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The EU-XCEL European Virtual Accelarator is an EU-Horizon 2020 funded project and part of the Startup Europe Innitiative. The project is coordinated by University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, with project partners including the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship from Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS), InQbator from Poznan Science & Technology Park (PSTP), DTU Skylab from Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), and the Cloud Incubator Hub from Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena (UPCT). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Constrained coding is a somewhat nebulous term which we may define by either inclusion or exclusion. A constrained system is defined by a constrained set of “good” or “allowable” sequences to be recorded or transmitted. Constrained coding focuses on the analysis of constrained systems and the design of efficient encoders and decoders that transform arbitrary user sequences into constrained sequences. Constrained coding has extensively been used since the advent in the 1950s of digital storage and communication devices. They have found application in all hard disk, non-volatile memories, and optical discs, such as CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray Disc, and they are now projected for usage in DNA-based storage. We survey theory and practice of constrained coding, tracing the evolution of the subject from its origins in Shannon's classic 1948 paper to present-day applications in DNA-based data storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the early pioneering work of both telephone and radio engineers in effecting improvements in the noise performance of communication systems. This work led ultimately to the explosive growth of communication activities following World War II. Radio engineers during the 1920s were most concerned with reducing the impact of externally generated "static," and showed this could be accomplished by the use of directional antennas and moving to higher-frequency transmission. Telephone engineers during that period of time, most prominently John R. Carson of AT&T, were led to include the impact of "fluctuation noise" (shot and thermal noise) as well. Carson, using the then novel concept of noise frequency spectrum, showed how the appropriate choice of bandwidth and frequency of transmission could be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, anticipating the concept of a "matched filter" introduced 20 years later during radar developments of World War II. This early work on improving the noise performance of communication systems led, in the early 1930s, to Edwin H. Armstrong's spectacular leap ahead with his invention of wide-deviation low-noise frequency modulation (FM), followed a few years later by the invention by Alec Reeves of pulse code modulation (PCM), the first low-noise digital communication system of the modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author describes his growing involvement in Communications Society activities that had significant impact on his career. He describes his experience in presenting a paper at the 1982 IEEE International Conference on Communications in Philadelphia on the topic of how the Bell System would maintain its digital telecommunications network, which was then in its infancy. The Communications Society Board of Governors' recognition of the growing opportunities and challenges of conferences when it restructured the Board, with the new structure starting in 2008 is discussed.

This article presents information about the papers published in the "Topics in Circuits for Communications Series" section of the December 2005 issue of the "IEEE Communications Magazine." This section include three articles which focuses on the implementation of future convergent portable devices. These devices integrate several functions such as wireless LAN, personal video recording, gaming, and digital TV. Such mobile devices would require wireless chips which support cellular communications, image and graphics processing, and short-range connectivity to peripheral devices and sensors. The first article "Streaming Processors for Next-Generation Mobile Imaging Applications" focuses on the circuit and architecture technology to provide the balance between low-power consumption and high signal processing performance. The next article "Low-Power 3D Graphics Processors for Mobile Terminals" presents information about the design constraints in delivering rich graphical processing capabilities in a mobile environment. Another article "A CMOS 868/915 MHz Direct Conversion ZigBee Single-Chip Radio" focuses on the design of a ZigBee radio.

We review and summarize several 100G per channel high-capacity transmission systems enabled by advanced technologies such as multilevel modulation format, new low-loss and large effective area fiber, hybrid EDFA/Raman amplification, and digital coherent detection technologies. We show that high-speed QPSK, 8PSK, 8QAM, and 16QAM can all be generated using commercially available optical modulators using only binary electrical drive signals through novel synthesis methods, and that all of these modulation formats can be detected using digital coherent detection. We also show our latest research results on 400 Gb/s and 1 Tb/s per channel by using orthogonal DWDM transmission technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Tomonori Aoyama on the requirements and fundamental technologies for the next generation network, one by Ken Krechmer on the ten requirements for open standards, and one by Hiroki Takesue on quantum key distribution.

Driven by increasing bandwidth demand from increasing broadband penetration, video, and other high-bandwidth services, the IEEE 802.3 Working Group has proposed a new project on higher speed Ethernet, chartered with development of standards for new interfaces with medium access control data rates of 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s. As the impact of this technology will not be confined to large data centers, this paper explores the overall network context for higher speed Ethernet and the related evolution of the optical transport network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed packet access (HSPA) was included in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) releases 5 and 6 for downlink and for uplink. The 3GPP release 7 offers a number of HSPA enhancements, providing major improvements to the end-user performance and to net- work efficiency. The release 7 features are introduced in this paper. Release 7 also is known as HSPA evolution or HSPA+. The HSPA+ downlink peak bit rate can be increased to 28.8 Mbps with a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna solution, and the uplink rate can be increased to 11.5 Mbps with higher order modulation in release 7. The higher peak rates are facilitated by the layer 2 optimization in downlink. In addition, the terminal power consumption can be reduced considerably for packet applications. The downlink cell capacity will be enhanced with new types of terminal requirements for a two-antenna equalizer and with MIMO. Altogether, release 7 features nearly double the cell capacity compared to release 6 with emphasis on the capacity of voice-over-IP (VoIP) service. 3GPP release 7 enables the simplification of the network architecture. The number of network elements for the user plane can be reduced from four in release 6 to two in release 7. The HSPA flat architecture in release 7 is similar to the architecture agreed upon for 3GPP long- term evolution (LTE), thus enabling the later, smooth evolution from HSPA to LTE. LTE will be specified as part of release 8 and further push the radio capabilities higher with larger bandwidth and lower latency. The LTE performance target is to provide two-to-four times the performance of the HSPA release 6 reference case [1]. 3GPP release 7 and 8 solutions for the HSPA evolution will be worked in parallel together with the LTE development, and some aspects of the LTE work are expected to reflect on the HSPA evolution as well. 3GPP release 7 was completed in June 2007, with some work remaining on the performance requirements. Commercial deployment and devices are expected by 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents development surrounding the election of the board of governors of the IEEE Communication Society. The slate of candidates corresponds to four vice president positions. These positions include conferences, member relations, publications, and technical activities. In addition, there is a separate slate of candidates to fill four positions on the board of governors. Furthermore, it has been requested that members and interested participants take time to consider the candidates' individual position statements and description of prior experience.

Against a backdrop commonly considered one of the most wondrous locations in the world, thousands of global experts convened in the iconic "Harbour City" of Sydney, Australia from June 10 - 14 to participate in one of the industry's largest and most profound gatherings focused on the advancements rapidly transforming every area of life and business. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses call for papers by the periodical related to Tactile Internet (TI). Topics discussed include role of TI developments in leveraging crowd-interactions to boost human-to-robot interactions over teleoperation systems; information on teleoperation modes for cooperative TI interactions over social robots; and challenges that face the proliferation of the TI.

To address the challenge of more spectrum for IoT connectivity, this article proposes an SA framework with rotating radars. The proposed framework is based on the results of our measurement campaign in which we measured spectrum usage patterns and signal characteristics of three different ground-based fixed rotating radar systems near Oulu, Finland. In our work, we review different IoT protocols and their use of licensed or unlicensed spectrum. We make the case that IoT systems generate much data that cannot be accommodated with licensed/unlicensed spectrum, which already suffer from congestion. We identify the suitability of shared access between different rotating radars and IoT networks. We then present a zone-based SA framework in rotating radar spectrum for the operators providing IoT services, highlight its benefits, and also specify challenges in its implementation. To fully develop the considered zone-based SA method that ensures coexistence of IoT devices with no harmful interference to the rotating radars, we propose an REM-enabled architecture for the SA. The proposed architecture provides principles and rules for using the SA for the IoT, and it does not require modifications in the incumbent radar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the activities and achievements of the 2007 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) held from March 11 to 15, 2007 in Hong Kong, China. The theme of the conference was Wireless Gateway, given Hong Kong's special position within the fast growing vibrant economies and excitement of China and Asia. Hong Kong is well known for its advances in information and communications technology. Furthermore, WCNC 2007 was a resounding success. It broke every record there was to be broken. It had an overwhelming number of paper submissions, truly exceeding all expectations.

The article presents a technical report on the 12th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications, and Computer Networks (SoftCOM 2004), which was held during October 10-13, 2004 on the cruise ship Marko Polo on the attractive route Split-Dubrovnik-Split-Venice-Split. The conference program featured a symposium dedicated to the most timely topics in the area of mobile and wireless communications. Two special sessions and 17 general conference sessions, a poster session, and two professional workshops were held too. Researchers and experts from industry, research institutes, and universities from more than 40 countries all around the world submitted in total 203 papers for presentation at Soft- COM 2004. Submitted papers were reviewed by more than 100 scientists from universities, institutes, and companies all over the world. All accepted papers were carefully selected based on their contribution, relevance, conceptual clarity, and overall quality. Nearly 69 percent of submitted papers were recommended for presentation within the technical program.

The article reports that The last decade of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first have witnessed a dramatic transformation of our society in lifestyle and human connectivity. In perusing my writings spanning this quarter century, I encountered both a lecture presented at the 1995 Marconi Society Symposium as well as my most recent, the 2019 Armstrong Lecture delivered at Columbia University.

The advancement of the process technology, especially CMOS technology, has played a major role in the miniaturization of the mobile device as well as extending its battery life. As digital logic continues to shrink in size and increase in density, implementing RF/analog functions digitally becomes increasingly more attractive. RF/analog digitization not only allows the design blocks to benefit from process scaling, but also enables a more complete system-on-chip integration. In this article, several digitally enhanced CMOS transmitter implementations are discussed, and their trade-offs are analyzed. A digital quadrature transmitter that is process-scaling-friendly and multimode-capable is presented at the end. The chip is implemented in 40 nm CMOS process and can easily be integrated with digital baseband processors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Themed "Communications: The Centrepoint of the Digital Economy," the next annual IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) will be held June 10 ? 14 in the dynamic cultural hub of Sydney, Australia. Known as the Harbour City, Sydney is also recognized as one of the most beautiful cities in the world with widespread amenities ranging from miles of ocean coastline and sandy surf beaches to structural icons such as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital signal processing technologies are key enablers for realizing high-capacity Optical Transport Network based on over 100 Gb/s and above channels. Novel no-guard-interval OFDM with frequency domain equalization is proposed and shown to offer excellent long-haul transport with capacity well above 10 Tb/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a baseband processing platform that consists of a DSP processor and an ASIC unit introduced in [6]. Based on this platform, we show detailed architecture of the implementation of the NodeB R99 physical layer channel processing of the 3GPP UMTS. We then show the ability of this platform to support the implementation of HSDPA channels introduced in R5 and E-DCH channels introduced in R6 of the standard by means of innovative DSP solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation and management of quality service in cellular networks is a very important function. This article shows that it should be performed not only at the network level, as is don today, but also individually in each and ever user terminal. Existing centralized network QoS systems only collect data, which allows evaluation of average QoS at the network or cell levels. However, they do not provide any objective data for estimating the QoS actually served to individual mobile users. This article offers a concept of individual QoS rating, which would allow dynamic assessment, recording, and subsequent analysis of the actual QoS received by a particular mobile user (individual QoS). Individual QoS ratings so obtained could then be reported to the user directly (as part of the intelligent use terminal concept) and otherwise become a par of service-level transactions (billing, etc. between the user and the network operator Realization of this novel value-added service can be achieved by integrating a special QoS module (software agent) into user terminals for monitoring and recording of individual QoS data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial digital transformation through efficient automation hinges largely on the deployment of communication infrastructures that meet the requirements of smart factory use cases. These infrastructures involve multiple devices that utilize different communication technologies to increase the overall operational efficiency. Rooting from the key implementation requirements of a smart factory environment, this article focuses on the role of cellular connectivity and wearable technology in enabling new industrial applications. Specifically, we shed light on a novel category of services - industrial mid-end wearable applications - by positioning their requirements among the 5G service classes. We then identify features that can complement cellular connectivity to further support the given requirements. More precisely, we review cellu-lar-network-aided device-to-device communications and reduced-capability devices. Our performance evaluation results justify the choice of these features and show that they can work in concert with cellular connectivity to enhance spectral efficiency and reliability in industrial mid-end wearable applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the trend of telecommunication services worldwide. Through the effort of the governments, Internet has become accessible to almost everyone. Despite of all the services the Internet has to offer, limitations still arise. The expensive and slow access to the Internet has been such an issue due to the fact that around 40 percent of the world households do not even have telephone service. The impact of the conversion of telephone service into voice over Internet protocol to the telephone companies has been analyzed.

The article discusses the role of connection-oriented networking for grid applications and the issues of optical burst switching in consumer grid network. Grid applications enables the researchers rely on the sharing capability of large compute platforms and data storage. On the other hand, scientific applications requires high bandwidth connectivity to support leadership class supercomputers as well as highly dynamic operation. The unique and challenging demands on the network infrastructure of grid applications were described.

The article presents information about some forthcoming events related to the computer industry. The Eleventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications will be held in Perth, Western Australia, during October 3-5, 2005. Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Bandwidth Management Workshop will be held in Whistler, British Columbia, during October 3-6, 2005. Second International Workshop on Mobility Aware Technologies and Applications will be held in Montreal, Quebec, during October 17-19, 2005. International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks will be held in San Diego, California, during October 17-19, 2005. IEEE International Siberian Conference on Control and Communications will be held in Tomsk, Russia, during October 21-22, 2005. Symposium on Architecture for Networking and Communications Systems will be held in Princeton, New Jersey, during October 26-28, 2005. First IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, during November 8-11, 2005.

This article focuses on new technological products. Some of the products are: RF Micro Devices (RFMD) has announced volume production shipments of Polaris Total Radio GSM/GPRS transceivers and PowerStar power amplifier (PA) modules for use in the Motorola MPx22O handset, Infineon Technologies' new R.MAC line of integrated circuits (ICs) is designed to improve resilient packet ring (RPR) functionality in metropolitan area networks (MANs). NetTest has announced the introduction of its newest tunable laser source, the ECL-400. From 1260 to 1650 nm, the ECL- 400 provides full telecom band coverage for the O, E, S, C, L, and U bands in a single compact unit. Agilent has introduced a wide-wavelength multirate optical module for the Aglient 86100C Infiniium digital communications analyzer.

Operators of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, and subsequent cables from the mid-1860s, noticed that they had to transmit Morse code dots and dashes very slowly to be understood at the other end.1 This phenomenon, due to smearing out of pulses by the capacitive effects of very long cables, had been predicted by William Thomson (more about him below), and was one of the first instances of the need for equalization of digital signals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article informs that Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced a WiMAX design exploration library for use with the company's Advanced Design System EDA software. The library, with its new fully coded bit error rate analysis, helps wireless systems designers and verification engineers speed development of communications products for broadband wireless access (BWA) applications. The IEEE 802.16-2004 standard, often generally referred to as WiMAX, specifies air interfaces for BWA systems. The standard is expected to energize the BWA industry and open many opportunities to deploy systems in applications that were previously cost-prohibitive. WiMAX enables multiple services in a wireless metropolitan area network, such as wireless backhaul for telecommunications; high-bandwidth/high-reliability remote connectivity; and, residential wireless digital subscriber lines for broadband Internet at home.

The article informs that Spirent Communications has announced the availability of the Spirent DLS A2PxTM and DLS V2xTM test systems. The new products benefit service providers and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) by expanding their options in validating the readiness of emerging high-speed access infrastructures, including asymmetrical digital subscriber line 2 (ADSL2+) and very high-speed DSL (VDSL2). ADSL2+ and VDSL2 are emerging technologies rapidly being adopted by service providers to expand subscriber access capacity to support converged triple play voice, data, and video services. Spirent's DLS A2Px and Spirent DLS V2x test solutions enable carriers and NEMs to validate the readiness of ADSL2+ and VDSL2 infrastructure.

The article presents information about the AR7 family of digital subscriber lines (DSL) from Texas Instruments Inc. Texas Instruments has announced that by the end of the third quarter, the company expects to have shipped over 100 million DSL customer premise equipment and CO ports, and 30 million ports of its flagship RG platform, AR7 modem-on-chip. Texas Instruments' RG designs are based on the market-leading AR7 modem-on-chip that allows for future system-level integration containing common hardware and software architectures. The designs integrate key technologies from Texas Instruments' comprehensive broadband portfolio including wireless local area network and voice over Internet protocol.

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services is accelerating, aided by ubiquitous wireless connectivity, declining communication costs, and the emergence of cloud platforms. Most major mobile network operators view machine-to-machine (M2M) communication networks for supporting IoT as a significant source of new revenue. In this article, we discuss the need for wide-area M2M wireless networks, especially for short data packet communication to support a very large number of IoT devices. We first present a brief overview of current and emerging technologies for supporting wide area M2M, and then using communication theory principles, discuss the fundamental challenges and potential solutions for these networks, highlighting tradeoffs and strategies for random and scheduled access. We conclude with recommendations for how future 5G networks should be designed for efficient wide-area M2M communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the evolution of the third generation mobile communication systems based on the wide-band code division multiple access (WCDMA) and radio access technologies. The need to for better support for different quality of service, higher spectral efficiency and higher data rates for packet-switched services has led to the creation of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1x Evolution Data-Optimized Revision 0 and Revision A by 3G Partnership Project 2, the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access and the WCDMA.

This article focuses on digital technology. The combination of audio, video, and data with the digital technologies is changing the landscape of entertainment services radically. New ways to deliver in attractive, content rich services to users need to be expanded. With high-speed and always on connections, a drastic change is coming in the way people watch movies and listen to music and play games. Furthermore, tomorrow's entertainment technology bring a "magic box," where every game ever thought, every song ever sung and shows will be available for instant entertainment with just one click of a button. Digital rights management is technology to protect multimedia content and is one of the key features of multimedia distribution services. Content management and service provisioning is key to offering compelling entertainment services.

Since 2012, 3GPP Release 12 (the beyond fourth generation (B4G) network) has been adopted as the next generation public safety network to be deployed in 2015. In addition to conventional high data rate transmissions in LTE-A, a public safety network is required to further support communications for users out of base station (BS) coverage. Avoiding any signal relay via BSs, direct data exchanges among users, known as deviceto- device (D2D) communications, have consequently emerged as the most crucial innovation and the mandatory technology for a public safety network. However, due to the tight schedule for standardization, a special form of "broadcasting" communications has been adopted by D2D communications in Release 12. To fully comprehend such an unprecedented technology in cellular networks, this article provides a comprehensive overview of D2D operations in Release 12. From the system architecture to the radio interface, the provided insights boost the knowledge to practice D2D communications over cellular networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standards development organizations (SDOs) exist to assure the development of consensus- based, quality standards. These formal standards are needed in the telecommunications market to achieve functional interoperability. The standardization process takes years, and then a vendor still needs to implement the resulting standard in a product. This prevents service providers (SPs) who are willing to venture into new domains from doing so at a fast pace. With the development of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), opensource technology is emerging as a new option in the telecommunications market. In contrast to SDOs, open-source software (OSS) communities create a product that may implicitly define a de-facto standard based on market consensus. Therefore, SPs are drawn to OSS, but they face technical, procedural, legal, and cultural challenges due to their lack of experience with open software development. The question therefore arises, how the interaction between OSS communities, SDOs, and industry fora (IF) can be organized to tackle these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunication network operators (TNOs) are seeing an exponential growth in mobile and fixed traffic, and on a growing scale need to manage (in some cases even manually) operational data silos. These silos necessitate a high degree of expensive operation that limits the ability to rapidly compose new innovative services, leads to high and exponentially growing integration expenses, and impairs the user experience for deployed services. All this is reducing long-term TNO profits. To meet this challenge, solutions employing network function virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN) have been proposed. However, different vendors of these solutions continue to deploy proprietary interfaces that are not interoperable with the new technology systems nor with legacy systems, thus further increasing the number of operational silos. To leverage existing efforts to provide new, high-quality services, we propose an innovative end-to-end service management framework called e2eUberIM. This framework contains a scalable, flexible, and volatile information model (UberIM) and a real-time, "organic" communication and storage process (e2eUber). It leverages the proprietary interfaces of different vendors, enabling the resulting enhanced operations system environment to automatically and in real-time optimize operational overhead while maximizing the user experience, and quickly field new innovative, composed "any-services" (XaaS). We document the e2eUberIM requirements and its design choices, as well as provide a set of implications for its successful implementation in operational, live TNO networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media synchronization is getting renewed attention with ecosystems of connected devices enabling novel media consumption paradigms. Social TV, hybrid TV, and companion screens are examples that are enabling people to consume multiple media streams at multiple devices together. These novel use cases require media synchronization, as unfortunately there are substantial delay differences between the various delivery routes for television and streaming media. Broadcasters have started using proprietary solutions for over-the-top media synchronization, such as media fingerprinting or media watermarking technologies. Given the commercial interest in media synchronization and the disadvantages of proprietary technologies, consumer-equipment manufacturers, broadcasters, and telecom and cable operators have started developing a new wave of international standards for media synchronization. This article provides an overview of recently published standards from the most relevant bodies: IETF, ETSI, MPEG, DVB, HbbTV, and W3C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an ideal world, the standards promulgated by standards-development organizations (SDOs), such as the IEEE, ITU, and ETSI, would always result from an impartial comparison of proposed solutions made in an environment "free of distortion, bias, or manipulation by private interests."1 In the real world, however, standards tend to be a result of compromises and, in some cases, hardfought battles among parties, often competitors, who have diverse private interests. Considerations beyond technical merit are generally in play. For better or worse, one of those considerations is often the understanding that intellectual property may protect a candidate solution. Of the four types of intellectual property - patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets - the one that looms largest in the standards-development context is patents. This article provides a foundational overview of patents and patent systems with a specific focus on the patent laws and procedures of the United States. Where feasible, the article also identifies similarities and differences in the patent laws and procedures of other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater acoustic (UWA) communications is the only reliable method for long-distance communications underwater, and is widely used in commercial, scientific, and military scenarios. However, the UWA channel is most challenging due to its double dispersion property in both long time delay and large Doppler spread, resulting in severe multipath spread and time variation. Among these, Doppler spread is one of the most critical challenges, and researchers have proposed various models in order to resolve Doppler spread in UWA channels. In this article, an overview of Doppler modeling and resolving is provided, divided into four stages: the quasi- static model of the mid-1980s, the uniform Doppler shift model in the 1990s, the basis expansion model and uniform path speed models of the late 1990s, and the recently developed non-uniform path speed model. Furthermore, the UWA channel sparsity property utilized by each of those models will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

NFV continues to draw immense attention from researchers in both industry and academia. By decoupling NFs from the physical equipment on which they run, NFV promises to reduce CAPEX and OPEX, make networks more scalable and flexible, and lead to increased service agility. However, despite the unprecedented interest it has gained, there are still obstacles that must be overcome before NFV can advance to reality in industrial deployments, let alone delivering on the anticipated gains. While doing so, important challenges associated with network and function MANO need to be addressed. In this article, we introduce NFV and give an overview of the MANO framework that has been proposed by ETSI. We then present representative projects and vendor products that focus on MANO, and discuss their features and relationship with the framework. Finally, we identify open MANO challenges as well as opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports on the forum established by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that discusses the various aspects of the production, access, preservation and use of digitized multimedia on the global information highway. Overview of the keynote speeches; Main themes of the congress; Papers presented in the event.

The ongoing densification in cellular networks has turned interference into a serious problem in future cellular networks. Since the interference experienced by close-by users in a cellular network is usually correlated, it can be cooperatively suppressed to improve user experience. In this article, we introduce the idea of cooperative interference cancellation (CIC) between close-by users using device-to-device (D2D) communications for the example of the upcoming 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Rel-12 D2D technology. We understand CIC as a new network interference management tool, capable of exploiting interference correlation to improve downlink throughput. We discuss possible deployment scenarios as well as theoretical and practical challenges. To each challenge we provide some possible solutions. Finally, a first feasibility analysis using numerical simulations is presented that demonstrates the potential gains of CIC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The so-called TV white spaces (TVWS) are locally underutilized portions of the terrestrial TV bands and occur as a by-product of the digital switchover taking place in most countries across the globe. Thanks to the very good characteristics of the TV bands in terrestrial radio communications, the exploitation of TVWS for local- or regional-area wireless license-exempt networking, under a carefully established regulatory framework, is a very attractive prospect. This article presents a generic methodology for determining the actual capacity of white spaces using a geolocation-based approach, that is, dynamic assignment of radio resources to TVWS networks according to their geographical location. This methodology is applied in a case study investigating a sample area in southeastern Europe and unveils a significant amount of access capacity that can be unleashed via TVWS exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The digital television terrestrial multimedia broadcasting standard was ratified on August 18, 2006, and is the mandatory digital television terrestrial broadcasting standard in China. DTMB defines the signal frame structure, the coding and modulation schemes, and adopts time-domain synchronous orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing technology using pseudo random sequence as both the guard interval of the OFDM block and the training symbol. It can deliver fast system synchronization, accurate channel estimation, high spectrum efficiency, and excellent single-frequency network performance. This article covers the major features of the DTMB standard, its industrialization, current deployment status, and various applications based on the DTMB standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VLSI realization of video compression is the key to real-time high-definition 3D communication systems. The newly established multiview video coding standard, as an extension profile of H.264/AVC, draws more and more attention for its high compression ratio and free-viewpoint support. Besides providing the 3D experience, multiview video can also give users complete scene perception. However, the multiple-viewpoint throughput requirement of MVC increase the complexity and hardware cost dramatically. The system memory bandwidth, on-chip memory size, and processing data throughput of each module all need to be optimized in an MVC encoder. Therefore, efficient hardware solutions for MVC architecture design are needed. In this article an overview of 3D video coding standards developments and design challenges of an MVC encoder are discussed. Then the algorithm and architecture optimization schemes are proposed. For the trade-off between system memory bandwidth and on-chip memory size, a cache-based prediction engine is proposed to ease both design challenges. Moreover, the hybrid openclose loop intra prediction scheme and the frame-parallel pipeline-doubled dual CABAC solve the throughput requirement problem. At the end of this article, based on all the proposed solutions, a prototype single-chip MVC encoder design with processing ability of 4096 × 2160 single-view to 1280 × 720 seven-view is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activities directed at "including" more people in the use of digital technology are predicated on the assumption that such inclusion is invariably a good thing. It appears so, when judged solely by immediate practical convenience. However, if we also judge in terms of human rights, whether digital inclusion is good or bad depends on what kind of digital world we are to be included in. If we wish to work toward digital inclusion as a goal, it behooves us to make sure it is the good kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we provide an integrated presentation of applications, technologies, and business models for wireless municipal networks together with design considerations. We give an overview on the state of affairs in municipal networks, presenting the driving forces and stakeholders of these projects, the applications and services for some carefully selected cases, and the available wireless technologies and regulatory issues. Then we outline the design methodology to build wireless municipal networks, presenting a pilot municipal network in Hungary, and discuss the relevant sustainability and business models, which are analyzed and illustrated by summaries of case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gigabit-class passive optical networks have been standardized and are now being deployed. This article presents possible migration scenarios toward the next-generation PUN and proposes a technology roadmap of evolutionary growth (termed NG-PON1) vs. revolutionary change (termed NG-PON2). This article then details the general requirements for NG-PON1 to support various popular applications many service providers expressed interests on as well as to enable smooth migration from Gigabit PON. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising performance of broadband connections for residential users, particularly in conjunction with fiber to the home, will present a new challenge for telecom operators in the short and medium terms: how to deliver the high bit rate digital signals with high quality-of-service to all consumer devices scattered inside the building of final users? Among the many different solutions for the home network, we review in this article the use of polymer optical fibers for short-reach and high-capacity optical communications for residential customer premises. POF is an easy-to-install, low-cost, and eye-safe solution for these networks, with the potential of being future-proof. In this article the state of the art in POF technology is presented by summarizing significant results achieved in the European project POF-ALL. Data transmission rates of more than 1 Gb/s over 50+ m and 100 Mb/s over 200+ m of standard step-index POF have been shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]