Robert Shaw: Broadband

Enter the MAN (802.16a) Haters

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 22:27:14 GMT

Enter the MAN Haters. Interesting different perspective on the 802.16a standard. Obviously much more here than meets the eye. [Unstrung]

Tutorials on OFDM

Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:25:07 GMT

802.11 Planet as a couple of tutorials on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: OFDM: Old Technology for New Markets and OFDM's New Uses.

WIMAX Forum

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 13:59:52 GMT

The purpose of the WiMAX Forum is to promote deployment of broadband wireless access networks by using a global standard and certifying interoperability of products and technologies. This includes:

Support IEEE 802.16 standard
Propose and promote access profiles for ther IEEE 802.16 standard
Certify interoperability levels both in network and the cell
Achieve global acceptance
Promote use of broadband wireless access overall

Also see this related article at 802.11 Planet.

Hong Kong's Broadband Portals

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 11:06:08 GMT

Hong Kong, China has the second highest broadband penetration in the world as described in this ITU report (PDF). Hong Kong's two main broadband portals (www.now.com.hk and www.i-cable.com) allow you to purchase and stream movies online.

Daum: Korea's Top Web Portal

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:11:32 GMT

The Republic of Korea has the highest broadband penetration in the world (see page 6 of this recent report issued by ITU (PDF)). The corresponding ITU country case study discusses Daum, Korea’s top portal web site. Some 90 per cent of all Korean Internet users log onto Daum. Around 450 million pages of Daum’s content is viewed on an average day ranking it as one of the top Intenet portals in both pages per user and session time in the world.

Promoting Broadband Networks

Mon, 07 Apr 2003 10:55:36 GMT

The ITU is hosting a workshop this week on the different strategies used by ITU Member States, at both local and national levels, for promoting the deployment and use of broadband networks. The key research question is why some economies have been more successful than others and whether this success can be replicated. In preparation for the workshop, the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit has now posted its workshop background paper (PDF, Word) as well as Country Case Studies for Canada (PDF, Word), Iceland (PDF, Word), Japan (PDF. Word), Republic of Korea (PDF) and Hong Kong, China (PDF).

ITU-T H.264: Superior Video Codec Coming

Fri, 04 Apr 2003 12:17:45 GMT

At the next meeting of ITU-T Study Group 16, an important high-performance video encoding/decoding standard is likely to be approved, entitled Recommendation H.264, "Advanced Video Coding for Generic Audiovisual Services". H.264 is the result of work by the Joint Video Team (JVT) which combined the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). This article in vnunet.com discusses a possible application of the emerging standard, which includes videoconferencing, digital storage media, television broadcasting, and Internet streaming (also see this earlier vnunet.com article and CNET article. H.264 can deliver the same quality as MPEG-2 (e.g. used in DVD players) but with much less bandwidth.

EarthLink and Vonage to Partner for US National VOIP Service

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 15:38:34 GMT

New Telephony is reporting that EarthLink and Vonage are going to partner to provide US national VOIP service.

Dog Food Cans Boost Broadband

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 15:02:55 GMT

A businessman in Derbyshire has come up with a low-tech solution to a hi-tech problem: using dog food cans to connect his home through the airwaves to the internet. [BBC News] Perhaps he got the idea from reading QPootle5 to his children.

Sony uses Grid Computing for Online Gaming

Thu, 27 Feb 2003 09:46:00 GMT

Sony Is Venturing Into Online Games for Multitudes: "Grid computing, a concept that originated in supercomputing centers, is taking a step toward the mainstream: Sony will announce today that it will use the technology to accelerate its push into the emerging market for online games with thousands of players at a time." [New York Times: Technology]

New rules in EU aimed at telecom competition

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 14:07:51 GMT

[IHT] The European Commission issued rules Wednesday that will force national regulators from the 15 Union countries to give extra scrutiny to competition involving new communications technologies.

More on Wireless Mesh Networks

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 10:07:03 GMT

Mesh Less Cost of Wireless: A group of wireless enthusiasts provide a town in western England with Internet access at a fraction of the usual cost. They use a device that supplies hundreds of users with broadband piped from a single connection. [Wired News]

Designing Next Generation Telecom Regulation

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 14:11:35 GMT

The World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR) have released their final report (PDF) on their 2002 dialogue theme: Designing Next Generation Telecom Regulation: ICT Convergence or Multisector Utility? (PDF). The report thoughtfully examines various alternatives being considered for next generation telecom regulation.

"It is apparent that national telecom policy and regulation – both the regulations and the regulators – will play a major role in implementing structural reforms. The distinctive network and public interest characteristics of the information infrastructure will require a continuing proactive role for regulation if network development objectives are to be met, and the foundations prepared for the next generation Internet services that will support new network economies (Melody 1999). What is unclear at the moment is how direct regulation by independent regulators can best facilitate the achievement of these objectives. Should industry specific telecom regulators be redesigned as convergence regulators so they can more comprehensively and systematically address the full range of next generation Internet issues? Or should they be redesigned as multisector utility regulators so they can leverage synergies across infrastructures to promote the most rapid information infrastructure network roll-out?"
"ICT convergence that is upgrading the capacity and capabilities of telecom networks to information infrastructures raises many issues that next generation policy and regulation in all countries must address. They cannot be avoided. Although the scope of regulation may vary among countries, and all responsibilities for regulation – e.g., electronic commerce, information security, consumer protection – need not be assigned to the telecom regulator, it is important that the specific role for telecom regulation in helping to manage the information infrastructure for the network economy be clearly defined, especially as many of these issues will require regional and international coordination."

In 2003, WDR's dialgoue theme will be Stimulating Investment in Network Development.

ITU brings Gigabit to your doorstep: all optical networks a step closer

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:50:38 GMT

ITU Press Release: Two new standards from ITU will allow service-providers to offer a raft of new services. In its capacity as world leader in optical network standards, ITU has agreed today on protocols for Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (G-PONs) that are a further step towards all-optical networks. The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector lead study group on optical technology is ITU-T Study Group 15.

Wireless Broadband, IEEE 802.16a & Mesh Networks

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:37:20 GMT

The IEEE has just announced it has approved the 802.16a extension to the 802.16 broadband wireless access (BWA) standard. See Roger Marks' tutorial on 802.16 (Zipped PowerPoint) to understand why this is important for providing broadband wireless access. 802.16a provides improved support for mesh networks, where each subscriber access point is also part of the routing infrastructure. For a general overview of the growing interest in non-line-of-sight wireless broadband systems, see the IEEE's Spectrum article: Wireless Broadband in a Box. For a more in-depth technical explanation with regard to mesh networks, see Dave Beyer's recent (November 2002) presentation on Wireless Mesh Networks for Residential Broadband (PDF), demonstrating some extremely important characteristics of mesh networks, namely:

mesh coverage and robustness improves exponentially as subscribers are added;
rapid area coverage with only a few subscribers (easy to seed);
increasing subscriber density increases overall network capacity.

Some earlier articles here on mesh networks can be found in "Cheap Wireless Mesh Networks", "Watch this airspace and parasitic networks" and "Seeding Mesh Networks".

Korean Center for Internet Addiction Prevention and Counselling

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 10:10:10 GMT

In Korea, the country with the highest broadband penetration in the world, it is perhaps easier than elsewhere to become addicted to using the Internet. "Therefore the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) establish the Center for Internet Addiction Prevention and Counselling (CIPC) in order to correct the Internet misuse and to help Internet addicts.

Cheap Wireless Mesh Networks

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 11:08:36 GMT

Guy Kewney's Mobile Campaign has a fascinating article on Locustworld's affordable wireless mesh network solution, Meshbox. LinuxDevices.com has a primer explaining the MeshBox - a Linux-powered wireless mesh repeater by Jon Anderson, its creator. As Guy Kewney's article notes: "However, there are going to be some controversial areas in the Locustworld experiment. The cheekiest move was the setting up of an IP address numbering authority, WIANA, or The Wireless Internet Assigned Numbers Authority." Also see my earlier articles on wireless mesh/parasitic/symbiotic networks in Watch this airspace and parasitic networks and Seeding Mesh Networks.

Wi-Fi in the Sky!

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 14:30:43 GMT

In a follow-up to my earlier piece, it's finally available: Lufthansa is now offering onboard wireless broadband service on scheduled flights. They've started with the popular Frankfurt - Washington D.C. (Dulles) run. Lufthansa's press release announcing the service is here.

Broadband Portals

Mon, 23 Dec 2002 13:12:55 GMT

Countries with high broadband penetration are seeing the development of specialized portals devoted to broadband service delivery (e.g. streaming TV, pay per view video). A good example is Hong Kong's now.com.hk.

ITU-T Approves J.122 relating to Broadband IP Services over Cable Networks

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 08:51:18 GMT

The ITU-T has announced (Word) the approval of ITU-T Recommendation J.122 (Second Generation Transmission Systems for Interactive Cable Television Services – IP Cable Modems). From the prepublished Recommendation J.122: "As cable operators have widely deployed high-speed data services on cable television systems, the demand for upstream bandwidth has increased, particularly with the popularity of more symmetric data applications. The current Recommendation has been created for the purpose of increasing channel capacity and improving noise immunity. The intended service will allow transparent bidirectional transfer of Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, between the cable system headend and customer locations, over an all-coaxial or hybrid-fibre/coax (HFC) cable network." Cablelabs has issued an associated press release:

"The new standard can be used as the foundation upon which IPCablecom IP-communication/telephony services can be offered. The standardization is remarkable due to the fact that work on the specification began less than 18 months ago. The rapid standardization is important to promoting worldwide adoption of this important technology."

CommsDesign also has a related piece.

Internet Metering, Measurement and IPDR

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 09:24:02 GMT

"Sender-keeps-all" or "bill-and-keep" accounting mechanisms are simple accounting schemes common in the deployment of new telecommunication technologies. However, in asymmetric traffic environments or where highly diversified service offerings emerge (e.g. those requiring guaranteed bandwidth), these models tend to shift to revenue sharing mechanisms among operators and/or content providers. In some cases, this can lead to new market dynamics. One example is the success of NTT Docomo's i-mode service, which some argue is mostly related to its billing gateway technology, permitting revenue sharing and encouraging the growth of new external content providers.

Many previously "free" Internet services are shifting to subscription or metered-based schemes and there's a lot of standards activity underway focused on charging, accounting and cross-operator settlement schemes for IP-based networks. In the public switched telephone network (PSTN) world, which is focused on a single service, voice, accounting mechanisms are primarily built around call detail records (CDRs). In the IP-based world, the service offerings can be much wider (voice, email, web, streaming access), so the challenge has been to develop a more flexible format that can capture the relevant metrics for a wide range of service classes. An interesting development is the Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR).

ITU-T Study Group 3, who deal with tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues, are currently meeting at the ITU. At this meeting, the Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR), has given an interesting presentation (PDF) on its latest activities, particularly with regard to the emerging Network Data Management Usage (NDM-U) specification. This is a development to keep an eye on in the future.

ADSL Next Generation Advances at the ITU

Fri, 06 Dec 2002 09:52:47 GMT

ISP Planet has an article on the standardization work being done in ITU-T Study Group 15 on the next generation of ADSL standards (ITU calls them "Recommendations"). SG15 is the ITU-T's lead study group on access network transport and optical technology. These new SG15 recommendations are being approved under the ITU-T's fast-track approval process (AAP). Here are the Recommendations under AAP last call from from the last meeting.

ITU Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators Report

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 09:20:41 GMT

Coinciding with ITU TELECOM Asia 2002, the ITU has published its 5th edition of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Indicators. A presentation (PDF) with highlights and extracts is available as is a related summary of the report. The report demonstrates the Asia-Pacific region has now become the world's largest telecom market. Asia-Pacific also leads in advanced Internet technologies such as broadband access and mobile data. The Republic of Korea and Hong Kong, China, are the top two economies in the world in terms of broadband Internet penetration. In mobile Internet, Japan and the Republic of Korea were the first two nations to launch third generation cellular networks commercially. The region also has the largest percentage of Internet users. These exploits corroborate the view that the global telecommunications epicentre is shifting from North America and Western Europe to the Asia-Pacific region. Also see the related ITU Press Release.

ITU-T Workshop on IP & Optical Networks

Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:58:31 GMT

The ITU-T is organizing a workshop on IP and Optical networks in Chitose, Japan from 9-11 July 2002. Participation is open to non ITU-T members. The relevant ITU-T Study Groups (SG13 and SG15) have made available their respective general work plans for IP networks (Word, PDF) and Optical Transport Networks.

Quantum Entanglement and Communications

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 06:37:45 GMT

The Australian has news about advances in quantum teleportation at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Using a process known as quantum entanglement, the researchers have disassembled a laser at one end of an optical communications system and recreated a replica a metre away. "The applications of teleportation for computers and communications over the next decade are very exciting" says physicist Ping Koy Lam, leader of the project. Some web pages at ANU explain some of the background on quantum teleportation.