EAGER: Collaborative Research: A Multi-Network Architecture for Expanding Internet Participation and Community-Building on Native American Reservations

部落社区代表着美国互联网接入的最终前沿，在部落保留地上，只有不到10%的美洲原住民可以使用快速(宽带)互联网接入。缺乏宽带接入是由一系列挑战造成的，包括偏远的地形、资金不足和复杂的电信政策。然而，美洲原住民需要可靠的渠道来参与和贡献互联网内容，以加强他们的社区。这项工作调查了利用已分配给电视台但未使用的容量，即所谓的空白空间，在保留土地上增加互联网可用性的技术。通过在南加州部落社区中试用我们的解决方案，这项工作有可能覆盖2700多户家庭和60个社区主播机构。虽然该项目的直接目标是使全美的美洲原住民受益，但该工作在这一背景下具有广泛的适用性。其他土著群体以及美国和其他地方的低收入农村社区也面临着类似的问题。将从该项目中整合课程材料，展示计算机科学的积极人道主义影响，以增加计算机科学对女性和少数群体的吸引力。这项研究的目标是开发技术，通过扩大互联网接入和支持整个保留地的社交媒体内容制作和传播来支持美洲原住民社区的建设。该提案中概述的工作将在解决部落保留地缺乏互联网接入方面取得关键进展，增加能够参与、创建和传播互联网和在线社交网络内容的美洲原住民保留地居民的数量。这一目标将通过三个相关要素实现：(1)开发一种适用于由蜂窝、无线互联网服务提供商和空白网络组成的多网络环境的架构，其中覆盖范围、成本和网络速度各不相同。(2)与社区合作，在保留土地上试行下一代空白网络，展示超出当前试行范围的地理范围，并支持对部署前后网络使用变化的量化测量。(3)利用从试点中获得的初步经验教训，制定跨越社会-技术层面的网络管理办法，酌情包括频谱管理、接入管理、缓存政策以及预定和点播内容。

Tribal communities represent the final frontiers of Internet access in the U.S., with fast (broadband) Internet access available to fewer than 10% of Native Americans on tribal reservation lands. The lack of broadband access is caused by a collection of challenges, including remote terrain, inadequate funding, and complex telecommunication policies. Yet Native Americans need reliable avenues for participation and contribution to Internet content to strengthen their communities. The work investigates technologies that will increase Internet availability on reservation lands using capacity that has been allocated to TV stations but is unused, so called ?white spaces?. Through the trial of our solutions within Southern California tribal communities, the work has the potential to reach over 2,700 homes and 60 community anchor institutions. While the immediate goal of the project is to benefit Native Americans throughout the U.S., the work has broad applicability beyond this context. Other indigenous groups, as well as low-income rural communities in the U.S. and elsewhere, face similar problems. Course material will be integrated from this project demonstrating the positive humanitarian impact of computer science in order to increase the appeal of computer science to female and minority groups. The goal of the research is to develop technologies to support Native American community building through broadening Internet accessibility and supporting social media content production and dissemination across the reservation. The work outlined in this proposal will make critical inroads to addressing the lack of Internet access on tribal reservations, to increase the number of Native American reservation residents who are able to engage with, create, and disseminate Internet and on-line social network content. The goal will be achieve through three related elements: (1) Development of an architecture suitable for a multi-network setting comprised of cellular, wireless ISP and whitespace networks, where coverage, cost and network speed varies. (2) Partnering with the community to pilot a next generation whitespace network on reservation lands, demonstrating geographic reach beyond current pilots and supporting quantitative measurements of changes in network use before and after deployment. (3) Using the initial lessons learned from the pilot to develop approaches to network management that span the socio-technical including, as appropriate, spectrum management, access management, caching policies and scheduled and on-demand content.