Internet usage and performance analysis of a rural wireless network in Macha, Zambia

Abstract

There have been a number of rural wireless networks providing Internet access over the last decade but little is known about how the Internet is being used, how these networks perform and whether they follow similar trends when compared with Internet usage patterns in developed regions. We analyse a set of network traces from the Linknet wireless network in Zambia, which provides Internet access to approximately 300 residents of a rural village using a satellite link and a combination of point-to-point links, hotspots and wireless mesh networks. Our analysis reveals largely web-based traffic as opposed to the peer-to-peer traffic dominance that one finds in urban areas. Social networking sites receive the most hits, and large file downloads from operating system repositories contribute the most to the bandwidth consumption. A number of network pathologies in the gateway as well as the wireless mesh network are also analysed and a set of recommendations conclude the work.