proxy • Centralized server on the Internet • Disconnection-aware • Hides disconnected users from legacy servers • Plug-in applications • Ex. SMPT plug-in to handle email service • DNS location register • Public key database (whitepages directory)

19. Advantages of mechanical backhaul • Low cost of connectivity per kiosk (< $250 capital expenditure) • Cost of the ferry and gateway single board computer gets shared across kiosks • $3/person/year to break even at 10% penetration • no trench, no tower ! • See paper for calculations and cost breakdown. • Increased penetration • Even in interior areas where there are no telephone lines • High bandwidth data transfer in both directions • Rapidly and incrementally deployable

20. Disadvantages • Data transfer is delayed • Depends on frequency of visits of vehicles • Can be several days • But many useful applications are delay tolerant • Trade delay for cost • Suitable for smaller non-governmental organizations to set up kiosks

21. Low cost connectivity  • What are the challenges? • Supporting multiple network interfaces • Security • Routing • User management • Maintenance and redundancy (debugging system failure)

22. Supporting multiple NICs • Need to support new networks • Mechanical backhaul not ideal for all applications • Ex. High priority data • Opportunistic Connection Management Protocol (OCMP) • Applies application specific policies to schedule data across multiple NICs • Currently mechanical backhaul, SMS, and TCP/IP supported.

24. Security • Resilient to a diverse set of internal and external attacks • PKI rooted at University of Waterloo • sub-CAs operated by KioskNet franchisers and franchisees • X.509 public keys flooded to kiosks to provide secure communication between users • Encrypted user file system • Keyed by user password, NFS mounted at logon • Kiosk netboots from read-only image stored on the kiosk controller

25. Routing • Many DTN routing options • Robustness vs. efficiency • Guaranteeing reliability is hard • Flood within a ‘region’ • Hierarchical namespace: <kiosk>.<region>.<provider>.kiosknet.org • Upstream: gateways coordinate to send one copy of data to proxy • Downstream: data sent to one region’s gateway • DNS query based on user EID to determine gateway

26. User management • Distribute user creation to kiosks • Walk in, get an account • Extended system admin application: webmin to create/delete users and public keys • Keys are signed by the local franchisee and sent to the proxy with the user’s EID • <user>.<kiosk>.<region><org>.kiosknet.org • EIDs and certificates flooded back to all kiosks

27. Maintenance and redundancy • Applying software updates/bug fixes can be expensive • Robust mechanism for pushing updates (debian packages) • Remote shell for remotely executing bash scripts • Software failures can occur in the field • Need a mechanism to collect debugging information • rsync/ssh flooding of logs • Activated by inserting a special USB key or via remote shell

28. Sample applications • Email • Classic application for delay tolerant networks • user@<kiosk>.<region>.<org>.kiosknet.org • Database synchronization • Replicate a centralized database to kiosks • Ex. aAqua (IIT Bombay) • YouTube • Download videos to kiosk based on a search query • Flickr • Take a picture, upload it to Flickr

29. Current status • Live deployment in Anandpuram, India • Second deployment mid December (IIT Delhi) • Preparing second major release for early 2008 that includes security, SMS, and DNS user lookups

30. Future work • Support for mobile users • Routing, security, user management • Recycled cell/smart phones • Robustness • Exploit the cellular network as a control channel • Applications, applications, applications • “if you build it they will come” might not apply

31. Conclusions • Developed a secure, robust system to provide low-cost Internet to rural regions • KioskNet can adapt to the availability to new networks • KioskNet is free and rapidly deployable

32. For more information • Earl Oliver, eaoliver@uwaterloo.ca • Prof. Keshav, keshav@uwaterloo.ca • Web: http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/tetherless/ • Join our mailing list