For 2015, ISIF Asia allocated four grants, one for research and three under its traditional fund. Two independent selection committees were established, one for each category.

Internet Operations Research Grants

One project was selected as the inaugural recipient for the APNIC Internet Operations Research Grant, to receive a AUD 25,000 grant for implementation during 2016. 26 proposals from 8 economies around the region were received.

    1. Surveying the state of IPv6 deployment in Australia and China
      Murdoch University, Australia
      This project, focusing on Australia and China, is set out to (a) accurately quantify current IPv6 deployment in organisations, (b) identify whether IPv6 deployment is likely to increase in the future and (c) identify what drives and hinders deployment of IPv6. The goals are to provide a better picture of the current state, allowing predicting the speed of the future transition and helping to identify how to more effectively manage the transition.
      COMPLETED - Final Technical Report

Technical Innovation and Community Impact Grants

Each project will receive up to AUD 30,000 for projects to be implemented over a 12 months period. The proposals were selected after a very competitive process, were 166 applications from 23 economies were submitted for evaluation.

73 applications passed pre-screening and 32 were shortlisted. The quality of the applications and the technical expertise behind them, made the selection process particularly difficult this year. The 2015 grant recipients are:

    1. Development of mobile phone based telemedicine system with interfaced diagnostic equipment for essential healthcare in rural areas of Low Resource Countries Department of Biomedical Physics and Technology
      University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
      For Least Developed Countries qualified doctors for medical care is not available to the majority of the people who live in the rural areas. Telemedicine systems offer a solution to this problem. The Department of Biomedical Physics & Technology of Dhaka University, has developed a PC based telemedicine system with several diagnostic equipment like Stethoscope, ECG, Microscope, X-ray Viewbox, Colposcope, etc., integrated into the system at low cost, either designed and made by the group locally, or improvised from other types of available instruments. Coupled with standard audio-visual medium these instruments have enhanced the capability of telemedicine for primary healthcare. Now the team plans to convert the existing system into a mobile phone based platform, using Android operating system for which this application is being made.
      COMPLETED - Final Technical Report - video
    2. Deployment of a Community based Hybrid Wireless Network Using TV White Space and Wi-Fi Spectrum in Remote Valleys around Manaslu Himalaya
      E-Networking Research and Development. Nepal 
      The proposed project is for building a long range hybrid wireless network in the villages near Manaslu Himalaya region of Nepal using Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) and TV White Space (472 MHz to 698 MHz) spectrums to bring broadband Internet for the villagers. So far E-Networking Research and Development has been using only Wi-Fi frequencies to build wireless network and to bring Internet in the rural areas by building P2P (Point to Point) and P2MP (Point to Multi Point) wireless links. The reason why ENRD is proposing now to build a hybrid network with the combination of Wi-Fi and TVWS technology is we have assumed that such hybrid network would perform better and would make the network more robust than building the wireless network just by using Wi-Fi bands only. Thus ENRD wants to do comparative study of Wi-Fi and TV White Space (TVWS) regarding their coverage, throughput, performance etc. The reason for not using only the Wi-Fi band is that there are some limitation with the only Wi-Fi network such as the need of clear line of sight (LOS), the interfrence by the forest and cloudy weather, and less coverage etc. The proposed site is Nubri and Chun valley located along the route to Manslu Peak (8,156m, or 26,759 ft), which is the 8th highest peaks of the world. It takes six days walking to get to the region from the nearest highway. The network will provide internet services for e-medicine in the community clinics and e-education in community schools and Buddhist monastries. It will also help to promote tourism in the region by providing Internet along the trekking trails and lodges by creating hotspots along the 6 days long trekking trails. The Internet will also be used for the trekkers tracking system for the safety of the trekkers using tracking system.
      COMPLETED - Final Technical Report
    3. A Peering Strategy for the Pacific Islands
      Network Startup Resource Center. Pacific Islands 
      In the last decade, new fibre optic systems have linked islands throughout the Pacific. New Caledonia now connects to Australia. Tonga and Vanuatu each have cables to Fiji. French Polynesia and Samoa link to Hawaii. The Marshal Islands and Federated States of Micronesia now connect to Guam. Each new cable project has helped Pacific Islands connect to the Internet, but not to each other. More often than not, traffic between networks in the Pacific travels via Australia or the United States. This is the case even for networks servicing the same country. Such suboptimal routing results in poor performance and high costs for all parties. Establishing peering exchanges in the Pacific will improve the quality of latency-sensitive applications. Voice and video applications important to education and government will improve. Costs for local carriers and end users will fall. Reliance on multinational telecommunications carriers will lessen. Several projects to establish peering exchanges in the Pacific have faltered, while only one has succeeded. In some cases, telecommunications regulations or monopolies have erected barriers. In other cases terrestrial circuit pricing has made peering a poor financial choice for participants. A lack of understanding of peering by stakeholders is the only barrier in another case. This project seeks to produce a strategy that will get peering back on track in the Pacific. The strategy document will be informed by demand, network topologies, commercial relationships, monopolies, and government policies. It will highlight the potential benefits to all stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on research and education networks. In accessible language and with clear illustrations, the strategy will help stakeholders understand all sides of the arguments around peering, including those of reluctant incumbents. We hope its completion and presentation to the community will lead to new peering initiatives that will be highly beneficial to the Pacific region.
      COMPLETED - Final Technical Report

     

  1. ISIF Asia announced the selection of five projects as the 2015 grant recipients, including two from the Pacific Islands. Unfortunately the project titled "Long-range TVWS link as backbone for remote broadband provision" to be implemented by Telsat Broadband Ltd. in Vanuatu was cancelled in June 2015, as a result of the damage caused by Cyclone Pam and the financial burden that the reconstruction put on their infrastructure and their staff. 

  2. The grant to the project "Improved Carrier Access in Rural Emergencies (ICARE)" by Innovadors Lab Pvt Ltd and School of Computer and Information Science, IGNOU (India) has been cancelled (Status as of August 2016).