Broadband networks, such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, and leased lines, allow us to easily access multimedia services (data, voice, and video) in one package. Exploring why broadband networks are important in modern-day telecommunications, Introduction to Broadband Communication Systems covers the concepts and components of bot

New Services such as for Internet data and multimedia applications, have caused a fast growing demand for broadband communications. The fundamental technologies for the integration of these services have been developed in the last decade: optical communications, photonic switching, high speed local area networks, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), ISDN and B-ISDN, Internet packet networks and mobile communications. The development was possible through the dynamic progress in communication and computer technologies and through worldwide standardization activities within ITU-T, the ATM Forum, the IETF, IEEE, ANSI, ETSI and other bodies. These developments have been supported by research and field trial programmes. Past developments, such as about LAN, Internet or ISDN networking technologies, have shown that it needs a time span of 10 years for a new technology from its research stage to its full application. Broadband Communications is just at its onset for full deployment. It will have a dramatic effect not only on the networking situation but on the whole development of information technology throughout our social and economic life, which is expressed by the conference theme ,The Future of Telecommunications". The Broadband Communications conference series of IFIP WG 6. 2 addresses the fundamental technical and theoretical problems related with these technologies. BC '98 is the fourth meeting in a series on conferences being held in Stuttgart, Germany. The previous confernces were held in Estoril, Portugal, in 1992, in Paris, France, in 1994, and in Montreal, Canada, in 1996.

Broadband communications is widely recognized as one of the key technologies for building the next generation global network infrastructure to support ever-increasing multimedia applications. This book contains a collection of timely leading-edge research papers that address some of the important issues of providing such a broadband network infrastructure. Broadband Communications represents the selected proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Broadband Communications, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Hong Kong in November 1999. The book is organized according to the eighteen technical sessions of the conference. The topics covered include internet services, traffic modeling, internet traffic control, performance evaluation, billing, pricing, admission policy, mobile network protocols, TCP/IP performance, mobile network performance, bandwidth allocation, switching systems, traffic flow control, routing, congestion and admission control, multicast protocols, network management, and quality of service. It will serve as an essential reference for computer scientists and practitioners.

The pioneers of Flash-OFDM present OFDMA from first principles, enabling readers to apply theory to practice and understand mobile broadband.

A scientific overview of current and future satellite systems for mobile and broadband communications. In part I, the fundamentals of geostationary and non-geostationary satellite constellations and the related questions of communications technology are treated. Part II deals with satellite systems for mobile communications and treats several network features as well as their technology, regulation and financing. Part III is devoted to future satellite systems for broadband communications and explains the specialities of satellite communications, particularly on the basis of ATM and TCP/IP. An extensive survey on operating and planned satellite systems completes the book.

After broadband access, what next? What role do metrics play in understanding “information societies”? And, more important, in shaping their policies? Beyond counting people with broadband access, how can economic and social metrics inform broadband policies, help evaluate their outcomes, and create useful models for achieving national goals? This timely volume not only examines the traditional questions about broadband, like availability and access, but also explores and evaluates new metrics more applicable to the evolving technologies of information access. Beyond Broadband Access brings together a stellar array of media policy scholars from a wide range of disciplines—economics, law, policy studies, computer science, information science, and communications studies. Importantly, it provides a well-rounded, international perspective on theoretical approaches to databased communications policymaking in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Showcasing a diversity of approaches, this invaluable collection helps to meet myriad challenges to improving the foundations for communications policy development.

Broadband Satellite Communications for Internet Access is a systems engineering methodology for satellite communication networks. It discusses the implementation of Internet applications that involve network design issues usually addressed in standard organizations. Various protocols for IP- and ATM-based networks are examined and a comparative performance evaluation of different alternatives is described. This methodology can be applied to similar evaluations over any other transport medium.