Considering Pigeons for Carrying Delay Tolerant Networking Based Internet Traffic in Developing Countries

Abstract

There are many regions in the developing world that suffer from poor infrastructure and lack of connection to the Internet and Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN). Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a technology that has been advocated for providing store-andforward network connectivity in these regions over the past few years. DTN often relies on human mobility in one form or another to support transportation of DTN data. This presents a socio-technical problem related to organizing how the data should be transported. In some situations the demand for DTN traffic can exceed that which is possible to support with human mobility, so alternative mechanisms are needed. In this paper we propose using live carrier pigeons (columba livia) to transport DTN data. Carrier pigeons have been used for transporting packets of information for a long time, but have not yet been seriously considered for transporting DTN traffic. We provide arguements that this mode of DTN data transport provides promise, and should receive attention from research and development projects. We provide an overview of pigeon characteristics to analyze the feasibility of using them for data transport, and present simulations of a DTN network that utilizes pigeon transport in order to provide an initial investigation into expected performance characteristics.

Speculation on infrastructural ecology: Pigeons, Gaza, and internet access

“…One study has contemplated providing internet access through homing pigeons in developing countries when other types of connectivity are not options. The researchers who proposed a Columba Livia-based Delay Tolerant Network suggest that: “It is quite conceivable that CoLi-DTNs will in fact be competitive against DSL, ISDN, and point-to-point WiFi connections in many settings” (Scholl and Lindgren, 2012: 14). In South Africa, one experiment used pigeons to prove that the speed of pigeon delivery was markedly faster than a local internet provider’s ISDN lines (Govendor, 2009).…”

Data intensive ATLAS workflows in the Cloud

“…Other experiments which highlight the WAN's limitations, tested the data transfer via the internet versus a pigeon carrying a USB stick. In that experiment, the pigeons came out as viable alternatives [38].…”