Improving the Delivery Rate of Digital Inclusion Applications for Amazon Riverside Communities by Using an Integrated Bluetooth DTN Architecture

TL;DR

This paper enhances a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) architecture with Bluetooth and compression features to improve information dissemination in remote riverside communities, boosting access to digital inclusion content.

Contribution

It introduces a Bluetooth Convergence Layer and a Bundle Compression mechanism to extend DTN capabilities for rural digital inclusion applications.

Findings

Increased data exchange efficiency during opportunistic contacts.

Successful dissemination of educational content in simulated and small-scale environments.

Enhanced access to digital services for remote communities.

Abstract

Despite the evolution in deployed infrastructure and in the way that people access information, still there are those who are socially excluded and have no access to information due to their geographic location (e.g., riverside/countryside communities). This paper proposes an extension to a DTN architecture implementation to allow the dissemination of information in such communities, including educational short-video clips and audio books. The IBR-DTN architecture is complemented with a Bluetooth Convergence Layer, to facilitate the exchange of information over this short-range wireless technology, and with a Bundle Compression mechanism that aims at improving data exchange in short-lived opportunistic contacts happening among nodes. Experiments in a small-scale testbed and in a large-scale simulator environment show that nodes are indeed able to efficiently use contact opportunities to exchange an increased amount of data, allowing people in riverside communities to receive more content related to digital inclusion services.