Next generation broadband communications

Summary form only given. With proliferation of multimedia applications and broadband connectivity increasingly available and affordable, demands for more advanced broadband equipment and services have accelerated dramatically in recent years. In this presentation, worldwide communications market trends and growth areas as well as bottlenecks of existing broadband infrastructure are first highlighted. It´s then followed by closer looks into various emerging technologies to support broadband communications from metropolitan areas to residential homes. Evolved from opposite ends of the technology spectrum, NG-SDH/SONET and metro Ethernet are two prevalent solutions to efficiently carry multi-service traffic in the metropolitan area networks. In the access network, a variety of different technologies covering fiber access (e.g., FTTx/xPON), wireless (e.g., WiMax) and hybrid solutions are next discussed. At customer premises, technologies utilizing phone line, power line, wireless and Ethernet as well as industry standards to facilitate home networking are also examined. In the end, ongoing R&D work in broadband communications at CCL/ITRI is briefly mentioned.