Phonehome: Robust Extension Of Cellular Coverage

Ubiquitous cellular coverage is often taken for granted, yet numerous people live outside, or at the fringes, of commercial cellular coverage. Further, natural disasters and human rights violations cause the displacement of millions of people annually worldwide, with many of these people relocating to shelters and camps in areas at or just beyond the margins of existing cellular infrastructure. In this work we design PhoneHome, a system prototype that extends existing cellular coverage to areas with no or damaged cellular infrastructure, or infrastructure that is otherwise poorly performing. We explore the feasibility of PhoneHome and address current limitations and future directions for independently operated, user-extensible cellular infrastructure.