A Description of Strengthening COVID-19 Cognitive Cloud to Health Systems by Costa Rican Community Design

Strengthening health systems and information dissemination, and Internet connectivity in under-resourced communities, have presented profound challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes research on an emerging cognitive cloud to edge community solution, the Internet Backpack, which was utilized for COVID-19 disaster response in rural and remote Costa Rican communities. The Internet Backpack utilizes novel tools and systems for controlling narrow band data pathways through selective engagement with one or more narrow band platforms of an omni-grid system. These methods enable cognitive cloud services to function reliably beyond the edge due to enhanced data compression for stronger, faster and stable transmission to off-grid environments with less latency, jitter and packet loss. In this article, we describe implementation of the Internet Backpack in Las Delicias, Los Angeles and El Palmar, three remote communities in Costa Rica. We highlight how the project has contributed to the objectives of providing Internet connectivity and consequently, increased access to COVID-19 health information in these underserved communities.