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Communication in Isolated Rural Areas: A Comprehensive Review of the Alternatives to the Internet

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Gerontechnology V (IWoG 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Bioengineering ((LNBE))

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Abstract

Access to the Internet has become a great disruption in society. The possibilities of communication and real-time transmissions have opened a great social, economic and cultural disruption. However, at the same time, these advances have driven a division between the communities which are able to connect to the Internet and those that are not able. This is the concrete case of isolated rural areas, where social, geographical and demographic factors become obstacles to the deployment of communication infrastructures. As a response to this, there are works which aim to provide communication in isolated regions. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the alternatives to the Internet infrastructure is proposed. For this, a taxonomy of two main groups is applied to classify solutions: works which make use of their own infrastructure and works which provide a connection over infrastructures already deployed. Thus, proposals such as opportunistic networks, satellite Internet, 4G coverage, long-range technologies, and Internet over power lines or TV signals are detailed. Hence, their main characteristics and limitations are studied. As a result, the discussion shows that there is not the global best alternative, however, opportunistic networks raise as the most interoperable.

J. García-Alonso and J. Galán-Jiménez—These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing and Telematics Systems, University of Extremadura, Avda. de la Universidad S/N, Cáceres, 10003, Extremadura, Spain

    Manuel Jesús-Azabal, José García-Alonso & Jaime Galán-Jiménez

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  1. Manuel Jesús-Azabal
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  2. José García-Alonso
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  3. Jaime Galán-Jiménez
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Correspondence to Manuel Jesús-Azabal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain

    Enrique Moguel

  2. University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

    Lara Guedes de Pinho

  3. University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

    César Fonseca

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Jesús-Azabal, M., García-Alonso, J., Galán-Jiménez, J. (2023). Communication in Isolated Rural Areas: A Comprehensive Review of the Alternatives to the Internet. In: Moguel, E., de Pinho, L.G., Fonseca, C. (eds) Gerontechnology V. IWoG 2022. Lecture Notes in Bioengineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29067-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29067-1_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29067-1

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