Energy saving scheme for internet provision in rural africa: LESS

Abstract

In the past decade, the access to telephone services has increased drastically due to the deployment of wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets. But internet access in most African rural communities still remains a dream. In today’s digital age, the lack of internet access to the rural communities will disadvantage poor communities to keep up with the global developments. It has been reported that lack of sustainable and reliable electricity coupled with poverty are among the reasons for the growing digital divide gap. In this paper, we present a Low cost Energy Saving Scheme Medium Access Control (LESS-MAC) protocol for broadband wireless networks suitable for deployments in energy-constrained rural areas. Our results show that up to 60% of energy can be saved by implementing our proposed scheme compared to the current power saving mechanisms used in IEEE 802.11 (widely known as Wi-Fi) standard