RuralSync: Providing Digital Content to Remote Communities in the Philippines through Opportunistic Spectrum Access

Abstract

RuralSync is a proof-of-concept project aimed to investigate the feasibility of data broadcasting (datacasting) in distributing digital educational materials and other e-learning tools to remote communities in the Philippines through opportunistic spectrum access. Particularly, it explored the datacasting feature of the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T), the digital TV standard adopted by the Philippines. An end-to-end link was tested: a modified ISDB-T transport stream, which carries the content for test broadcast along with a sample PDF file, was broadcast through a Software Defined Radio (SDR) configured as a low-power ISDB-T TV transmitter. The stream was then received and decoded by an ISDB-T receiver connected to a computer. Preliminary tests show that the file may be extracted from the modified stream satisfactorily, thereby presenting an opportunity for an alternative file sending system to be developed, suitable in areas where the internet infrastructure is unreliable or unavailable.