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SONIC: Connect the Unconnected via FM Radio & SMS

Ayush Pandey, Rohail Asim, Khalid Mengal, Matteo Varvello, Yasir Zaki

TL;DR

SONIC tackles the digital divide by repurposing FM radio to broadcast pre-rendered WebP pages and employing SMS uplinks to request content, enabling low-cost, wide-area access where Internet connectivity is sparse. The approach encodes webpages as low-bitrate audio, uses a server-driven rendering pipeline, and evaluates feasibility via a Raspberry Pi FM transmitter and a low-end smartphone, achieving about 10 kbps. Key contributions include a complete workflow from request to broadcast, a page compression strategy using WebP images, and a data transmission scheme with error resilience and pixel-interpolation recovery. The findings demonstrate that a broadcast-based Web access mechanism can reach broad audiences in developing regions, complementing higher-bandwidth solutions and providing a practical, scalable fallback. Potential impact lies in extending information access, supporting localized caching and monetization through radio infrastructure.

Abstract

As of 2022, about 2.78 billion people in developing countries do not have access to the Internet. Lack of Internet access hinders economic growth, educational opportunities, and access to information and services. Recent initiatives to ``connect the unconnected'' have either failed (project Loon and Aquila) or are characterized by exorbitant costs (Starlink and similar), which are unsustainable for users in developing regions. This paper proposes SONIC, a novel connectivity solution that repurposes a widespread communication infrastructure (AM/FM radio) to deliver access to pre-rendered webpages. Our rationale is threefold: 1) the radio network is widely accessible -- currently reaching 70% of the world -- even in developing countries, 2) unused frequencies are highly available, 3) while data over sound can be slow, when combined with the radio network, it takes advantage of its broadcast nature, efficiently reaching a large number of users. We have designed and built a proof of concept of SONIC which shows encouraging initial results.

SONIC: Connect the Unconnected via FM Radio & SMS

TL;DR

SONIC tackles the digital divide by repurposing FM radio to broadcast pre-rendered WebP pages and employing SMS uplinks to request content, enabling low-cost, wide-area access where Internet connectivity is sparse. The approach encodes webpages as low-bitrate audio, uses a server-driven rendering pipeline, and evaluates feasibility via a Raspberry Pi FM transmitter and a low-end smartphone, achieving about 10 kbps. Key contributions include a complete workflow from request to broadcast, a page compression strategy using WebP images, and a data transmission scheme with error resilience and pixel-interpolation recovery. The findings demonstrate that a broadcast-based Web access mechanism can reach broad audiences in developing regions, complementing higher-bandwidth solutions and providing a practical, scalable fallback. Potential impact lies in extending information access, supporting localized caching and monetization through radio infrastructure.

Abstract

As of 2022, about 2.78 billion people in developing countries do not have access to the Internet. Lack of Internet access hinders economic growth, educational opportunities, and access to information and services. Recent initiatives to ``connect the unconnected'' have either failed (project Loon and Aquila) or are characterized by exorbitant costs (Starlink and similar), which are unsustainable for users in developing regions. This paper proposes SONIC, a novel connectivity solution that repurposes a widespread communication infrastructure (AM/FM radio) to deliver access to pre-rendered webpages. Our rationale is threefold: 1) the radio network is widely accessible -- currently reaching 70% of the world -- even in developing countries, 2) unused frequencies are highly available, 3) while data over sound can be slow, when combined with the radio network, it takes advantage of its broadcast nature, efficiently reaching a large number of users. We have designed and built a proof of concept of SONIC which shows encouraging initial results.
Paper Structure (8 sections, 5 figures)

This paper contains 8 sections, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and Related Work
  3. SONIC Design
  4. Workflow
  5. Simplified Webpage Creation
  6. Sonic Data Transmission
  7. Discussion
  8. Preliminary Evaluation

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Pre-rendered webpage delivered as WebP via SONIC with no frame lost (left), 10% losses (center), and pixel interpolated on 10% losses (right).
  • Figure 2: Visualization of the FM spectrum.
  • Figure 3: User-C requests a webpage via SMS (1). The SONIC server fetches and renders it into a WebP image (2), then passes it to an FM transmitter (3) for broadcast via sound (4). The webpage is delivered to user-C and any other device currently listening to the radio (5).
  • Figure 4: Preliminary performance evaluation of SONIC. (a) Frame loss rate as a function of the over-the-air distance between FM receiver and a SONIC client. "Cable" refers to a distance of zero, i.e., either an integrated FM receiver on the phone or a jack audio cable connection. (b) CDF of the size of images (WebP) of rendered webpages, assuming variable image quality (Q) and pixel height (PH). (c) Evolution over time of the amount of data to be broadcasted as a function of transmission rates and number of webpages (N).
  • Figure 5: Distribution of median user ratings (0-10 Likert scale) per top 50 Pakistani webpages, for question-b (plain) and question-a (hatched), with and without pixel interpolation (orange and blue, respectively).