<div>Millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands have become the most promising candidate for enlarging the usable radio spectrum in future wireless networks such as 5G. Since frequent and location-specific blockages are expected for mmWaves, the challenge is understanding the propagation characteristics of mmWave signals and accordingly predicting the channel state information. This research direction has garnered great attention worldwide from industry, academia, and government. However, the majority of current research on mmWave communications has focused on urban areas with high population densities, with very few measurement campaigns in suburban and rural environments. These environments are extremely important for future wireless applications in areas including residential welfare, digital agriculture, and transportation. To fill in this research gap, we developed broadband mmWave channel sounding systems and carried out intensive measurement campaigns at 28 GHz, covering clear line-of-sight as well as non-line-of-sight scenarios over buildings and foliage clutters, to fully characterize the mmWave propagation in suburban and rural environments.</div><div><br></div><div>Moreover, the accuracy provided by traditional statistical models is insufficient for next-generation wireless networks with higher-frequency carriers, because they are unable to predict abrupt channel changes caused by site-specific blockages. To overcome this issue, we explored the possibility of utilizing site-specific geographic features such as buildings and trees in improving mmWave propagation models. A new channel modeling methodology highlighting site-specific parameter evaluation based on easily obtainable data sources (e.g., LiDAR) was proposed for accurate, fast, and automated channel state predictions. Accordingly, an overall root mean square error (RMSE) improvement of 11.79 dB was achieved in a one-building blockage scenario and a regional RMSE improvement of over 20 dB was observed in a coniferous forest. This approach also enables channel simulations for large-scale system performance evaluation, demonstrating a powerful and promising approach for planning and tuning future wide-area wireless networks. The simulation results showed that network densification alone is not enough for closing the digital gap, especially with mmWaves because of the impractical number of required towers. They also backed up supplementary solutions including private data relays, e.g., via drones and portable towers.</div>

This study examined how much access African American adults 25 years and older, living in Johnson City, Tennessee had to computers, and the factors that most influenced such access. Data was collected from 271 persons living in the area. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software to determine how certain demographics would contribute to the level of computer access. Results from the study revealed that a digital divide existed within the African American community, with income being a strong determinant of access to computers. The highest level of access for the sample was in the salary range of $50,000-74,999. Computer access at home was 95.2% and 97.3% at work. Computer access at home showed a decline as participants' ages increased. Email usage was the number one activity reported, at close to 75%, followed by research at 60.5%. Gender did not influence computer access in this study.

This study focuses on female students’ access and participation in education in Nepal, especially through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Despite many efforts to improve equity in access to education in Nepal, equal opportunities to learn is still a challenge in the country, particularly concerning females and individuals from marginalized communities. Online and distance learning has become more common in Nepal. This study explores educational access and participation in learning, especially through ICTs. In addition, this study aims to find out how female students in Nepal participate in their learning through ICTs and what issues can impact their access and participation in learning. The study used a qualitative approach. The data was collected through six semi-structured individual interviews of representatives from Nepalese universities. In addition, one focus group interview of female students in higher education was conducted. The results of the study show that the digital divide is still evident in education in Nepal. ICTs are used more in private schools, whereas public schools are still behind in using ICTs for learning. Several geographic, economic, and socio-cultural factors impact access and participation in learning. Socio-cultural factors are one of the most significant issues that affect females’ educational access and participation. Nepal has a cultural practice of son preference and that reflects on daughters’ opportunities to learn and get a higher education. Another factor impacting female students’ studies in higher education is marriage: household responsibilities can hinder opportunities to access and participate in learning. In addition, the data illustrates an evident gap between the urban and rural areas of Nepal. Challenges in rural areas, such as poverty and the lack of infrastructure, generally have an impact on educational access and participation. The study suggests that raising awareness of the importance of equal rights to education is needed as well as educating females and their families about new possibilities for learning through ICTs. Furthermore, this study also calls for further studies focusing on rural areas.

Knowledge regarding accessibility adaptations in web design in order to benefit and include people with disabilities in today's digital society is an important cornerstone in the work of minimizing the digital divide. Such features include enlarging or reducing text, distinct navigation, alt-texts, ensuring high contrast between foreground and background. Web design also needs to be compatible with commonly used aids. Previous studies show that there is a lack of accessible websites (Hewitt &amp; Yingchen, 2021), thus proving proof of limited knowledge regarding accessibility adaptations amongst designers and developers (Ferati &amp; Vogel, 2020). The digital divide may increase and more people may feel excluded and discriminated against unless this doesn't change soon (Post och telestyrelsen, 2019). This study aims to explore whether the lack of knowledge among designers and developers affects the digital divide.

During the last decade, the average mobile wireless data usage per person has tremendously increased. An even faster growth of the traffic demand is expected for the incoming years, due to several factors such as the increasing global population, the spread of the Internet of things (IoT), and the development of advanced technologies that require a higher amount of data. While mobile communication technologies have rapidly evolved to meet this need in the most usual situations, it is expected that the sixth generation (6G) of mobile connectivity will be the first one paying considerable attention to under-connected environments such as low-income, remote, or disaster-struck regions. Many specialized researchers and entrepreneurs are trying to design and implement alternative network architectures specifically meant for enhancing the performances of the current telecommunication (telecom) infrastructure. In particular, the use of aerial base stations (ABSs) has received considerable attention due to the main advantages of easy deployability and low-cost that are typical of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are available in several fashions depending on the application; moreover, UAVs are also eligible to carry reflective intelligent surfaces (RISs), which represent a promising technology that allows to reflect signals towards specific directions. Another possibility that we have investigated consists in integrating the transceivers inside or atop existing rural wind turbine (WT) towers, in order to increase the coverage radius while avoiding the cost of building a separate telecom infrastructure. A powerful mathematical tool for evaluating the performance metrics of either terrestrial, aerial, or vertical heterogeneous wireless networks is stochastic geometry (SG), since it can be used to model the locations of the base stations (BSs) according to tractable spatial distributions (with either a fixed or a random cardinality) in order to imitate the typical deployments of the nodes made in realistic scenarios; in particular, in this work we focus on rural and post-disaster situations. SG makes use of point processes to model networks' topologies. The developed spatial models, in turn, allow us to analyze the quality of service (QoS) experienced by the typical user served by the proposed networks. To this extent, we creatively and efficiently studied our inhomogeneous systems by making use of what we call the indicator method, meaning that we do not subdivide the ground plane in multiple homogeneous sub-regions, but we use indicator functions to provide general expressions that are valid over the entire ground plane. To prove the effectiveness of the novel architectures, insightful comparisons with the conventional ones are presented.

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This dissertation explores factors that influenced key performance indicators for project implementation success in broadband infrastructure projects funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Key performance indicators for project implementation success were operationalized as finishing within the 36-month grant period (schedule), within the proposed budget (budget), and constructing the planned number of network miles (outputs). Drawing on research in policy implementation, public administration, nonprofit management, and project management, a framework was created to identify and categorize these factors as project-specific, organization-centric, physical environment, interorganizational, or legal environment (POPIL). A mixed methods approach investigated factor-indicator relationships using Ordinary Least Squares regression and other quantitative analyses of 67 BTOP-funded Comprehensive Community Infrastructure projects and a qualitative postmortem analysis of Citizens Telephone Cooperative's successful New River Valley Regional Open-Access Network (NRV-ROAN) project. Strong and significant regression equations were developed for the schedule adherence, output adherence, and overall project implementation success indicators. Deficient capacity of organizations to implement proposed projects was a significant and strong negative influence on each of these three indicators along with interorganizational relationship issue reports regarding the principal-agent relationship and relationships with other actors. The postmortem analysis included 17 participant interviews and further underscored the importance of sufficient organizational capacity and strong partnerships to enable organizations to overcome challenges they may encounter during implementation. In addition to testing the POPIL framework, this dissertation highlights the importance of alignment of goals and metrics across the legislative, programmatic, and project levels of implementation to ensure that programs and projects do not work at cross-purposes. For practitioners, the findings also emphasize that projects should be designed within an organization's capacity, and prospective partners should have the expertise and resources both to implement a project as proposed and respond to unexpected events. / Ph. D. / This research created and tested a framework for identifying factors that influence the ability of organizations to complete projects successfully within a planned timetable and budget. These proposed factors were categorized as project-specific, organization-centric, physical environment, relationships between organizations, or the legal environment. The framework was applied to a group of 67 broadband infrastructure projects funded through a federal stimulus grant program, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), to gain an understanding of why some projects were implemented successfully while others fell short of their intended goals. The quantitative analysis found organizations that did not align projects within their existing resources and expertise to allow for unexpected challenges were more likely to experience schedule delays and fail to construct the project as proposed. This analysis also found an increase in the number of issues reported between BTOP and grant recipients led to lower success rates of project implementation. A retrospective analysis of one project, the New River Valley Regional Open-Access Network, used documents and 17 interviews with participants involved in the project’s planning and completion to address the questions: What went well? What could have gone better? What should be changed in the future? Interview participants highlighted the importance of an organization’s strong leadership, carefully consideration of the limitations of an organization’s resources and expertise, and building strong partnerships before undertaking a project. Implications for practitioners include that programs like BTOP that are responsible for the implementation of legislative mandates should encourage a clear articulation and alignment of goals and priorities that is consistent from legislation through program evaluation and down to the measures used to track individual project’s progress. While BTOP was a one-time grant program, the findings are valuable for practitioners looking to increase Internet access in communities and those looking for a model to be able to evaluate grant proposals and opportunities for partnerships. The BTOP experience is also a cautionary note for grant making organizations to consider their own resources and organizational limitations as well as those of prospective grant recipients when designing programs and selecting projects to support.