Considering the key evolutions within the access network technologies as well as the unprecedented levels of bandwidth demands by end users, this book condenses the relentless research, design, and deployment experience of state-of-the-art access networks. Furthermore, it shares the critical steps and details of the developments and deployment of these emergent technologies; which is very crucial particularly as telecommunications vendors and carriers are looking for cost-effective ultra-broadband “last-mile” access solutions to stay competitive in the “post bubble” era. The book is written to provide a comprehensive overview of the major broadband access technologies and deployments involving internationally recognized authors and key players. Due to its scope and depth, the proposed book is able to fill an important gap of today’s available literature.

Internet users and their emerging applications require high-data-rate access networks with mobility and untethered convenience. This is creating an increasing demand for wireless and optical access networks - to bring the high capacity of fiber and untethered access of wireless closer to the user. Hence, in this dissertation we explore novel architectures and algorithms for Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Network (WOBAN), an access network with the cost-effectiveness of a wireless access network and high performance of an optical backhaul network. The main topics of the dissertation are the following. 1. We propose a capacity- and delay-aware routing algorithm, called CaDAR, for WOBAN. This algorithm addresses two major challenges in WOBAN: i) it efficiently utilizes the finite radio capacity at each wireless node by intelligently allocating the capacity on each outgoing wireless link of a WOBAN, and ii) it performs shortest-delay routing across both wireless front-end and optical backhaul. 2. To improve the performance of a WOBAN, it is essential to enhance the capacity for wireless access using a low-cost solution to match the high capacity offered by the optical backhaul. We design a mixed-capacity wireless access (MCWA) architecture for WOBAN that enhances the capacity of a few wireless nodes using multiple radios to improve the overall performance of WOBAN. We also develop an intelligent channel and radio assignment (ICRA) for WOBAN that utilizes the MCWA architecture to distribute the network load over different radios and orthogonal wireless channels to reduce interference and contention in the wireless front-end. 3. Access networks are increasingly shaped by the services they provide to the users. We design a service-oriented network architecture that integrates a cloud with WOBAN, called Cloud-Integrated WOBAN (CIW). It provides cloud components in the wireless front-end of a WOBAN to handle some cloud requests locally. By bringing the cloud services closer to users, CIW offloads traffic from the wireless backhaul and improves the performance of a WOBAN. We also present a novel energy-saving routing mechanism, called Green Routing for CIW (GRC), that allows CIW to self-manage the activation of network components to minimize the overall energy consumption of CIW. 4. We also apply our knowledge obtained from the studies on the improvement of wireless backhaul in WOBAN for the enhancement of 3G and 4G backhaul. We discuss the performance bottleneck of 3G and 4G backhaul imposed by legacy copper lines and design a wireless overlay network (WON) using high-capacity point-to-point wireless links that increases the capacity of 3G and 4G backhaul, reduces the performance bottleneck, utilizes the bandwidth of deployed fibers more efficiently, and provisions backup paths during failures.

In recent years, the ever-increasing environmental friendliness concern has made energy efficiency in telecom networks as an important theme in their operations. Meanwhile, mission-critical (MC) services and systems (such as healthcare, police, and firefighting) have been acquiring special attention from telecom designers and operators. The currently deployed MC network technologies are indigent in terms of bandwidth capacity, and thus they are not able to support the emerging MC multimedia applications. Therefore in this thesis, we first explore the possibility of provisioning the MC services over the integration of fiber-wireless (FiWi) technologies, which has been considered as a promising candidate for the deployment of high-speed and mobile broadband access networks. We then investigate the energy efficiency problem in the FiWi integration, which consists of WiMAX in the wireless plane, and of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) - the most popular variant of the next-generation PON (NG-PON) technology, in the optical plane. In WiMAX, the energy saving protocol has been extensively investigated and standardized. Conversely, it has been recently studied in NG-PON, which currently consumes the least power among all the high-speed access networks. However, NG-PON has notably matured in the past few years and is envisioned to massively evolve in the near future. This trend will increase the power requirements of NG-PON and make it no longer coveted. Therefore we address the energy efficiency problem in NG-PON. For each of our contributions, we conduct extensive simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed solutions.

By the end of the decade, approximately 50 billion devices will be connected over the internet using multiple services such as online gaming, ultra-high definition videos, and 5G mobile services. The associated data traffic demand in both fixed and mobile networks is increasing dramatically, causing network operators to have to migrate the existing optical networks towards next-generation solutions. The main challenge within this development stems from network operators having difficulties finding cost-effective next-generation optical network solutions that can match future high capacity demand in terms of data, reach, and the number of subscribers to support multiple network services on a common network infrastructure. Design, Implementation, and Analysis of Next Generation Optical Networks: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that discusses the next generation of high capacity passive optical access networks (PON) in terms of design, implementation, and analysis and offers a complete reference of technology solutions for next-generation optical networks. Featuring research on topics such as artificial intelligence, electromagnetic interface, and wireless communication, this book is ideally designed for researchers, engineers, scientists, and students interested in understanding, designing, and analyzing the next generation of optical networks.

Broadband Optical Access and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) will provide the ultimate broadband service capabilities. Compared with the currently well-deployed broadband access technologies of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and Cable Modems, optical broadband access with Fiber-to-the-User’s home will cater for much higher speed access for new services. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home presents a comprehensive technical overview of key technologies and deployment strategies for optical broadband access networks and emerging new broadband services. The authors discuss network design considerations, new services, deployment trends and operational experiences, while explaining the current situation and providing insights into future broadband access technologies and services. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home: Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to new developments in broadband access network technologies and services. Examines the impact of research and development in photonics technologies on broadband access and FTTH. Covers ADSL, VDSL with FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb), Cable Modem over HFC (Hybrid-Fiber Coax) and Gigabit Ethernet. Discusses the roles of Broadband Wireless LAN and integrated FTTH/Wireless Broadband Access as well as Broadband Home Networks. Provides a global view of broadband network development, presenting different technical and system deployment approaches and strategic considerations for comparison. Gives insight into the worldwide broadband competition and the future of this technology. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home will be an invaluable resource for engineers in research and development, network planners, business managers, consultants as well as analysts and educators for a better understanding of the future of broadband in the field of telecommunications, data communications, and broadband multimedia service industries.

The evolution of broadband access networks toward bimodal fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks, described in this book, may be viewed as the endgame of broadband access. After discussing the economic impact of broadband access and current worldwide deployment statistics, all the major legacy wireline and wireless broadband access technologies are reviewed. State-of-the-art GPON and EPON fiber access networks are described, including their migration to next-generation systems such as OCDMA and OFDMA PONs. The latest developments of wireless access networks are covered, including VHT WLAN, Gigabit WiMAX, LTE and WMN. The advantages of FiWi access networks are demonstrated by applying powerful network coding, heterogeneous optical and wireless protection, hierarchical frame aggregation, hybrid routing and QoS continuity techniques across the optical-wireless interface. The book is an essential reference for anyone working on optical fiber access networks, wireless access networks or converged FiWi systems.