TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2008

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

High-Speed Communications Over Polymer Optical Fibers for In-Building Cabling and Home Networking

This paper focuses on high-speed cabling using polymer optical fibers (POF) in home networking. In particular, we report about the results obtained in the POF-ALL European Project, which is relevant to the Sixth Framework Program, and after two years of the European Project POF-PLUS, which is relevant to the Seventh Framework Program, focusing on their research activities about the use of poly-metyl-metha-acrilate step-index optical fibers for home applications. In particular, for that which concerns POF-ALL, we will describe eight-level pulse amplitude modulation (8-PAM) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) approaches for 100-Mb/s transmission over a target distance of 300 m, while for that which concerns POF-PLUS, we will describe a fully digital and a mixed analog-digital solution, both based on intensity modulation direct detection, for transmitting 1 Gb/s over a target distance of 50 m. The ultimate experimental results from the POF-ALL project will be given, while for POF-PLUS, which is still ongoing, we will only show our most recent preliminary results

TechNews digests: Jan - Mar 2010

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2009

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

Beyond Infrastructure: Broadband for Development in Remote and Indigenous Regions

Recent telecommunications stimulus projects in the U.S. and Canada were intended to increase availability of broadband through funding infrastructure investments, largely in rural and remote regions. However, true access involves more than availability; it also includes affordability and adoption. This paper presents a framework for analyzing broadband adoption that takes into consideration geographical, economic and cultural environments in indigenous communities. It includes an overview of potential social and economic impacts of broadband in remote areas, using examples from the Alaska study and the Canadian North. It then reports on results of an evaluation of Internet use and potential adoption of broadband in remote indigenous communities of southwest Alaska. Finally, the paper provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and Canadian policies intended to achieve affordable access to broadband for rural users and sustainable business models for rural broadband providers.Ye