89 characters of base-11?! Mobile networking in rural Ethiopia!

on YouTube ↗14m

" summary

Building a client‑server app that actually works in rural Ethiopia means replacing HTTP/TLS/TCP with hacks that fit real networks: squeezing requests into 113 bytes per SMS, standing up an in‑country SMS gateway in a tiny closet, switching to UDP and sending each packet four times for reliability, and finally abusing USSD by discovering N allowed in USSD dial strings to reach under‑98‑character limits so a full request fits inside an 89‑character numeric/ N payload.

AI-written summary · about

" chapters (8)

1. 0:00Start
2. 0:43Context: Wave Mobile money
3. 1:29Problem 1
4. 2:13Solution 1
5. 4:36Problem 2
6. 5:20Standard protocol stack Alphabet soup timel
7. 7:47A slimmer protocol
8. 12:40Epilogue

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