Sustainable green broadband solutions for bridging the digital divide in Africa: A technical survey of feasible and affordable broadband solutions for rural Africa

The opportunities for green communications in Africa are many. In a consortium of academics and researchers from UK and African Universities, the authors diligently take advantage of the abundant sun, and natural African environment to present potential, practical and feasible green solutions to enable rural communications in Africa. This will empower both urban and rural communities to access affordable unlimited broadband services and applications. This research study contributes significantly to bridging the `digital divide' while reducing the carbon footprint (CO2 emissions) by the communications sector as a whole. Through appropriate understanding of broadband access technologies, energy requirements, carbon footprint, current demand and projected growth in the target areas, this research establishes a match for these requirements. Studies reveal the ability of the maturing solar power technology to meet this need and demand in Africa. Further still, this research compares power consumption of current optical broadband access network technologies. This enables us to design off-the-shelf affordable broadband access solutions to address this gap. One further great challenge to be addressed by this research is enabling communication infrastructural presence in communities without electricity, which is a common phenomenon in many areas in Sub Saharan Africa

Optical frequency comb technology for ultra-broadband radio-frequency photonics

The outstanding phase-noise performance of optical frequency combs has led to a revolution in optical synthesis and metrology, covering a myriad of applications, from molecular spectroscopy to laser ranging and optical communications. However, the ideal characteristics of an optical frequency comb are application dependent. In this review, the different techniques for the generation and processing of high-repetition-rate (>10 GHz) optical frequency combs with technologies compatible with optical communication equipment are covered. Particular emphasis is put on the benefits and prospects of this technology in the general field of radio-frequency photonics, including applications in high-performance microwave photonic filtering, ultra-broadband coherent communications, and radio-frequency arbitrary waveform generation.Comment: to appear in Laser and Photonics Review

Suggestions and recommendations for fulfillment and implementation of the project for Broadband internet in Macedonia

Nowadays, broadband is defined on the basis of a number of parameters that can be offered through existing electronic communications networks (fixed or mobile networks) and the construction of some next generation of advanced electronic communications networks. This is extremely important for the quality of the received service, because with the existence of a quality electronic communication network, you will distribute a quality and fast data transfer to the end users, some of whom actually want it. Optical cable, among other types of cables, using the Operator and the access method known as fiber to the home , has a very good advantage for the end user, who uses the required service. On the other hand, wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and GSM / GPRS / UMTS / HSDPA, 4G and 5G are also new ways to access the Internet. This electronic communication infrastructure owned by a Public Operator for Electronic Communications Services (eg optical network or wireless 4G or 5G network) would be able to provide to the users significantly higher speed and security in data transmission, consistency at speeds, reduced error rates of real-time applications (video streaming, video communication, etc.). This paper provides suggestions and recommendations for fulfilling and implementing the broadband projest. It clarifies in which segments corrections should be made in the regulatory acts, with legal and by the laws. The real situation in the part of the broadband internet in our state is summarized in which direction the goals for improvement and fulfillment of the functioning of the broadband internet should move in the future

Future broadband access network challenges

Copyright @ 2010 IEEEThe optical and wireless communication systems convergence will activate the potential capacity of photonic technology for providing the expected growth in interactive video, voice communication and data traffic services that are cost effective and a green communication service. The last decade growth of the broadband internet projects the number of active users will grow to over 2 billion globally by the end of 2014. Enabling the abandoned capacity of photonic signal processing is the promising solution for seamless transportation of the future consumer traffic demand. In this paper, the future traffic growth of the internet, wireless worldwide subscribers, and the end-users during the last and next decades is investigated. The challenges of the traditional access networks and Radio over Fiber solution are presented

40 Gbps Access for Metro networks: Implications in terms of Sustainability and Innovation from an LCA Perspective

In this work, the implications of new technologies, more specifically the new optical FTTH technologies, are studied both from the functional and non-functional perspectives. In particular, some direct impacts are listed in the form of abandoning non-functional technologies, such as micro-registration, which would be implicitly required for having a functioning operation before arrival the new high-bandwidth access technologies. It is shown that such abandonment of non-functional best practices, which are mainly at the management level of ICT, immediately results in additional consumption and environmental footprint, and also there is a chance that some other new innovations might be 'missed.' Therefore, unconstrained deployment of these access technologies is not aligned with a possible sustainable ICT picture, except if they are regulated. An approach to pricing the best practices, including both functional and non-functional technologies, is proposed in order to develop a regulation and policy framework for a sustainable broadband access.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Tables, 1 Figure. Accepted to be presented at the ICT4S'15 Conferenc