The goal of our project was to improve Internet access through innovative means in economically marginalized communities while also creating social structures to build local capacity toward regular digital content creation. The focus of our work was Native American communities in Northern New Mexico. To solve Internet access and content relevance challenges in these communities, we proposed a re-envisioning of Internet deployment and provisioning that overcomes traditional thinking about Internet access. Our technical focus was on the combination, interaction, and innovation of middle and last mile technologies. Our team partnered with local non-profits, Native-serving, and community organizations that actively work to solve digital inequalities.

Our project had multiple socio-technical outcomes, including the following highlights:

We conceptualized and implemented CellWatch, an Android-compatible app that supports a simple interface for collecting cellular coverage data, together with a backend database to store datasets.  CellWatch maps collected cellular coverage data to help end users understand local cellular availability and quality.  Through a follow-on project, we are currently working to obtain FCC compliance so that CellWatch can be used by communities to challenge cellular provider coverage claims.

We designed, implemented and evaluated  LoRaX, a system that applies a novel initiate-then-update paradigm to support data transactions over a combination of low- and high-bandwidth network regimes. LoRaX demonstrated how Low-powered Radio (LoRa)—a low-cost technology used for IoT data transfers—can be re-purposed as part of a multiple network approach to extend Internet services beyond the range of broadband networks.

To understand the quality of experience for applications delivered over LTE networks, we developed a robust measurement suite that we used to conduct a unique measurement campaign in tribal, rural, congested urban and uncongested urban regions, representing a variety of under-provisioned, congested, and well-provisioned operational LTE networks run by four major cellular providers. Our collection and analysis of 16 network performance datasets from 12 locations across the Southwestern U.S. confirmed that the performance of LTE networks in tribal and rural areas is typically worse than even heavily congested urban networks. In the regions we studied, LTE networks in under-provisioned (tribal/rural) areas had 9x poorer video streaming quality, 10x higher video start-up delay, and underwent more than 10x the number of resolution switches, leading to more than 2x slower Web browsing experience as compared to urban deployments. We showed that throughput and latency were 11x and 3x worse in tribal and rural locations, despite identical LTE carrier subscription plans. 

We conducted a sociotechnical analysis of factors and conditions shaping Internet deployment in rural and Indigenous communities in the southwest US, including conceptualization of uses of Internet by Indigenous peoples in the southwest US amid COVID-19. We introduced The Full Circle Framework, an action research full stack development methodology that foregrounds reciprocity among researchers, communities, and sovereign Native nations as the axis for research purpose and progress.

We conducted an empirical analysis of everyday resilience in settings where Internet connectivity is precarious. That investigation led to the refinement of existing models for resilience to reflect the situation where technology as a tool of resilience is itself subject to adverse conditions, leading to an adversity-adaptation feedback model for resilience.

In response to Covid-19, we obtained cellular mobility logs for New Mexico from our partner Skyhook in order to examine COVID-19 case growth in proximity to significant tribal presence by providing a novel quantification of human mobility patterns across tribal boundaries and between urban and rural regions at the geographical resolution of census block groups. In a follow-up study, we explored the effects of sparse mobility data in untangling the often inter-correlated relationship between human mobility, distancing orders, and Covid'19 case growth throughout 2020 in tribal and rural areas of California.

In collaboration with local partners, we offered and supported workshops in website development, social media basics, tech basics, gaming for good, and data geo-mapping, as well as one-on-one Tech coaching, robotics and coding for youth.

We developed a citizen-science based curriculum around network measurement that has been specifically designed to be culturally responsive to Native American students. This curriculum was initiated through funds provided by this project and extended through NSF Award #2122791. Curriculum can be found here: https://rc.nau.edu/fusd-cs4all/resources-for-educators.html

Results from this award have produced one to-be-published book, one book chapter, 14 published peer-reviewed papers, and one additional to-be-published peer-reviewed paper.  Results were disseminated through publications, panel presentations and invited presentations. 15 graduate students participated and were trained research through this award, as well as more than ten undergraduate students and seven high school students.

Last Modified: 11/30/2023
Modified by: Elizabeth M Belding