A vision for residential broadband services: ATM-to-the-home

The arrival of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks has enabled a wide range of new interactive multimedia applications for the residential market. The article presents a vision for supporting universal residential broadband services based on an ATM-to-the-home (ATTH) network architecture. This network architecture applies to the various residential access network (RAN) architectures being deployed today, such as hybrid fiber/coax (HFC), fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), and asymmetric digital subscriber loop (ADSL) technologies. The article addresses today's residential networks and applications, to understand why a switched broadband residential network is required to support residential broadband services. After exploring residential broadband application requirements, a new class of service is proposed to support a very important class of residential broadband applications that has been not addressed. Then, the technical and strategic motivations for using the ATTH architecture are discussed in detail. A universal model for residential broadband network architecture based on ATTH is described, which is shown to apply to various RAN architectures. Finally, it discusses the signaling requirements of residential broadband services and explain why the ATM multiconnection per-call model is much more efficient than the digital stored media command and control (DSM-CC) session control protocol approach for the ATTH architecture     

Finding the Killer Application — The Role of the Broadband Applications Laboratory

The world of the Internet is experiencing its next revolution — broadband access. It is recognised that fast Internet access alone is insufficient to drive broadband connectivity, and that, ultimately, compelling applications will create demand. But what will these compelling applications look like and how will one find them? This paper examines how a killer application will have to surpass a number of technological, economic and sociological issues in order to be a success, and how it is likely that the application presented to the user will comprise a number of sub-applications, potentially glued together using Web services as an enabling technology. The paper also outlines the Broadband Applications Laboratory (BAL) as a unique facility that can assist in the discovery, evaluation, development, test and rapid deployment of the killer application by providing a dedicated team and supporting infrastructure to take applications from inception through to launch. Finally the paper describes ‘Software-To-Go’, a trial of an applications-on-demand service that could just be one of the killer applications — not only does it fulfil many of the requirements of a killer application, but it also neatly encapsulates the capabilities of the BAL.     

QoS-enabled residential gateway architecture

As networking technologies penetrate wide varieties of devices for daily usage, home networks are becoming a reality. The bandwidth and always-on connectivity provided by the rapidly growing broadband technologies, such as cable and digital subscriber line (DSL), render home networking even more attractive. A residential gateway is a device that interconnects various home devices to one another as well as to the Internet. The home networks being deployed today are simple and inexpensive with the residential gateway providing only connectivity. As home networks evolve and become more widespread, emerging applications on home networks will demand additional features that require quality of service. We present an architecture of a next-generation QoS-enabled residential gateway. Such a residential gateway, in conjunction with the developments in QoS-enabled wireless LAN technologies, will usher in a new generation of home networks that are capable of supporting a wide range of applications.     

Traffic characterization of a residential wireless Internet access

Traffic characterization is an important means for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to adapt and to optimize their networks to the requirements of the customers. Most network measurements are performed in the backbone of these ISPs, showing both, residential and business Internet traffic. However, the traffic characteristics of business and home users differ significantly. Therefore, we have performed measurements of home users at a broadband wireless access service provider in order to reflect only home user traffic characteristics. In this paper, we present the results of these measurements, showing daily traffic fluctuations, flow statistics as well as application distributions. The results show a difference to backbone traffic characteristics. Furthermore, we observed a shift from web and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing traffic to streaming applications.     

Broadband access over cable for next-generation services: a distributed switch architecture

The hybrid fiber coax architecture deployed by the cable service providers has been successful in capturing a substantial piece of the residential broadband access market. In the United States over five million homes connect to the Internet using DOCSIS cable modems. We describe an evolution path to enhance the HFC plant to provide, initially, Gigabit Ethernet (and eventually multi-Gigabit Ethernet) on the trunk and feeder portions, and 100 Mb/s Ethernet on the subscriber drops. This next-generation HFC network will enable cable service providers to address the vast and underserved small and medium-sized business market, as well as offer emerging applications and services to the residential market.     

基于“IPv6+”的应用感知网络（APN6）

互联网应用对网络带宽、时延、抖动、分组丢失率等方面的需求各不相同,而网络和应用的解耦导致网络无法有效感知应用的需求,因此难以为应用提供相应的服务质量SLA保障。提出一个基于IPv6的应用感知网络框架——APN6,通过将应用的需求信息封装在数据分组中,使网络能感知应用及其需求,便于网络进行流量调度和资源调整。设计了一种安全接入控制方案以解决 APN6 接入场景中存在的应用信息的伪造与篡改问题,确保APN6只对合法用户提供相应服务。     

Architectures for broadband residential IP services over CATVnetworks

The current state of the art in digital broadband access technologies to support emerging telecommunications services makes imminent the introduction of interactive broadband services-including data, video and the Internet-into the residential market. Over the last few years, much attention has been paid to the development of media access control protocols for cable TV networks that will allow the immediate support of broadband data services as the first step toward enhanced communications services for residential users. We review some of the architectural options that must be carefully considered in order to deliver Internet protocol (IP) services to such users in an efficient yet flexible manner. Future residential cable data services are expected to deliver Internet access, work-at-home applications, small business access, local area network LAN-LAN interconnect, and LAN emulation services over cable (CATV) networks     

Internet寻呼业务应用前景可观

随着Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ网络技术的发展,Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ用户和寻呼业务用户日益增多,Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ寻呼业务应运而生,Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ寻呼业务按使用方法可分为万维网寻呼和电子邮件寻呼两大类,目前提供电子邮件寻呼业务的公司较多。     

Emerging high-speed xDSL access services: architectures, issues,insights, and implications

High-speed asymmetric and symmetric digital subscriber line loop access systems, designed by numerous computer networking and telecommunications equipment companies, are currently the focus of technical trials, market trials, and commercial services deployment around the world. This is to provide millions of residential and business customers worldwide with high-speed always-on connectivity to the Internet, corporate intranets, and various online services. It is estimated that over 460 million copper loops worldwide could potentially be equipped end-to-end with xDSL access systems. Large-scale deployment of broadband access systems offering always-on connectivity to the global Internet and corporate intranets is seen as a key enabler of the bold vision articulated worldwide to utilize open Internet protocols and emerging technologies such as Java to create a unified software-defined (IP) global networking infrastructure. Such a networking platform would serve as a de facto medium for generation and delivery of integrated multimedia content, and revolutionize the way people around the world learn, do business, and interact with each other     

Broadband to the home (BTTH): architectures, access methods, andthe appetite for it

The demand for high-volume data transfer to the home for interactive multipurpose residential multimedia applications (such as tele-education, interactive on-demand entertainment, home shopping, browsing the World Wide Web to retrieve up-to-date information) and telecollaboration, including telecommuting to work, are continuously increasing. Technological advances and the 1996 Telecommunications (Deregulation) Act allow both telephone and television service providers to compete in each other's territory for providing broadband services to the home (BTTH). BTTH refers to broadband data services which may or may not use a high bandwidth link. It essentially gives the end user an impression or feeling that megabit-rate data transmission is occurring to/from the terminal, so the benefits of broadband services are enjoyed at the most convenient time within the comforts of home. It can be achieved for example, by using twisted pair copper wire telephone line using various types of digital subscriber line (xDSL) modems installed at both ends of the line. Issues and challenges of BTTH are discussed, in addition to describing future position(s) of the traditional service providers     

构建移动互联网应用基础设施——打造“开放花园”

良好的移动互联网应用基础设施,从用户接入层面可以为用户提供接入移动互联网应用的便捷通道;从业务提供的层面可以提高用户访问速度和业务质量,加强对内容资源的掌控力度,降低内容存储成本和管理开销;从业务层面可以降低业务开发门槛和运营维护成本,提升业务上线速度。文章建议国家应立足于现有网络,从战略高度推动移动互联网应用基础设施的技术研究和产业化进程。     

移动通信网络对物联网承载需求分析

文章概述了物联网的概念和演进,辨析了物联网和互联网的关系,剖析了物联网的体系构架.文章分析了移动通信网络承载物联网业务的需求,着重从接入泛在性、承载宽带化和安全性等3个方面进行了探讨,并有针对性地提出了对策或解决思路.     

中国宽带应用产业发展状况分析

宽带应用是指基于宽带互联网的增值服务。随着网络技术的发展和宽带接入的普及,我国宽带应用产业已经取得了较大发展,宽带应用产业将成为互联网产业发展的主导和趋势。宽带应用产业的发展环境良好,市场规模高速增长,一批宽带应用服务提供商的收入迅速提高,规模迅速壮大,少数企业占有大部分市场份额,产业的市场格局趋于成熟。文章分析了我国宽带用户的特征,并对宽带应用服务商如何根据用户特征制定发展策略提出了具体建议。     

互联网数据中心转型服务全业务运营研究

在3G发展的推动下,数据流量实现爆发式的增长,越来越多的互联网应用将会被移植到移动互联网上。IDC的资源需求迅速放大,为中国联通IDC发展带来新的机遇。IDC作为承载互联网内容应用的服务平台和信息化的核心枢纽,在支撑全业务运营的同时,基于传统基础接入平台拓展了丰富的网络安全、数据应用、运行维护等增值服务,逐步进入到了价值型服务的重要领域。     

Resource allocation between persistent and transient flows

The flow control algorithms currently used in the Internet have been tailored to share available capacity between users on the basis of the physical characteristics of the network links they use rather than the characteristics of their applications. However, real-time applications typically have very different requirements from file transfer or Web browsing, and treating them identically can result in a perception of poor quality of service even when adequate bandwidth is available. This is the motivation for differentiated services. In this paper, we explore service differentiation between persistent (fixed duration) and transient (fixed volume) flows, and also between transient flows of markedly different sizes; the latter is stimulated by current discussion on Web mice and elephants. We propose decentralized bandwidth allocation algorithms that can be implemented by end-systems without requiring the support of a complex network architecture, and show that they achieve performance very close to what is achievable by the optimal centralized scheme.     

WiFi: what's next?

WiFi, also known as 802.11b, has become the preferred technology for wireless local area networking in both business and home environments. Even though it was designed primarily for private applications, WiFi is also being deployed in public places to create so-called hotspots, where WiFi-capable users can obtain broadband Internet access. This new domain of application could be the major future market opportunity for WiFi, but in order to take advantage of it, several key challenges, both technical and business-related, must be overcome. We outline these challenges and discuss approaches to solutions.     

Domesticating Broadband — What Consumers Really Do with Flat-Rate, Always-On and Fast Internet Access

This paper reports analysis of a range of survey, interview and usage-log data on the level of use of broadband Internet by households in the UK and Europe. It discusses the (few) discernable differences between PSTN and broadband Internet users in mid 2001. The analysis suggests that, while there are few socio-economic and demographic differences, broadband users tend to use a wider range of applications, access them more frequently and for longer. However, because most broadband users have been, on average, users of the Internet for longer than PSTN users, these effects may be to do with their Internet competencies rather than the nature of broadband Internet itself. The paper also suggests that the interaction of speed, flat rate and always-on' is a key feature of broadband and a key value model to the user. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the usage patterns of these early adopters for current and future portal, application and service investment strategy.     

Delay constrained uplink scheduling policy for rtPS/ertPS service in IEEE 802.16e BWA systems

WiMAX is a promising broadband wireless networking technology and is expected to take the place of broadband access solutions such as DSL and cable. Owing to its superior support in mobility, it is expected to provide integrated voice and data service to realize broadband mobile computing. In order to reach better quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements for real‐time applications, the IEEE 802.16e standard defines five different services among traffic categories with different multimedia requirements. However, the problem of choosing the right set of medium access control parameters and packet scheduling policy to provide strict QoS guaranteed in IEEE 802.16e Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems remains unsolved and left as an open issue. In this paper, we propose a novel polling‐based uplink packet scheduling policy for real‐time Polling Service and extended real‐time Polling Service (rtPS/ertPS) traffic to support real‐time applications, with strict delay requirements, such as variable bit rate (VBR) traffic in IEEE 802.16e BWA systems. The proposed transmit‐permission policy can derive sufficient conditions such that all the rtPS/ertPS sources satisfy their time constraints to provide deterministic QoS guarantees. In addition to theoretical analysis, simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. As it turns out, our design provides a good quality performance in the IEEE 802.16e BWA systems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving IPTV Forwarding Mechanism in IEEE 802.16j MMR Networks Based on Aggregation

Internet protocol television (IPTV) service depends on the network quality of service (QoS) and bandwidth of the broadband service provider. IEEE 802.16j mobile multihop relay Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access networks have the opportunity to offer high bandwidth capacity by introducing relay stations. However, to actually satisfy QoS requirements for offering IPTV services (HDTV, SDTV, Web TV, and mobile TV) for heterogeneous users' requests, providers must use a video server for each IPTV service type, which increases the network load, especially bandwidth consumption and forwarding time. In this paper, we present a solution for forwarding IPTV video streaming to diverse subscribers via an 802.16j broadband wireless access network. In particular, we propose a new multicast tree construction and aggregation mechanism based on the unique property of prime numbers. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed scheme reduces both bandwidth consumption and forwarding time.