Broadband Access: Wireline and Wireless - Alternatives for Internet Services

Written by experts in the field, this book provides an overview of all forms of broadband subscriber access networks and technology, including fiber optics, DSL for phone lines, DOCSIS for coax, power line carrier, and wireless. Each technology is described in depth, with a discussion of key concepts, historical development, and industry standards. The book contains comprehensive coverage of all broadband access technologies, with a section each devoted to fiber-based technologies, non-fiber wired technologies, and wireless technologies. The four co-authors’ breadth of knowledge is featured in the chapters comparing the relative strengths, weaknesses, and prognosis for the competing technologies.

Key Features:

• Covers the physical and medium access layers (OSI Layer 1 and 2), with emphasis on access transmission technology
• Compares and contrasts all recent and emerging wired and wireless standards for broadband access in a single reference
• Illustrates the technology that is currently being deployed by network providers, and also the technology that has recently been or will soon be standardized for deployment in the coming years, including vectoring, wavelength division multiple access, CDMA, OFDMA, and MIMO
• Contains detailed discussion on the following standards: 10G-EPON, G-PON, XG-PON, VDSL2, DOCSIS 3.0, DOCSIS Protocol over EPON, power line carrier, IEEE 802.11 WLAN/WiFi, UMTS/HSPA, LTE, and LTE-Advanced

About the Authors

Steve Gorshe is a Distinguished Engineer in the CTO organization of PMC-Sierra, Inc., where his work since 2000 has included technology development and telecommunications standards. He received his BSEE from the University of Idaho (1980) and both his MSEE (1982) and PhD (2002) degrees from Oregon State University. Since 1983, he has worked in product development, applied research, and systems architecture of telecommunications access and transport systems. His standards activity includes over 300 contributions across six standards bodies, serving as technical editor for nine North American and international standards, and currently serving as Associate Rapporteur for the Q11 group of ITU-T Study Group 15.

Steve is a Fellow of the IEEE. His IEEE activities include Communications Magazine Editor-in-Chief (2010–2012), Associate Editor-in-Chief (2006–2009), and Broadband Access Series co-editor (1999–2006). He has also served as the IEEE Communications Society Director of Magazines and Chair of the Transmission, Access and Optical Systems Technical Committee.

Steve has 37 patents issued or pending, over 24 published papers, and is co-author of two textbooks and co-author of chapters in three other textbooks.

Arvind R. Raghavan heads research and development at Blue Clover Devices, where he is involved with the design and implementation of innovative products for the Internet of Things, with current emphasis on Bluetooth Low Energy technology. Before joining Blue Clover Devices, he was part of the Radio Technology and Strategy group at AT&T Labs, where his work focused on the impact of QoS on LTE, design and analysis of heterogeneous networks, and advanced MIMO techniques for standardization in 3GPP. Prior to joining AT&T Labs, he played a lead role in the Systems Engineering group at ArrayComm, LLC, where they developed specifications for their multi-antenna signal processing products, conducted performance analyses, and made contributions to the standardization of WiMAX systems. Arvind holds MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Clemson University.

Thomas Starr is a Lead Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Laboratories in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Thomas is responsible for the development and standardization of local access and home networking technologies for AT&T's network. These technologies include ADSL, HDSL, SHDSL, VDSL and G.hn. In 2009, Thomas received the prestigious AT&T Science and Technology Medal. He serves as Chairman of the Broadband Forum and has also served as a member of the Board of Directors since its inception as the ADSL Forum in 1994. Thomas has been a distinguished fellow of the Broadband Forum From 1988 to 2000, has served as Chairperson of ANSI accredited standards working group T1E1.4, which develops xDSL standards for the United States, received the Committee T1 Outstanding Leadership Award in 2001, and now serves at ATIS COAST-NAI Chairman. In the ITU-T SG15, Thomas serves as Chairman of Working Party 1, addressing fiber, DSL, and home networking standards, and participates in the ITU SG15 Q4 group on xDSL international standards.

Thomas is a co-author of the books DSL Advances, published by Prentice Hall in 2003, and Understanding Digital Subscriber Line Technology, published by Prentice Hall in 1999. Thomas is also the author of the Science Fiction novel Virtual Vengeance. Thomas previously worked for 12 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories on ISDN and local telephone switching systems, and twenty US patents in the field to telecommunications have been issued to him. Thomas holds a MS degree in Computer Science and a BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois.

Stefano Galli received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy) in 1994 and 1998, respectively. He is currently the Director of Technology Strategy of ASSIA – the leading developer of automated management and diagnostics tools for broadband networks. Prior to this position, he held the role of Director of Energy Solutions R&D for Panasonic Corporation and Senior Scientist at Bellcore.

Dr. Galli is serving as Chief Information Officer of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), director of Smart Grid activities for the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Power Line Communications, member of the Energy and Policy Committee of IEEE-USA, and as Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications and the IEEE Communications Magazine. Dr. Galli is also serving as Rapporteur for the ITU-T Q15/15 "Communications for Smart Grid" standardization group. Past positions include serving as Co-Chair of the "Communications Technology" Task Force of IEEE 2030 (Smart Grid), Leader of the "Theoretical and Mathematical Models" Group of IEEE 1901 (Broadband over Power Lines standard), Coexistence sub-group Chair of the SGIP/NIST PAP 15, elected Member-at-Large of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Board of Governors, and a variety of other leadership positions in the IEEE. He has also served as Founder and first Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Power Line Communications.

Dr. Galli is a Fellow of the IEEE, has received the 2013 IEEE Donald G. Fink Best Paper Award for his paper on Smart Grid and Power Line Communications, the 2011 IEEE ComSoc Donald W. McLellan Meritorious Service Award, the 2011 Outstanding Service Award from the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Power Line Communications, and the 2010 IEEE ISPLC Best Paper Award. He holds several issued and pending patents, has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers, has co-authored three book chapters on power line communications, and has made numerous standards contributions to the IEEE, the ITU-T, the Broadband Forum, and the UK NICC.