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The article discusses about the special section on cross-layer design for mobile ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks published within the May 01, 2006 issue in the U.S. The first section, which consist of seven papers, focuses on the capacity analysis/enhancement and quality-of-service support. The following papers, from eight to twelve, address the routing issues. In addition, four paper after the 12th explores the idea of cross-layer design.

In the field of quantum communication, quantum steganography is an important branch of quantum information hiding. In a realistic quantum communication system, quantum noises are unavoidable and will seriously impact the safety and reliability of the quantum steganographic system. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the influence of noise on the quantum steganography protocol and how to reduce the effect of noise. This paper takes the quantum steganography protocol proposed in 2010 as an example to analyze the effects of noises on information qubits and secret message qubits in the four primary quantum noise environments. The results show that when the noise factor of one quantum channel noise is known, the size of the noise factor of the other quantum channel can be adjusted accordingly, such as artificially applying noise, so that the influence of noises on the protocol is minimized. In addition, this paper also proposes a method of improving the efficiency of the steganographic protocol in a noisy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes several small printed circuit board planar antennas that can be integrated with amplifiers for short-range vehicle wireless communication. The antennas are designed for the 315-MHz frequency band, which is commonly used for control and security devices in the USA and Canada. Each antenna has dimensions of 50 × 70 mm (much less than the free-space wavelength λ = 0.95 m) and is implemented on FR-4 dielectric substrate. These investigated antennas were compared with respect to input impedance, radiation resistance, radiation efficiency, directivity, directionality, bandwidth, matching system complexity, and gain. This paper also includes experimental verification of the final antenna design in the vehicle. It is shown that the antenna diversity method can increase communication range for remote keyless entry systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Academic Library & Information Science is the property of Anhui University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In a mobile telecommunications network, the period when a mobile station (MS) resides in a cell (the radio coverage of a base station) is called the cell residence time of that MS. The period between when a call arrives at the MS and when the MS moves out the cell is called the excess life of the cell residence time for that MS. In performance evaluation of a mobile telecommunications network, it is important to derive the excess life distribution from the cell residence times. This distribution determines if a connected call will be handed over to a new cell, and therefore significantly affects the call dropping probability of the network. In mobile-telecommunications-network simulation, generating the excess-life random numbers is not a trivial task, which has not been addressed in the literature. This paper shows how to generate the random numbers from the excess life distribution, and develop the excess-life random number generation procedures for cell residence times with gamma, Pareto, lognormal, and Weibull distributions. This paper indicates that the generated random numbers closely match the true excess-life distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reverse link capacity of a direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system in a multicell environment has been studied recently, and significant capacity improvements due to the use of beamforming have been observed. However, system performance with beamforming will be affected by several impairments, such as direction of arrival estimation errors, array perturbations, mutual coupling, and signal spatial spreads. In this paper, reverse link performance of CDMA systems with beamforming under these impairments (imperfect beamforming) is investigated. A simplified beamforming model is developed to evaluate the system performance in terms of user capacity, bit-error rates (BER), and outage probabilities. Both signal-to-interference-ratio-based power control and strength-based power control are considered in this paper. The capacity and BER degradations due to different impairments are shown, and outage probabilities under different power control schemes are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hub networks play an important role in many transportation and telecommunications systems. This paper introduces a new model called the hub arc location model. Rather than locate discrete hub facilities, this model locates hub arcs, which have reduced unit flow costs. Four special cases of the general hub arc location model are examined in detail. We provide motivation for the new models, and present examples and optimal solutions, using data for U.S. air passenger traffic. Results are used to compare optimal costs, hub locations, and hub arc locations with corresponding hub median optimal solutions. The results reveal interesting spatial patterns and help identify promising cities and regions for hubs. A companion paper (Campbell et al. 2005) presents integer programming formulations and solution algorithms for the new hub arc problems. It also provides details and computation times for these solution algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several IP micro-mobility protocols have been proposed to enhance the performance of Mobile IP in an environment with frequent handoffs. In this paper we make a detailed study of how some of these protocols namely Cellular IP, HAWAII and Hierarchical Mobile IP affect the behavior of TCP and their interaction with the MAC layer. The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of handoffs on TCP by means of simulation traces that show the evolution of segments and acknowledgments during handoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the US portion of the global communications network known as the Internet. The stages in the Internet's evolution, telecommunications deregulation, and a rush by new competitors to new market opportunities associated with the Internet combined to prompt a flurry of investment in new fibre-optic networks. Frameworks to explain new networks built upon, and added to, existing telecommunications networks include network economies and the opportunity-rich paths located between the large markets on the east and west coasts of the country and a capital-driven set of new and old network suppliers. The paper then reviews the small but growing body of research on the geographic structure of the Internet. The empirical section of the paper focuses on analyses of the variation among urban areas both in bandwidth on interurban Internet backbone networks and in the number of web design firms in the USA. Bandwidth investment has been attracted not only to cities with larger populations but also to cities with 'knowledge economies', indicated by doctoral degree-granting institutions and economic dynamism. The paper concludes with remarks about future research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the use of electronic mail (e-mail) in a business school at a public university in the United States before and after the installation of a local area network (LAN). Differences in types of electronic communications technologies used before and after a LAN installation; Perceptions of the use of e-mail.

A broadband dual-polarized antenna is proposed for TD-SCDMA system. The dual-polarized antenna is combined with two perpendicularly crossed dipoles. Crossed dipoles can reduce the same frequency interference and improve the signal reception effect. The isolation of this dual-polarized antenna is greater than 25 dB for co-polarization and 28 dB for cross-polarization. The measured results demonstrate that voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is no more than 1.3 at the operating frequency and the antenna has an average gain of 8.3 dBi for slant polarizations. That is, our proposed antenna meets the requirements for stringent design. We use array antenna technology based on the requirements of gain and beam tilt. A 5-element dual polarized antenna array is realized by 5-way unequal power divider at 1880 - 2635 MHz. The antenna gain of the array is about 12.5 dBi for different polarization. In numerical and measured results, the specific design methods and ideas of antenna and power divider are presented. As we can see from the test results, the antenna presented in this paper is far better than the industry standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In any given year, the Federal Communications Commission confronts many issues of interest to economists. This paper summarizes four issues of interest during the last year: Spectrum Auctions, Media Ownership, Quality-Adjusted Cable Prices, and Leased Access. It highlights the role that economic analysis played in each and identifies areas where further research would be fruitful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comprehensive review paper integrates concepts and viewpoints to understand the strategies adopted by the wireless carriers in the USA when acquiring mobile wireless spectrum. In the mobile wireless industry, the key industry and business drivers are the investments made by network operators. Of these cost drivers, the most influential on the industry’s dynamics are the capital investments, which include spectrum acquisition investments. This paper provides a review of, and integrates new theories and research results of a group of original papers on spectrum strategies. The concepts and viewpoints are developed based on inferences drawn across these papers, and extensive studies on the evolution of spectrum market and acquisition patterns amongst carriers during the wireless spectrum distributions in the U.S. over the past 15 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a number of compelling reasons for companies to look outside their own organizational and national boundaries for the skills and knowledge needed to compete in the global marketplace. Improving telecommunications infrastructures around the world and highly skilled talent pools in low cost nations are only a few of the drivers motivating companies to collaborate with partner firms located abroad. Such collaboration is, however, extremely difficult to control and coordinate. This paper examines a special case of global transorganizational insourcing in which two dispersed, semi-autonomous organizations within the same parent entity collaborate on a software development project. The project involves an American and Indian team working together to develop an enterprise-wide SAP application for Transangara Corporation, a large software publishing house headquartered in the United States. Using a transorganizational development (TOD) model, the study analyzes the reasons behind the failure of the collaborating teams to meet the scheduled release deadline for the project and presents the steps taken to address the challenges. The paper concludes with a set of lessons learned and best practices for companies dealing with similar projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main characteristics of wireless ad hoc networks is their node-centric broadcast nature of communication, leading to interferences and spatial contention between adjacent wireless links. Due to such interferences, pessimistic concerns have been recently raised with respect to the decreasing network capacity in wireless ad hoc networks when the number of nodes scales to several orders of magnitude higher. Such studies assume uniformly distributed nodes in the network and randomized traffic patterns. In this paper, we argue that in all cases of end-to-end data communications—including one-to-k unicast and multicast data dissemination as well as/c-to-one data aggregation—the maximum achievable end-to-end data throughput (measured on the sources) heavily depends on the strategy of arranging the topology of transmission between sources and destinations, as well as possible per-node operations such as coding. An optimal strategy achieves better end-to-end throughput than an arbitrary one. We present theoretical studies and critical insights with respect to how these strategies may be designed so that end-to-end throughput may be increased. After all, under all circumstances—in either a lightly loaded or a congested network—increasing end-to-end throughput from its baseline is always beneficial to applications using ad hoc networks to communicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewed concerns about information privacy and mobile phones have surfaced with the early deployment of location-based services in North America, and specifically with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led public safety initiative known as Wireless E9-1-1. Initial scholarly research in this area has focussed on the use and disclosure of geographic location information of mobile phone subscribers and on the terms and conditions by which this information can be made available for lawful access or commercial purposes. This paper refers to this body of research as the 'first domain' of information privacy research, and describes some of the key findings and contributions for policy research on customer proprietary information and customer consent. The paper then turns to introduce and describe an emerging 'second domain' of information privacy concerned with the popular adoption of anonymous prepaid mobile phone services. The distinguishing characteristic of this second domain of research is its focus on debates about the legitimacy of regulatory requirements to collect and verify customer details at the point of purchase. This paper draws on findings from an empirical study undertaken in Canada to identify some initial parameters of this second domain of information privacy research with the intent of informing a wider debate about the entitlement to anonymity for customers who elect to use prepaid services over commercial networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet2 is one of the newer ways of videoconferencing in American universities. Over 200 universities in the United States collaborate with each other through these high-quality internet lines. K-12 schools and libraries nationwide have also started taking advantage of this fiber optic, high-capacity speedy network. However, the term Internet2 still remains obscure to many. This paper addresses pros and cons of using Internet2 as a means of videoconferencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impulse radio (IR) and especially time-hopping IR (TH-IR) systems have attracted considerable attention since their introduction in the context of ultra wideband (UWB) systems in the early 1990s. Recently, with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission actions allowing for the wide-spread use of UWB radio systems, the interest in these systems has grown further. These systems promise to deliver high data rates in multiple access communication channels with very simple transmitter and receiver designs. The importance of multiuser detection for achieving high data rates with these systems has already been established in several studies. This paper studies several low-complexity multiuser detectors specifically designed for TH-IR radio systems. It is demonstrated that many multiuser detectors developed primarily for direct-sequence code division multiple access (DSCDMA) systems can be used essentially without any change in TH-IR receivers. Further, several novel, low-complexity multiuser detectors that exploit the special signal structure used for transmission by TH-LR systems are developed. These novel detectors are analyzed both theoretically and via simulations. It is shown that a very simple iterative multiuser detector yields performance that is similar to that of a single-user system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving communication access for patients is a vital step toward improving healthcare in the United States and worldwide. A growing body of research supports the use of communication strategies, including augmentative and alternative communication and assistive technology tools, as a fundamental aspect of quality patient care and recovery. Unfortunately, a number of barriers prevent the consistent implementation of these tools in acute care hospitals, and these barriers have been amplified since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper documents existing barriers to patient-provider communication within hospitals and presents recommendations, resources, and case studies to highlight the benefits and positive outcomes of communication interventions to guide clinical practice in this setting. Specifically, recommendations are presented across a number of systems that impact healthcare delivery including: (a) healthcare policies and regulations, (b) healthcare providers, (c) hospital units and departments, and (d) patients and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Producer services have been among the most rapidly growing industries, as measured by employment, in the United States and in Europe in recent decades. The production and delivery of these specialized forms of service industry work require the use of transportation and communications systems in a variety of ways, including the physical movement of people working in these industries, as well as the movement of the information related to the production and distribution of their work. Some of this work is performed in localized markets, requiring travel between clients and suppliers in local transportation modes, such as auto, bus, or other types of transportation. Other work is done by specialists who travel interregionally and globally to do their work, primarily traveling to their clients. There is little knowledge of how these production relationships have changed with the advent of the Internet and the widespread use of e-mail in the business production process. Within the framework of this STELLA initiative, this paper outlines research needs in this area, and frames an approach that would produce badly needed knowledge about impacts on the producer services of the Internet and related e-commerce initiatives on physical transportation systems at a local to interregional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks back at forty years of U.S. communications policy, and concludes that all of the challenges that were salient when Telecommunications Policy published its first issue—the lack of competition in CPE, long distance, local telephone service, television networks, and multichannel video program distribution—have essentially been addressed. The other technology that has grown in importance since 1976—the Internet—is widely regarded as a raging success. Although no history is completely uniform, the past forty years illustrates the key considerations underlying the choice between whether to impose access regulations or whether to rely on facilities-based competition. Moreover, the paper considers the important role that U.S. courts have played in promoting competition and consumer welfare. In many cases, timely judicial intervention has forced regulators to retreat from positions that protected incumbents and limited competition. The paper concludes with outlooks on new issues and debates that will continue to arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journal, Telecommunications Policy (TP), marked its 40-year milestone in 2016. At this juncture of a 40-year milestone, this paper implements a text analysis with keyword frequency data derived from the abstracts of papers published over the past 40 years to take a look at the big picture of key concepts that constitute the journal's research subjects. With keywords and bibliographic data, this paper calculates key research indexes to overview the dynamic changes in research focuses in the journal. This paper found that the differences in research performance across research subjects within three continents has declined over time, even though wide differences in research performance across subjects within nations still exist, and that the mid-1990s marked a watershed dividing the 40-year history into two parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim at studying efficiency, productivity and technological change in Portuguese banking during 1990-95, using information on the vast majority of banks operating in Portugal during that period. We use a translog variable cost function and a stochastic frontier model to estimate inefficiency and technological change. Our results suggest that the increased competition that Portuguese banks witnessed over the last few years did not lead to a better overall performance from the standpoint of costs: on the one hand, the annual efficiency average did not clearly increase over time; on the other hand, many more banks are now less efficient (in relative terms) than they were in the early 1990s. They also suggest that there is not a clear relationship between size and cost efficiency. Efficiency and scale economies also seem not to be related with size: some of the less efficient institutions (net assets below 50 million contos) are the ones facing global, although small, economies of scale and the largest institutions are the more efficient but face diseconomies of scale, therefore suggesting that they remain competitive via a better cost control. As for technological progress, our results suggest the existence of technological recess, along the six years of the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal mines in the United States of America are required to install lifeline (LL) cable inside escapeways to guide miners out of a mine when visibility becomes poor due to heavy smoke. Some LLs consist of single or multiple steel conductors covered with a protective plastic outer layer. Research has shown that this type of LL can be a good conductor to guide a medium-frequency (MF) communication system signal to travel over large distances. To understand the MF propagation characteristics of an LL, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health researchers took measurements on a section of LL in a coal mine, and obtained propagation parameters for analysis. The measurement data show that MF signals have a low attenuation which can enable the use of an LL for communication throughout a mine. The propagation parameters measured are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how COVID-19 in the United States affects the stock prices of the Taiwanese printed circuit board (PCB) and network communication industries. We utilize the event study method to evaluate the market response to the announcements of the United States COVID-19 and the sample period is from February 2020 to April 2020. This study examines whether the COVID-19 caused stock price variations and generated abnormal returns for Taiwanese companies. Finally, this study also evaluates whether there is a significant difference in abnormal returns among companies who have reported corporate social responsibility (CSR) and companies who have not. This study finds that the United States prevention policies have caused a significant influence on abnormal returns in Taiwan's PCB and network communication industries. Because Taiwan exports PCB to the United States, the stocks price decrease to the United States COVID-19 due to the investors' expectation of the substantial order decline from the United States in in Taiwan's PCB and network communication industries. We use ANOVA to prove the difference among the abnormal returns generated by the first, second and third U.S. COVID-19 announcements. The empirical results show that the first announcement caused the largest reactions, and the third announcement caused the least. Furthermore, the United States government's social distancing policy has caused positive abnormal returns for Taiwan's PCB and network communication industries due to the great demand for online meeting. Furthermore, we find the significant difference between the implementation and loosening of the social distancing polices. This suggests that investors regard the loosening of the United States social distancing policy signal that the order decline in Taiwan's PCB and network communication industries. There is no significant difference between the abnormal returns of companies that have reported their CSR practices and that of companies that have not reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Economics (2110-7017) is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The research being conducted in the Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce, a Department of Homeland Security National Center of Excellence for Port Security, examines some basic science issues and emerging technologies to improve the security of ports and inland waterways as well as coastal and offshore operations. This research follows a layered approach, utilizing above-water and underwater surveillance techniques. The investigated layers include satellite-based wide-area surveillance, high-frequency radar systems providing over-the-horizon monitoring, and nearshore and harbor passive acoustic surveillance. In this paper, we present a brief review of the Stevens research in passive acoustics aimed at achieving underwater and surface targets detection, classification, and tracking. The passive acoustic data were combined with satellite imagery provided by the University of Miami CSTARS facility's electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar satellite imaging capabilities. Advantages of concurrent use of satellite imaging and passive acoustics for maritime domain awareness are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the topic of the National Broadband Plan, which the FCC is mandated to provide to Congress February 17, 2010, the FCC Merger Review process, and the determination of optimal penalties for violations of FCC rules or orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to provide a description of the genesis and development of Wi-Fi, or how the industry exploited an opportunity provided by the regulators in allowing radio communications in the unlicensed bands originally allocated for industrial, medical and scientific applications. Design/methodology/approach - The longitudinal case describes the genesis and development of Wi-Fi, with a focus on the interplay between regulation, innovation, standardization, and running a successful business. Findings - The paper argues that the current day success of Wi-Fi is a combined result of: a change in the US communications policy in the 1980s; the industry leadership provided by NCR, its successors and collaborators, to create a global standard and to deliver compatible products under the Wi-Fi label; and the influence of the users that moved the application of Wireless-LANs from the enterprise to the home, from indoor to outdoor use, from a communications product to a service, and from operators to end-users as the provider of that service. Research limitations/implications - The exploration and analysis are based on contributions by experts from the field, having been involved "first hand" in the innovation journey of Wi-Fi. Practical implications - The case describes the first globally successful large-scale application of radio communication devices operating under a licence-exempt radio frequency regime. The case is a contemporary example of innovation and product development leading to an open standard. In concluding the paper reflects on the implications of this licence-exempt case for the governance of the radio spectrum. Originality/value - While many articles and books have appeared discussing the technical aspects of Wi-Fi, the case description documents the genesis and development of Wi-Fi from an entrepreneurial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measures vertical profiles of aerosol extinction, backscatter, and depolarization at both 532 nm and 1064 nm. In March of 2006 the HSRL participated in the Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) campaign along with several other suites of instruments deployed on both aircraft and ground based platforms. This paper presents high spatial and vertical resolution HSRL measurements of aerosol extinction and optical depth from MILAGRO and comparisons of those measurements with similar measurements from other sensors and model predictions. HSRL measurements coincident with airborne in situ aerosol scattering and absorption measurements from two different instrument suites on the C-130 and G-1 aircraft, airborne aerosol optical depth (AOD) and extinction measurements from an airborne tracking sunphotometer on the J-31 aircraft, and AOD from a network of ground based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometers are presented as a validation of the HSRL aerosol extinction and optical depth products. Regarding the extinction validation, we find bias differences between HSRL and these instruments to be less than 3% (0.01 km-1) at 532 nm, the wavelength at which the HSRL technique is employed. The rms differences at 532 nm were less than 50% (0.015 km-1). To our knowledge this is the most comprehensive validation of the HSRL measurement of aerosol extinction and optical depth to date. The observed bias differences in ambient aerosol extinction between HSRL and other measurements is within 15-20% at visible wavelengths, found by previous studies to be the differences observed with current state-of-the-art instrumentation (Schmid et al., 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments around the world are increasingly turning to information sharing as a lead strategy for developing response capacity for problems in a wide range of program and policy areas. One form of information sharing is regional coordination, which links together organizations or groups within close proximity to one another to pursue similar interests, goals, or mandates. Regional coordination requires leveraging currently held resources in innovative and potentially more efficient ways, as well as the establishment of new business processes, communication flows, and a system of governance that satisfies the needs of all stakeholders. In addition, trust, collaboration, and timely cross-boundary information sharing all play a pivotal role in this new model. This paper presents the experiences of the New York State Department of Public Service as it explores the concept of regional telecommunications incident response in New York; although this case study presents only one example of regional coordination, it raises issues which may apply in other regional information-sharing initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this column we discuss the early history of power line voice communication, beginning in 1918 and continuing until the early 1930s. We note that these developments were based on the 1910 demonstration by Major George Squier of the United States Army Signal Corps of his "wired wireless" technique for transmitting multiple telephone channels over one pair of wires. Power companies world-wide picked up on this carrier-wave telephony technique for use over power lines, with electrical manufacturing companies such as GE and Westinghouse in the United States and Telefunken in Germany, among others, then developing a variety of systems for this purpose. By 1930, the technique had reached a period of maturity, with 1000 systems installed throughout Europe and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper discusses the dilemmas facing European regulators (the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities) over the promotion of investment in Next Generation Access Networks (NGANs). Whereas the US has adopted a deregulatory approach and parts of Asia takes an approach linked to industrial policy considerations, the EU has largely left the process to operators working subject to a framework of regulation of access. While this may be enough to elicit investment where there is competition among networks, the incentives to invest are weaker where there is only one fixed network, as is the case in most of the territory of the EU. In reaching this view, the paper examines the prospects for competition from both wireless and municipal networks. It recommends that steps be taken fully to mobilise incentives to invest in NGANs where there is competition. Elsewhere, it may be necessary to consider a broader range of policies to create conditions for investment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent events in the broadcast policy-making system of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have raised the question: can public voices effectively participate in the broadcast policy-making process? This paper examines the factors working against public involvement, as well as those that have made recent intervention possible, especially the growth of the internet and its ability to facilitate more public activity. The authors conducted private in-depth interviews with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson to discuss their exceptional efforts to better involve the public in the policy-making process during their service with the agency. Our analysis shows that the factors facilitating greater public involvement have developed to the point where, at least sometimes, the public and civil society organizations can either block, or at least modify, the demands of entrenched corporate interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examples the concomitant effects that competition, regulation, market characteristics, and corporate ownership have on the deployment of advanced telecommunications services (ATS) to business customers through the econometric analysis of a rich data set that identifies the competitive, regulatory, and economic climate for each incumbent's wire center in the United States. The authors conclude that local competition, inter-LATA (local access and transport area) approval by the Federal Communications Commission, and high unbundled network element price to embedded cost ratios have positive impacts on the deployment of ATS, while voluntary federal price cap regulation and location in a rural area have negative impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current development of public in formation infrastructure in eastern USA. It proposes discussing lessons learned from four case studies of public information infrastructure projects to gain a better understanding of the challenges and implications of open access for broadband services and to provide a foundation for evaluating the advisability of mandatory open access policies. Design/methodology/approach - Four cases were selected for in-depth study in the eastern area of the USA. Multiple data collection methods were used - in-depth face-to-face and telephone interviews with people associated directly with the projects. Findings - The study recommends appropriate policy measures that can promote open access. Originality/value - The case studies shed light on how future public information infrastructures may evolve within the larger context of national and global information infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors propose a node-cooperative automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme for wireless ad hoc networks, which is suitable for mobile wireless channels with high and correlated frame-error profile. An analytical model based on a two-state Markovian process is proposed to describe the behavior of the proposed retransmission scheme and to obtain its throughput, average delay, and delay jitter. The results of Monte Carlo simulations are included to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme and to verify the accuracy of the analytical models. Results show that a cooperation among a small number of nodes can significantly improve the performance of the retransmission process in terms of throughput, average delay, and delay jitter by reducing the average duration of retransmission trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with channel acquisition and tracking in the uplink of a multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system. The transmission medium is characterized by multipath propagation, and the goal is to estimate the channel frequency response and the noise-power of each active user. Channel acquisition is performed jointly with the noise-power estimation following two different approaches. The first assumes independently faded subcarriers, while the second exploits the fading correlation across the signal bandwidth to improve the system performance. Both schemes are based on the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion and exploit some training blocks carrying known symbols. Channel tracking is pursued through least mean square (LMS) techniques using data decisions provided by a partial parallel interference cancellation (PPIC) receiver. Numerical results are given to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed methods and to present comparisons with other existing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referring received signal strength (RSS) to a signal propagation model to find user location is one of the most promising strategies in wireless communications. This paper develops a simple method based on relative signal-strength measurements, that is, the differences in stationary signal strength measured at the user location from multiple base transceiver stations (BTSs). The stationary signal strength is the averaged RSS and also is a stationary Gaussian process. In using this method, it is vitally important to confirm that some uncertain propagation parameters can be canceled out while a signal propagation model is merged into our method for locating users. In this way, the differences in stationary signal strength lead to two solutions: One is the distance difference between pairs of BTSs, and the other is the distances from the user location to the multiple BTSs. Consequently, the hyperbolic positioning algorithm due to the distance-difference solution and the circular positioning algorithm due to the distances solution can be presented, respectively. Afterward, some experimental results were drawn from a field trial in a real propagation environment. Results show that the hyperbolic and circular positioning algorithms can locate the user to within about 350 and 300 m in 67 percentile, respectively. Compared with the numerical result reported in the literature on existing methods based on RSS only, our method is superior. Despite the result not meeting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements, this method proved to be sufficiently simple and efficient in terms of the computation at burden and network signaling load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phone services' adoption and acceptance issues may have a significant impact on business and personal communication practices at the regional and global levels. In this paper, we test an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) in the U.S. and Turkey. We explore key factors that influence the usefulness, ease of use, and intentions to use advanced mobile phone services, such as mobile Internet access, E- Mail, and payments. Our results provide support for the technology acceptance model from both samples and for the importance of variables such as efficacy and personal innovativeness. In addition, we observe differences between the two samples and offer culture-based implications of our research. Finally, research and practical implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TA96) was a complex piece of legislation that included a variety of mandates for the telecommunications market and its providers in the United States. A particularly important strategic goal of the TA96 was to establish regulatory policies that promote competition, innovation, and investment in broadband services and facilities. This includes the timely rollout of advanced telecommunication services to all Americans regardless of location, race, age or socioeconomic status. This paper documents the spatial and temporal distribution of advanced telecommunication services in the United States from December 1999 to June 2002, paying special attention to broadband availability at the local level. In addition, this paper explores local socioeconomic and demographic trends relating to broadband availability through the use of a nationwide geodemographic classification system. Results suggest that broadband availability is no longer simply a question of geography (i.e. urban vs. rural). Rather, there exists a complex and dynamic interplay between geography, socioeconomic status, market forces and policy—all of which shape the current broadband landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]