An inside look at high-speed access written for the cable industry Cable modems have emerged as a leading consumer choice for high-speed Internet access, outpacing alternatives such as digital subscriber lines, but not without raising issues about quality of service and controversy about open access. Providing an objective review of residential broadband and cable television networking, this book will be of great use for professionals who are integrating cable into their networks or service offerings. The authors compare cable access systems to competing technologies and discuss the increasingly difficult issues confronting each. Readers will also find coverage of the hottest areas in the field including high-speed data and packet voice standards, managing the "always-on" connection, and security and privacy risks.

Access to the Internet is an increasing problem in many areas of the world. As the popularity and usefulness of the Internet increases on a daily basis, lack of access to the technology is putting many groups at a disadvantage in terms of better education, better jobs and even in terms of higher levels of civic participation. However, creating a network infrastructure to serve outlying communities and sectors of the population is not straight-forward. This book brings together all the aspects of the problem – technical, regulatory and economic - into one volume to provide a comprehensive resource. It describes the latest technological advances that allow cost-effective network infrastructures to be built, and places them in the context of the applications and services that the infrastructure will deliver. A section on business models and case studies from North American and Europe demonstrate that the solutions are economically and practically viable. This book is essential for anyone looking to gain an understanding of the issues and technology surrounding the access debate. It will be of particular relevance to network engineers/designers/planners at the incumbent operator companies charged with delivering broadband access to as yet unconnected regions. Governments and regulatory bodies will also find this a useful guide to the problems that they may face.

Broadband Last Mile: Access Technologies for Multimedia Communications provides in-depth treatments of access technologies and the applications that rely upon them or support them. It examines innovations and enhancements along multiple dimensions in access, with the overarching goal of ensuring that the last mile is not the weak link in the broadband chain. Written by experts from the academic and commercial segments of the field, the book's self-contained sections address topics related to the disciplines of communications, networking, computing, and signal processing. The core of this treatment contains contemporary reviews of broadband pipes in the classes of copper, cable, fiber, wireless, and satellite. It emphasizes the coexistence of these classes within a network, the importance of optical communications for unprecedented bandwidth, and the flexibility and mobility provided by wireless. The book also includes perspective on the increasingly important topic of network management, providing insights that are true regardless of the nature of the pipe. The text concludes with a discussion of newly emerging applications and broadband services. This book offers an all-in-one treatment of the physical pipes and network architectures that make rich and increasingly personalized applications possible. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working in the increasingly pervasive field of broadband.

Nowadays, the Internet plays a vital role in our lives. It is currently one of the most effective media that is shifting to reach into all areas in today's society. While we move into the next decade, the future of many emerging technologies (IoT, cloud solutions, automation and AI, big data, 5G and mobile technologies, smart cities, etc.) is highly dependent on Internet connectivity and broadband communications. The demand for mobile and faster Internet connectivity is on the rise as the voice, video, and data continue to converge to speed up business operations and to improve every aspect of human life. As a result, the broadband communication networks that connect everything on the Internet are now considered a complete ecosystem routing all Internet traffic and delivering Internet data faster and more flexibly than ever before. This book gives an insight into the latest research and practical aspects of the broadband communication networks in support of many emerging paradigms/applications of global Internet from the traditional architecture to the incorporation of smart applications. This book includes a preface and introduction by the editors, followed by 20 chapters written by leading international researchers, arranged in three parts. This book is recommended for researchers and professionals in the field and may be used as a reference book on broadband communication networks as well as on practical uses of wired/wireless broadband communications. It is also a concise guide for students and readers interested in studying Internet connectivity, mobile/optical broadband networks and concepts/applications of telecommunications engineering.