Challenges
Even though cellular networks seem omnipresent, their deployment and use vary significantly between urban and rural areas.
This is especially true in developing countries like India.
According to the latest Telecom Subscription Data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, urban tele-density in the country is 127% while rural tele-density is 58%.
An important factor impeding the deployment and/or use of cellular networks in rural areas is the relatively lower income of the people here.
A big chunk of the rural population finds mobile services unaffordable.
Other relevant characteristics of rural areas are lower population density, populations distributed in clusters (villages) often separated by vast empty spaces, and remoteness.
Taking fibre infrastructure to a far-off village, say, in the Himalayas, to connect the base station there may neither be cost-effective nor easy.
IEEE 2061-2024 standard
The standard defines a wireless network architecture for affordable broadband access in rural areas.
Developed by IIT Bombay, it was approved on June 6 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The IEEE-2061 network also includes an Access Network (AN) and the Core Network (CN) similar to cellular networks.
However, the IEEE-2061 AN is heterogenous wherein different types of base stations coexist: it includes base stations covering large coverage areas — called macro-BS — supplemented by small coverage area Wi-Fi.
It is different from the 5G network, where the AN is homogeneous comprising base stations of the same type and typically smaller coverage area.
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