Ethernet - a survey on its fields of application

During the last decades, Ethernet progressively became the most widely used local area networking (LAN) technology. Apart from LAN installations, Ethernet became also attractive for many other fields of application, ranging from industry to avionics, telecommunication, and multimedia. The expanded application of this technology is mainly due to its significant assets like reduced cost, backward-compatibility, flexibility, and expandability. However, this new trend raises some problems concerning the services of the protocol and the requirements for each application. Therefore, specific adaptations prove essential to integrate this communication technology in each field of application. Our primary objective is to show how Ethernet has been enhanced to comply with the specific requirements of several application fields, particularly in transport, embedded and multimedia contexts. The paper first describes the common Ethernet LAN technology and highlights its main features. It reviews the most important specific Ethernet versions with respect to each application field’s requirements. Finally, we compare these different fields of application and we particularly focus on the fundamental concepts and the quality of service capabilities of each proposal

Plastic Optical Fiber Technology for Reliable Home Networking: Overview and Results of the EU Project POF-ALL

The rising performance of broadband connections for residential users, particularly in conjunction with fiber to the home, will present a new challenge for telecom operators in the short and medium terms: how to deliver the high bit rate digital signals with high quality-of-service to all consumer devices scattered inside the building of final users? Among the many different solutions for the home network, we review in this article the use of polymer optical fibers for short-reach and high-capacity optical communications for residential customer premises. POF is an easy-to-install, low-cost, and eye-safe solution for these networks, with the potential of being future-proof. In this article the state of the art in POF technology is presented by summarizing significant results achieved in the European project POF-ALL. Data transmission rates of more than 1 Gb/s over 50+ m and 100 Mb/s over 200+ m of standard step-index POF have been show

Convergence: the next big step

Recently, web based multimedia services have gained popularity and have proven themselves to be viable means of communication. This has inspired the telecommunication service providers and network operators to reinvent themselves to try and provide value added IP centric services. There was need for a system which would allow new services to be introduced rapidly with reduced capital expense (CAPEX) and operational expense (OPEX) through increased efficiency in network utilization. Various organizations and standardization agencies have been working together to establish such a system. Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a result of these efforts. IMS is an application level system. It is being developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) in collaboration with IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector), and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) etc. Initially, the main aim of IMS was to bring together the internet and the cellular world, but it has extended to include traditional wire line telecommunication systems as well. It utilizes existing internet protocols such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting protocol), and COPS (Common Open Policy Service) etc, and modifies them to meet the stringent requirements of reliable, real time communication systems. The advantages of IMS include easy service quality management (QoS), mobility management, service control and integration. At present a lot of attention is being paid to providing bundled up services in the home environment. Service providers have been successful in providing traditional telephony, high speed internet and cable services in a single package. But there is very little integration among these services. IMS can provide a way to integrate them as well as extend the possibility of various other services to be added to allow increased automation in the home environment. This thesis extends the concept of IMS to provide convergence and facilitate internetworking of the various bundled services available in the home environment; this may include but is not limited to communications (wired and wireless), entertainment, security etc. In this thesis, I present a converged home environment which has a number of elements providing a variety of communication and entertainment services. The proposed network would allow effective interworking of these elements, based on IMS architecture. My aim is to depict the possible advantages of using IMS to provide convergence, automation and integration at the residential level

Redes de próxima geração: uma visão funcional

Show a description of the convergence technologies, that if it initiated with the net of traditional telephony commuted by circuit, where served of base for the first convergent services. It is intended, also, to explain as it is the current scene of the Nets of Next Generation with reference the evolution to the nets, the convergence, the compatibility of the broadband versus mobility, in view of that the user is "a devorador" potential of width of band, for in such a way, the technological convergence will give itself through xTecnologias on IP, this monograph will show to aspects of the IPv6 protocol with regard to its perationalization and addressing. E still topical of the application of Open Architecture of Services since the operators study a form to open its "doors" for the suppliers, making partnerships with intention to increase the use of its resources. The user will present aspects of the implementation of an intelligent environment where does not go to be worried about the sophisticated devices of interconnection and the some types of nets. This work, also, intends to mostar some excellent topics that must be weighed for the diverse segments of the companies of telecommunications as: the necessities from final users, of the suppliers of services and the suppliers of nets. The following pages will present, still, considerações regarding suppliers and services with regard to profiles of users, models of business and terminals of access, as well as, aspects with relation to the technology of physical access, mobile access and fixed access wireless, and also, excellent topics on the Y.2001 Recommendation, that offers a general vision on net NGN, according to ITU-T. It intends to present excellent topics between the NGN and the X.200 recommendation, that if it relates to the Basic Model of Reference - OSI. E, considerações regarding service finally multimedia to be fit by net NGN, as well as, of the interoperabilidade between environments NGN and not NGN regarding the quality of service and a conclusion regarding that it was presented.Demonstra um histórico das tecnologias de convergência, que se iniciou com a rede de telefonia tradicional comutada por circuito, onde serviu de base para os primeiros serviços convergentes. Pretende-se, também, explicar como está o cenário atual das Redes de Próxima Geração com referência a evolução das redes, a convergência, a compatibilidade da banda passante versus mobilidade, tendo em vista que o usuário é um potencial “devorador” de largura de banda, para tanto, a convergência tecnológica se dará através de xTecnologias sobre IP, esta monografia mostrará aspectos do protocolo IPv6 com relação a sua operacionalidade e endereçamento. E ainda tópicos da aplicação de Arquitetura Aberta de Serviços já que as operadoras estudam uma forma de abrir suas “portas” para os provedores, fazendo parcerias com o intuito de aumentar a utilização de seus recursos. Apresentará aspectos da implementação de um ambiente inteligente aonde o usuário não vai se preocupar com os sofisticados dispositivos de interconexão e os vários tipos de redes. Este trabalho, também, pretende mostrar alguns tópicos relevantes que devem ser ponderados pelos diversos segmentos das empresas de telecomunicações como: as necessidades a partir de usuários finais, dos provedores de serviços e dos provedores de redes. As páginas seguintes apresentarão, ainda, considerações a respeito de provedores e serviços com relação a perfis de usuários, modelos de negócio e terminais de acesso, bem como, aspectos com relação à tecnologia de acesso físico, acesso móvel e acesso wireless fixo, e também, tópicos relevantes sobre a Recomendação Y.2001, que oferece uma visão geral sobre a rede NGN, segundo a ITUT. Pretende apresentar tópicos relevantes entre a NGN e a recomendação X.200, que se refere ao Modelo de Referência Básico - OSI. E por fim, considerações a respeito de serviço multimídia a ser enquadrado pela rede NGN, bem como, da interoperabilidade entre ambientes NGN e não NGN a respeito da qualidade de serviço e uma conclusão a respeito do que foi apresentado

Rural internet connectivity: a development in Dwesa-Cwebe, Eastern Cape, South Africa

This thesis presents aspects of Internet connectivity in rural South Africa. The work looks at government initiatives being undertaken to connect rural communities to up-to-date information networks. Various projects that seek to connect rural areas of South Africa, as well as other remote areas around the world, are discussed. These projects present many novel ideas that have been successfully used to link rural communities in remote areas with the information age. In particular, wired and wireless access technologies that can be implemented to connect remote communities to the Internet are discussed. A field test utilizing GPRS, VSAT and WiMAX was implemented in Dwesa-Cwebe, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. VSAT proved to offer better Internet connectivity in terms of throughput and latency. WiMAX was then successfully implemented to relay the signal over the remote area of Dwesa-Cwebe, thus effectively providing Internet connectivity to an area with limited cell phone coverage and no telephone lines