Wi-Fi Hotspots Research Articles

ACCESS AND UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY BY STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN UGANDA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

The centrality of information and communication technology in enhancing inclusive teaching and learning makes their access and use an imperative for all students at all levels of education.Persons with visual impairment tend to face major barriers in using the same ICT devices that ordinary persons and other disabled persons can use. A quantitative study was conducted with 35 students with visual impairment enrolled in two public universities in Uganda to explore the extent to which they accessed and utilized ICTs. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20. The study found that most of the students were intermediate ICT users (40%) or beginners (37%), while a majority (70.4%) connected to the internet via WIFI hotspots. More than half of the students (60%) knew that their university had an e-learning platform, but a majority of the students had never uploaded/downloaded any learning materials from their universities’ websites. Less than half of the students (46%) were confident to produce text using a word processing program but only few could use power point (12%) and excel (8.6%) applications. To improve students with disabilities’ access and use of ICTs, multiple actions are required, including equipping departments with computers, ensuring the computers are in accessible locations, giving the students opportunity to practice, and purchasing licensed adapted software applications.

DIGITAL INDIA – EMPOWERING INDIAN CITIZEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

India will become a different nation when it adopts the digital technology. It is supposed that the new drive on promoting mobile connectivity and internet can help India will make huge growth in the digital world. The aim of this paper is to understand the concept and advantage of Digital India, service launched through Digital India and future scope of Digital India. The second main objective of this paper is to find out the limitations in implementing the digital India program. This paper is based upon the secondary data. With the help of digital India the rural areas will be connected to the internet & provide them access to basic online services. The main benefit of this programme is to save valuable time because people don’t need to stand in a Queue. Digital Locker, Bharat Net, eSign, e-Health, e-Education, e-Kranti, National Scholarship Portal, Swacch Bharat Mission, Wi-Fi Hotspots are the main service which is launched through Digital India. The expectation of India from the digital India programme is to improve the Information Technology interface for getting the maximum coverage with the help of e-Governance and e-Service in the world. A Digital interface is convenient to both the government as well as the public also. The main agenda of this scheme is that the government of India wants to build every family and every human being digitally empowered.

A Distributed ADMM Approach With Decomposition-Coordination for Mobile Data Offloading

Mobile data offloading allows alternative network systems such as Wi-Fi hotspot access points (APs) to offload the traffic that is originally targeted for the cellular network operators (CNOs). It can alleviate the cellular network congestions and enhance users' quality-of-service. One of the main challenges of the mobile data offloading is to develop simple and distributed traffic allocation strategies that can optimally allocate the cellular data traffic from multiple CNOs to the APs. In this work, we propose a distributed optimization framework with decomposition-coordination to solve this problem. In our framework, the utility maximization problem of the cellular network system with mobile data offloading is formulated as a nonsmooth convex optimization problem. We then divide this problem into a set of subproblems, and each of them is solved by a CNO or an AP using its local information. All the subproblems are coordinated with each other by a virtual data offloading coordinator (VDOC), which can collect the intermediate calculation values from CNOs and APs. The VDOC will then feedback the coordination results calculated from the collected values to the corresponding CNOs and APs. We propose two distributed algorithms that can achieve the global optimization solution under different scenarios. The first one is the multiblock proximal Jacobi alternating direction method of multipliers (ProxJ-ADMM). In this algorithm, the communication between the VDOC and CNOs or APs is assumed to be fully synchronized, and the VDOC will only feedback the coordination result after successfully receiving all the values from APs and CNOs. We relax this assumption by introducing the second algorithm referred to as the distributed asynchronized ADMM (Async-ADMM) algorithm. In this algorithm, the coordination between the VDOC and APs or CNOs does not need to be perfectly synchronized and the VDOC will feedback a coordination result whenever it receives a value from at least one AP or CNO. We prove that both algorithm can achieve the global optimal solution. We present the numerical results to verify the performance of our proposed approaches under various network settings and conditions.

A Lightweight Service Placement Approach for Community Network Micro-Clouds

Community networks (CNs) have gained momentum in the last few years with the increasing number of spontaneously deployed WiFi hotspots and home networks. These networks, owned and managed by volunteers, offer various services to their members and to the public. While Internet access is the most popular service, the provision of services of local interest within the network is enabled by the emerging technology of CN micro-clouds. By putting services closer to users, micro-clouds pursue not only a better service performance, but also a low entry barrier for the deployment of mainstream Internet services within the CN. Unfortunately, the provisioning of these services is not so simple. Due to the large and irregular topology, high software and hardware diversity of CNs, a “careful” placement of micro-clouds services over the network is required to optimize service performance. This paper proposes to leverage state information about the network to inform service placement decisions, and to do so through a fast heuristic algorithm, which is critical to quickly react to changing conditions. To evaluate its performance, we compare our heuristic with one based on random placement in Guifi.net, the biggest CN worldwide. Our experimental results show that our heuristic consistently outperforms random placement by 2x in bandwidth gain. We quantify the benefits of our heuristic on a real live video-streaming service, and demonstrate that video chunk losses decrease significantly, attaining a 37% decrease in the packet loss rate. Further, using a popular Web 2.0 service, we demonstrate that the client response times decrease up to an order of magnitude when using our heuristic. Since these improvements translate in the QoE (Quality of Experience) perceived by the user, our results are relevant for contributing to higher QoE, a crucial parameter for using services from volunteer-based systems and adapting CN micro-clouds as an eco-system for service deployment.

A lightweight service placement approach for community network micro-clouds

Community networks (CNs) have gained momentum in the last few years with the increasing number of spontaneously deployed WiFi hotspots and home networks. These networks, owned and managed by volunteers, offer various services to their members and to the public. While Internet access is the most popular service, the provision of services of local interest within the network is enabled by the emerging technology of CN micro-clouds. By putting services closer to users, micro-clouds pursue not only a better service performance, but also a low entry barrier for the deployment of mainstream Internet services within the CN. Unfortunately, the provisioning of these services is not so simple. Due to the large and irregular topology, high software and hardware diversity of CNs, a “careful” placement of micro-clouds services over the network is required to optimize service performance. This paper proposes to leverage state information about the network to inform service placement decisions, and to do so through a fast heuristic algorithm, which is critical to quickly react to changing conditions. To evaluate its performance, we compare our heuristic with one based on random placement in Guifi.net, the biggest CN worldwide. Our experimental results show that our heuristic consistently outperforms random placement by 2x in bandwidth gain. We quantify the benefits of our heuristic on a real live video-streaming service, and demonstrate that video chunk losses decrease significantly, attaining a 37% decrease in the packet loss rate. Further, using a popular Web 2.0 service, we demonstrate that the client response times decrease up to an order of magnitude when using our heuristic. Since these improvements translate in the QoE (Quality of Experience) perceived by the user, our results are relevant for contributing to higher QoE, a crucial parameter for using services from volunteer-based systems and adapting CN micro-clouds as an eco-system for service deployment.

Ergodic Rate of Millimeter Wave Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we use a stochastic geometry approach to quantify the ergodic rate of each user in an outdoor mm-wave ad hoc network. For a variety of use cases, it is reasonable to assume users will be clustered around a central point (e.g., WiFi hotspot or clusterhead) rather than uniformly distributed. Our results indicate that, in contrast to sub-6-GHz networks, clustered mm-wave ad hoc networks tolerate the increased interference because directional antenna arrays reduce the interference. For certain antenna array configurations and user densities, uncoordinated users within a cluster outperform TDMA. Additionally, we derive a scaling law for uniform mm-wave ad hoc networks and propose a heuristic scaling for clustered networks. The per user ergodic rate remains constant if mm-wave antenna arrays scale sub-linearly with the number of users for uniform networks or linearly in clustered networks as users are added to the cluster. Last, we compute expressions that quantify the loss in ergodic rate per user when alignment error occurs at the receiver and transmitter. Our results show that even relatively small errors in alignment can lead to significant ergodic rate reduction.

Proximate Sharing of Geo Data Downloading Based on the MSNP-Oriented Ubiquitous Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication Paradigm

A mobile social network in proximity (MSNP) allows persons who: 1) belong to the same mobile social network in the cyber space: and 2) are proximate with each other in the physical world to share information, e.g., point of interests’ (POI) data during the touring journey, in a ubiquitous way. This paper proposed a clustering scheme called credit-centric sharing of POIs’ data to organize the handheld devices of mobile users, who belong to the same MSNP group in the cyber space and are proximate with each other in the physical world, i.e., these mobile users’ handheld devices are within the Wi-Fi hot spot’s signal coverage of the cluster leader’s handheld device, as a cluster of mobile Internet of Things (IOT). These mobile IOTs use the user-transparent machine-to-machine communication way for clustering and POIs’ proximity-aware data sharing. Then, the selected cluster head can trigger the downloading of POIs’ data using the 3G/3.5G/4G cellular network based on the current geographical position and then forwarding these data to all cluster members using the Wi-Fi network. In this way, instead of having each mobile user to individually download nearby POIs’ data through his handheld device’s 3G/3.5G/4G cellular network, which needs to download n times of the same POIs’ data through Internet if the cluster has n mobile users’ handheld devices, it only needs to download the corresponding POIs’ data once through the cluster leader’s 3G/3.5G/4G cellular network and then shares these data to other cluster members using the Wi-Fi network. The performance analysis shows that the proposed method can reduce both 3G/3.5G/4G cellular network’s traffic load and the power consumption of involved mobile users’ handheld devices based on the cyber-physical-social computing and networking way.

An Improvement of Performance Handover in Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access using Software Defined Network

The WiMAX network designates in common language of a set of standards and techniques of the world of Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN). The standard IEEE 802.16 or WiMAX allows the wireless connection of companies or individuals over long distances at high speed. WiMAX provides an appropriate response for some rural or hard-to-reach areas, which today lack access to Broadband Internet for cost reasons. This technology aims to introduce a complementary solution to the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable networks on the one hand, and to interconnect WiFi hotspots, on the other hand WiMAX is mainly based on a star topology although mesh topology is possible. Communication can be done in Line of Sight (LOS) or not (NLOS).Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new network paradigm used to simplify network management. It reduces the complexity of network technology.The following article aims to expose a simulation implemented under Omnet4.6++, to improve Handover performance and QoS (End-to-end delay, latency, jitter, MoS and lost packet), by implemented an algorithm in SDN controller. The simulation is tested in WIMAX architecture, and results have been collected from two scenarios with and without SDN controller to proof that this algorithm is more preferment to guarantee a better QOS in Handover.

A High-Pass Antenna Interference Cancellation Chip for Mutual Coupling Reduction of Antennas in Contiguous Frequency Bands

In this paper, an antenna interference cancellation chip (AICC) with a high-pass response is proposed to mitigate the mutual coupling of two antennas resonating in contiguous frequency bands. Using the most up-to-date low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology, the chip only occupies a compact volume of $1.6\times 0.8\times 0.6$ mm3. Two external tuning capacitors and two shunt inductors together with the LTCC AICC device which are in shunt with two coupled antennas, are able to improve the antenna isolation near band-edge by more than 15 dB without sacrificing antenna performance in its useful resonating bands. The high-pass property of the AICC device prevents the decoupling design near 2.4GHz affecting the successful operation of GPS at 1.575 GHz. The superiority of the proposed method is verified with active measurement of a Mi-Fi (mobile Wi-Fi) device in Wi-Fi hotspot mode using the AICC device. The proposed AICC device and corresponding decoupling method with the device can find plenty of applications in long-term-evolution and future 5G wireless platforms.

VOUCH-AP: privacy preserving open-access 802.11 public hotspot AP authentication mechanism with co-located evil-twins

Open-access 802.11 public Wi-Fi hotspots support rudimentary low-level authentication at the access-point link-layer but offers no authentication mechanisms for the clients. Hence, there is a fundamental information asymmetry at play, enabling an adversary to launch AP-based evil-twin attacks. In this paper, we address this information asymmetry problem and propose a simple yet powerful solution for identifying and eliminating malicious APs, thereby providing users safe and private 802.11 public hotspots. Our proposed VOUCH-AP is a portable, platform-independent AP authentication framework. VOUCH-AP is, to our best knowledge, the first work to consider digital certificate-based AP authentication. The proposed solution does not require any hardware upgrades or specialised hardware, unlike 802.11i (aka WPA2). Finally, through security analysis, we show the security robustness of the proposed VOUCH-AP framework to counter evil-twin attacks.

The feasibility of using remote data collection tools in field surveys

Background: The objectives of the study were to conduct a field survey to measure the prevalence of chronic diseases by taking history, to assess the feasibility of using remote data collection tools in field surveys and to create the map of the survey area using global positioning system (GPS). Methods: A community survey was carried out in two urban municipal wards by trainees with medical sociology back ground among those aged 35 years and above. There were a total of 563 participants from whom history of chronic diseases were collected and from those aged 60 years and above the presence of frailty was assessed using Canadian Study of Health and Ageing (CSHA) Clinical Frailty Scale. The data was collected using a remote data collection application named KoBo Toolbox, downloaded in their smart phones, which was sent directly to the main computer in the Clinical Epidemiological Unit, using mobile data or Wi-Fi hotspots. The co-ordinates of the households were marked using GPS which was also sent through the KoBo Toolbox to the main computer. At the centre the data was converted into excel sheets and various percentages were calculated. Results: In the survey the proportion affected with diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular accidents were 24%, 20.6%, 10.5% and 3.5% respectively. Among the older population 2.2% were found to be severely frail or worse requiring special care. The field map of the area surveyed was also generated using the co-ordinates marked using the GPS enabled phones. Conclusions: The remote data collection tool enabled us to conduct a survey on chronic diseases, effectively, within a limited period of time, creating a map of the area surveyed.

Unified Programmability of Virtualized Network Functions and Software-Defined Wireless Networks

The quickly growing demand for wireless networks and the numerous application-specific requirements stand in stark contrast to today’s inflexible management and operation of wireless networks. While most research focuses on mobile networks, WiFi is often left out of the purview. In this paper, we present and evaluate OpenSDWN, a novel WiFi architecture based on a joint software-defined network and network functions virtualization approach. OpenSDWN exploits virtualization across the wired and wireless network and introduces datapath programmability to enable service differentiation and fine-grained transmission control, facilitating the prioritization of critical applications. OpenSDWN implements per-client virtual access points and per-client virtual middleboxes, to render network functions more flexible and support mobility and seamless migration. Moreover, OpenSDWN also increases the security of upcoming WiFi HotSpot architectures by following a functional split approach. Finally, OpenSDWN can also be used to out-source the control over the home network to a participatory interface or to an Internet service provider.

The Algorithm of Cyber-physical System Targeting on a Movable Object Using the Smart Sensor Unit

It is known that smart sensor units are one of the main components of the cyber-physical system. One of the tasks, which have been entrusted to such units, are targeting and tracking of movable objects. The algorithm of targeting on such objects using observation equipment has been considered. This algorithm is able to continuously monitor observation results, predict the direction with the highest probability of movement and form a set of commands to maximize the approximation of a moving object to the center of an information frame. The algorithm has been verified on an experimental physical model using a drone. The object recognition module has been developed using YOLOv3 architecture. iOS application has been developed in order to communicate with the drone through WIFI hotspot using UDP commands. Advanced filters have been added to increase the quality of recognition results. The results of experimental research on the mobile platform confirmed the functioning of the targeting algorithm in real-time.

Analytics of movement through checkpoints

ABSTRACTThis article concerns the opportunities for analysis of data about movement past spatial checkpoints. Checkpoint data are generated by an object’s movement past fixed sensors (‘checkpoints’) distributed throughout geographic space. Example sources of checkpoint data include road-toll gantries, social media check-ins, WiFi hotspots, access swipe cards, and public transport smart cards. Many existing movement analytics techniques, which frequently rely on precise coordinate locations, are ill-suited to the inherent and variable spatial granularity of checkpoint data. However, this spatial granularity also brings advantages in linking movement more closely to its environmental context, in particular the characteristics of the regions through which an object is moving. In this article, we propose a general model for representing checkpoint data of moving objects, based on two fundamentally different types of sensors: transaction and presence. Experiments using real movement data illustrate the diversity of queries that can be efficiently supported by our model. An example movement classification task, identifying vehicle type from checkpoint data recording vehicle movement, provides an illustration of the opportunities for more closely linking movement with its environmental context through the use of checkpoint data analysis.

Optimal joint load balancing and EDCA configuration of IEEE 802.11 wireless hotspots

SummaryWireless hotspots, ie, infrastructures composed of several IEEE 802.11 access points (APs), are today the most common solution in providing Internet access to a wide and rapidly changing population of users. According to common device implementation, stations establish associations with APs based on the measured strongest Received Signal Strength Indicator level. This usually leads to an uneven distribution of users to APs, increasing the chances of local network congestion. Load balancing (LB) solutions aim at mitigating this problem controlling the distribution of users. The LB algorithms enforce stations to associate with APs that manage a low number of users and/or that have a low traffic load. Usually, LB solutions do not consider traffic priorities or they assume some a priori quality of service (QoS) configuration for users.In this study, we propose a QoS‐LB solution based on the cell breathing technique with the goal of balancing the load in IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) Hotspots. The proposed algorithm explores the space of possible power/EDCA configurations by using a branch and bound approach that reduces the number of analyzed configurations and, hence, the time required to find the global optimal solution. The algorithm has been analytically defined and its performance evaluated through simulations and tests in a real test bed. The results prove that the proposed solution is effective in solving the optimal QoS‐LB configuration problem in WiFi hotspots of average size.

Monitoring System of Mechanical Activity of the Heart and Goelocalization of the Patient Based on the Mqtt Cloud

The queue of patients for consultation and appointments that we observe in our health centers is growing in size from day to day given the exponential growth of the human population. Medical systems based on telemonitoring have been developed to remotely monitor the health status of patients. In this work, we constructed a medical prototype for remote monitoring of the mechanical activity of the heart and for geolacalization of the patient based on Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT). The prototype will be used by individuals or by health centers without a doctor. The geolacalization will enable us to locate the injured individual. The physiological data and GPS coordinates are collected using a portable kit and are transmitted directly to an MQTT cloud using a Wi-Fi hotspot. A web server hosted in the kit allows the user to enter the service set identifier (SSID) of the access point through a smartphone. MQTT cloud will take care of the storage, geolacalization and transmission of the signal from the mechanical activity of the heart to the doctors. Almost all smart terminals with a web browser can easily access data (smartphone, tablet, computer). Tests carried out on individuals reveal that the proposed prototype is reliable in sampling, real-time transmission and geolacalization in street map and imagery, which can help in diagnosis and rapid intervention.

Hybrid Learning of Daviq.com in the Subject of Teaching Listening and Speaking

The term hybrid learning was used to describe online learning combined with face-to-face interaction in the classroom. There are two research questions the first question is how the development of hybrid learning in http://daviqr.com/ is. The second one is how the moodle-based hybrid learning of http://daviqr.com/ as a teaching model in the subject of teaching listening and speaking to the students of English Department of IAIN Walisongo Semarang in the academic year of 2013/2014 is. This research is a research and development, which has the population of all fourth semester English department students of the Faculty of Teachers' Training and Education, IAIN Walisongo Semarang that takes the subject of Teaching Listening and Speaking in the academic year 2013/2014, which consists of three classes. The number of population is 120 students. Regarding the research findings that there are some main reasons why most students agree that the hybrid learning course is an exciting course and why they prefer the hybrid online course or the combination between online and traditional classroom. First, the course outline and objectives were made clear. Second, they learned a lot from this hybrid course. Third, the reading materials were clear and informative. Fourth, the level of this hybrid course is just right. Fifth, the total study load of this hybrid course is in proportion to the number of semester credits is just right. Sixth, the amount of their interaction with other students is a little better. Seventh, the quality of their interaction with other students is a little better. Eighth, the amount of their interaction with the instructor is a little better. Ninth, the quality of their interaction with the instructor is a little better and about the same. Tenth, compared to a face-to-face (traditional) class of equal credits, the workload of this online course is somewhat more. There are some recommendations I should give. First, UIN Walisongo Semarang must design e-learning for lecturers as many students like hybrid courses. Second, the faculty must improve the quality of Wi-Fi hotspots.

Public Wi-Fi Monetization via Advertising

The proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots has brought new business potentials for Wi-Fi networks, which carry a significant amount of global mobile data traffic today. In this paper, we propose a novel <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Wi-Fi monetization</i> model for venue owners (VOs) deploying public Wi-Fi hotspots, where the VOs can generate revenue by providing two different Wi-Fi access schemes for mobile users (MUs): 1) the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">premium access</i> , in which MUs directly pay VOs for their Wi-Fi usage, and 2) the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">advertising sponsored access</i> , in which MUs watch advertisements in exchange of the free usage of Wi-Fi. VOs sell their ad spaces to advertisers (ADs) via an ad platform, and share the ADs’ payments with the ad platform. We formulate the economic interactions among the ad platform, VOs, MUs, and ADs as a three-stage Stackelberg game. In Stage I, the ad platform announces its advertising revenue sharing policy. In Stage II, VOs determine the Wi-Fi prices (for MUs) and advertising prices (for ADs). In Stage III, MUs make access choices and ADs purchase advertising spaces. We analyze the sub-game perfect equilibrium (SPE) of the proposed game systematically, and our analysis shows the following useful observations. First, the ad platform’s advertising revenue sharing policy in Stage I will affect only the VOs’ Wi-Fi prices but not the VOs’ advertising prices in Stage II. Second, both the VOs’ Wi-Fi prices and advertising prices are non-decreasing in the advertising concentration level and non-increasing in the MU visiting frequency. Numerical results further show that the VOs are capable of generating large revenues through mainly providing one type of Wi-Fi access (the premium access or advertising sponsored access), depending on their advertising concentration levels and MU visiting frequencies.

Cloud-DLT: A Disruptive Cloud based Digital Library using Lean Design Technique

Cloud based libraries connect individuals to on-demand information needed to solve problems, expand frontiers and re-shape the future. In the era of disruptive computing, a digital library model using cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is proposed. The proof of concept is used to demonstrate the viability of deploying and running virtualized digital library in Nigerian higher institutions. Lean design phases are used in developing the library application program interface (API) as well as the network design. Programming languages such as CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MYSQL are used for the API integration while demonstrating a hypervisor based server infrastructure on a Wi-Fi hotspot. For access control on the network, a network IP address configuration based on classless inter-domain routing (CIDR-192.168.0.0/24) is applied while using TP-Link 3G/4G Wireless N-Router (TL-MR3420) access point for 300Mbps wireless connectivity. Front-end vulnerability threats are addressed during the coding phase while demonstrating improvement on the level of services provided for resource accessibility and management. A faculty wide scenario in Federal University of Technology is used as a validation case study. The proposed system is flexible, offers robust security support with 64/128bit wired equivalent privacy (WEP), WPA/WPA2 and WPA-PSK/WAP2-PSK encryption standards. Cloud-DLT eradicates the challenges and inconveniences associated with accessing and managing the library resources. The work highlighted its usefulness and implications to academics and students in the next few years.

Cuba's Digital Millennials: Independent Digital Media and Civil Society on the Island of the Disconnected

Cuba's Digital Millennials:Independent Digital Media and Civil Society on the Island of the Disconnected Ted A. Henken (bio) despite having one of the western hemisphere's lowest internet access rates, Cubans—with help from a diverse and extensive diaspora—have in recent years formed a rich variety of independent digital news, information, and entertainment projects, contributing to the expansion of the public sphere on the island. This effort, however, takes place in an asphyxiating climate of political polarization, where independent journalists must continue to struggle against the US embargo on the one hand and the Cuban government media monopoly on the other. Here I chronicle the efforts of a group of these autonomous digital media projects1 to establish and maintain their hard-won digital spaces and at times to convert them into more tangible, public spaces, and thereby to impact Cuban civil society. Moreover, given that the digital sphere—much like the Cuban nation—is inherently transnational, I also include a number of diasporic media ventures as part of the same Cuban "indie" media phenomenon. While some of these projects began as personal blogs, many have consciously embraced the challenge of informing the Cuban public in a more systematic, coordinated, collaborative, and entrepreneurial way, targeting the demand for reliable and objective [End Page 429] reportage unmet by the propagandistic state media. Cuba's independent digital press has also been affected by the historic announcement in December 2014 that Cuba and the US would reestablish diplomatic relations and begin to "normalize" their acrimonious relationship. Though distinct from one another in their politics and positioning vis-à-vis the Cuban Revolution and the US embargo, all media profiled here share a common multifront struggle to establish their legitimacy in Cuba's polarized and contested public sphere, maintain a degree of autonomy while preserving their access to the Internet, and become increasingly visible and accessible to the public while engaging in civil, productive debate over national issues. Given this context, I analyze the various branches of Cuba's independent media ecosystem based on the findings of my research, which included interviews with many leading Cuban bloggers and independent journalists, close readings of their articles and websites, and a questionnaire circulated among the directors of more than 30 of Cuba's most prominent digital media projects.2 EXPANDING INTERNET ACCESS AND CUBANS' INVENTOS DIGITALES While political censorship, high costs, slow speeds, and limited access continue to characterize the Cuban Internet, in recent years Cuba has seen transformations both in public web access via cybercafés and Wi-Fi hotspots, and in the ever-inventive workarounds that Cubans themselves have designed to produce and distribute digital content. These developments began with an increase in the number and diversity of Cuba's independent bloggers starting in 2004, followed by the subsequent growth of collective projects of citizen journalism since 2008. These phenomena have been fueled by the opening of Cuba's first public-access Internet cafés in June 2013, the possibility of accessing e-mail via cell phone for the first time in 2014, the establishment of 35 public Wi-Fi hotspots across the island in the summer of 2015, and the simultaneous spread across the island of "el paquete" (the packet), an informal digital data distribution system (Del Valle 2013). [End Page 430] The continued expansion of the Wi-Fi hotspot plan, which reached 200 hotspots in September 2016, and the launch by Etecsa (the state telecom monopoly) of a pilot program to allow home Internet access for the first time to 2,000 customers in Old Havana in late-2016, along with its plans to offer Internet access via cellphone to paying customers for the first time in 2017, are bound to facilitate the growth and social impact of Cuba's independent media (Rodríguez Martinto 2016). The most recent official Cuban statistics indicate that 34.8 percent of the island's population had access to the Internet in 2015 (ONE 2016). This is nearly 20 points higher than the 15.9 percent that the government's own statistics office reported for 2010. The jump is partly the result of a drop in hourly connection rates from $4.50 to $2...