Programmable Low-End Networks: Powering Internet Connectivity for the Other Three Billion

We propose the following exploratory research question: can we boost low-end networking through forwarding plane programmability? The implications of a positive answer to this question are manifold, unlocking low-end networks for innovative use cases, such as powering affordable internet access to remote communities and helping bridge the digital divide. As a first step towards answering this question, we introduce and discuss in this paper a conceptual architecture for programmable low-end networking. In summary, we take advantage of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) transceivers and use a reconfigurable pipeline of match+action stages to enable researchers and practitioners to write lightweight networking protocols that can seamlessly bring isolated communities to the Internet. We then exercise our architecture through the design and implementation of a Lightweight Tunnel Protocol, for optimized data communication over narrow-band links, with a throughput gain as high as 23%. Our results mainly provide evidence of programmable low-end networks' potentialities, helping us close the digital divide and bring affordable Internet for the other three billion.