A cost model for broadband access networks: FTTx versus WiMAX

Local communities and governments are taking various steps to fight the so-called "digital divide" between well served urban communities and undeserved areas. In order to make broadband access available to these under served areas, several technical solutions are available with the capacity to provide high speed Internet access, video, telephony services, etc. This paper presents a cost-model and a tool for the evaluation of broadband access technologies (xDSL, HFC, FTTx, WiMAX, PLC and satellite), and compares two technologies: FTTx and WiMAX. Our tool compares these different access technologies in different scenarios, and examining the capital expense and deployment of building access networks with the same requisite performance using each technology. The cost model is limited to the access part of the network. The results obtained by our evaluation tool give the possibility to compare several BB access technologies, and support the decision about which is the better technological solution for a given scenario

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

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Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The changes to Section 508 of the 1998 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act were designed to strengthen current law to ensure that people with disabilities will have equity in the use o

Britain's first computer centre for banking: What did this building do?

At the beginning of the 1960s Barclays became the first British bank to open a computer centre. In this paper I trace the life of this building starting with its official opening on 4 July 1961 and ending with its protracted closure a decade later. From initial status as the most advanced bank bookkeeping system in the world serving as a highly visible symbol of the bank's technological power, to a final repurposing of its grandiose reception as a distribution point for pre- and post-decimalisation output, the building's various meanings are revealed. Making use of written, oral, and visual sources I explore the centre's spatial characteristics, its relation to the distributed structure of the branch, and its place as a first dedicated working home for a newly emerging computing subculture. A blend of multiple perspectives internally from the top down and bottom up, and externally from customer and competitor, offer an analysis that uncovers the part played by the first computer centre place in the banking automation race

Raising sector skills levels : how responsive is local training supply?

This UK study examines the extent and nature of any mismatches between the training requirements of employers and the local provision of vocational education and training (VET). Companies in selected sectors (maintenance and repair of motor vehicles; telecommunications services; mechanical engineering, vehicles and other engineering; and textiles, clothing and footwear manufacture) and regions were surveyed on their training requirements. Staff in colleges and training providers in the same regions were interviewed to discuss the survey findings and to investigate the extent to which these providers are already satisfying those requirements and the nature of any constraints which may be present