System Architecture for Delay Tolerant Media Distribution for Rural South Africa

Wireless communication offers access to information even to users living in areas where little to no access to affordable communication channels is available.

Wireless communication offers access to information even to users living in areas where little to no access to affordable communication channels is available. Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) enable content distribution in such areas, using mobility of devices and avoiding the need for traditional network infrastructure. In DTNs, data is passed from mobile device to mobile device, whenever possible, in an intelligent way. DTNs have the potential to reach out to under-served regions where cellular Internet access (3G, LTE, and beyond) might be expensive or unavailable. We are interested in DTNs for distributing media from cities to under-served rural areas. The content is distributed to the target destinations, using either public transportation or commuting vehicles such as taxis, equipped with wireless DTN-enabled devices. At each target destination, a micro-entrepreneur business is established with the help of our network: Micro-entrepreneurs use DTN-enabled projectors (also referred to as cinemas-in-a-backpack) to deliver entertainment content at low cost, and exploit the opportunity to create a micro-business around the show events. In this paper, we introduce the DTN system setup, present performance results of laboratory tests and test with a local commuter train of periodic and predictable mobility. Further, we present the target scenario and specific technical challenges. We aim to explore opportunities for a rural, under-served region in the north of Pretoria, South Africa.