Mohammed VI Polytechnic University
Morocco
Problem Statement
A large population of African countries suffers from digital exclusion. The main reason for the digital gap is the low telecommunications investments in areas with very low population income. Therefore, it is important to study novel and practical telecommunication solutions adapted to underprivileged regions at low costs. In this context, our research project will answer the question: how to provide Internet access to unconnected and under-connected regions quickly and with reduced costs.
Progress Highlights
So far, we have studied the use of drones and low-orbit satellites to provide connectivity to users in remote areas. We proposed efficient approaches to optimizing drones' trajectory, improving their energy efficiency, and prolonging their battery life. We also proposed mechanisms to quickly connect users in remote areas to spatial networks.
Key Findings
Within the framework of this project, we proposed algorithms with low complexity that can be implemented on drones with low computational power. We also proposed efficient mechanisms to implement our algorithms in a distributed and asynchronous way, which is important to ensure distributed coordination between the network agents
Potential Impact
This project has raised awareness among industrials about the importance of using non-terrestrial networks to provide rapid connectivity to the populations in unconnected areas. It has also resulted in many useful ideas where drones can be used in post-disaster scenarios to replace the damaged infrastructure and to support the terrestrial network during temporary events (such as festivals and sportive events).
Summary
A large population of African countries suffers from digital exclusion. The main reason for the digital gap is the low telecommunications investments in the areas where the population income is very low. Therefore, it is important to study novel and practical telecommunication solutions that are adapted to underprivileged regions and come at low costs. In this context, our research project will answer the question: how to provide Internet access to unconnected and under-connected regions quickly and with reduced costs?
Grantee Description
Prof. Hajar El Hammouti works as an Assistant Professor with the School of Computer Science, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco. She received her Ph.D. degree in computer science and telecommunications from National Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (INPT) in 2017. Her research interests focus on modelling and optimizing wireless communication systems, including Internet of Things and unmanned aerial vehicles networks.
Prof. Hajar El Hammouti is also interested in the application of machine learning and game theory to the broad area of mobile communications.
Project: Broadband Internet Access for Unconnected and Under-connected areas
Around half of the world's population (i.e., 4 billion people) is living in unconnected or under-connected areas where Internet penetration is very weak or non-existent. Most of this population lives in low-income areas, particularly in Africa, with high illiteracy rates. The traditional communication infrastructure is costly, and operators are not encouraged to invest in network infrastructure in the absence of a viable business model that ensures a return of investment. This results in a vicious cycle: low-income populations cannot pay for Internet access; therefore, they do not have access to e-learning and online job opportunities; hence, they cannot improve their income to attract telecommunications investments. Our project aims at breaking this vicious digital cycle by proposing cost-efficient solutions to operators and telecommunication stakeholders. Our focus is on non-terrestrial telecommunication systems. In fact, flying infrastructures (e.g., high aerial platforms, low earth orbit satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.) have been considered as a promising technology to ensure a large coverage at low costs. In our project, we will study the performance of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) against alternative solutions. We will identify use cases where NTN outperform terrestrial networks. We will also propose intelligent resource allocation approaches for NTN to further improve their performance and reduce the costs. We will give particular attention to energy efficiency as we will propose mechanisms to reduce the energy consumption for NTN. Finally, we will provide an economic analysis to evaluate the performance of NTN for multiple use cases and propose incentive mechanisms to encourage the stakeholders to invest in underprivileged areas. In sum, our project will provide a clear roadmap to accelerate Internet access in Africa.
