Deployment Of Broadband Networks Research Articles

State aid for broadband network deployment: National and subnational governance mechanisms, 2003–2023

This paper examines the governance models of State aid measures for broadband network deployment in European Union Member States. The research is based on 199 decision letters collected from the European Commission's competition cases database, published between 2003 and 2023. Deploying a theory-driven content analysis approach, the analysis reveals and categorises a variety of governance models. These models vary regarding the authority responsible for the decision-making and, in the case of national schemes, the authority responsible for the implementation, including centralised and decentralised arrangements. Different legacies and institutional set-ups explain the governance models, including the typology of state structures, the constitutional powers, the traditions of participation in the telecommunication sector, policy diffusion and regional development. There are several possible pathways to a gradual transition from one model to another. The design of flexible national schemes, which offer subnational authorities the option to implement them in their regions or to rely on central management agencies for specific tasks adapted to their interests, resources and capacities, could be the optimal solution to prevent the launch of ad hoc measures by subnational authorities and to adapt to different institutional arrangements.

Evaluating the effects of ICT core elements on CO2 emissions: Recent evidence from OECD countries

This research aimed to inform policymakers about the actual climate relevance of the information and communication technology (ICT) ecosystem, which includes data centers and content provision, broadband networks, and consumer devices. To provide robust empirical evidence on the net environmental impact of these core ICT elements, we used OECD panel data for 34 Member States for the years 2002–2019 and panel fixed-effects regression models. In contrast to previous literature, we measured basic broadband and new fiber-based wireline broadband and 3G/4G mobile broadband network deployment. We also captured variations in end-user devices, ICT affinity, and famous online content. We found that, on average, the CO2-reducing effects appear to outweigh the CO2-increasing effects. In particular, we found that, in addition to the reduction effect associated with the use of basic broadband connections, there is a further, albeit smaller, reduction effect associated with new fiber-based broadband connections. Other ICT elements showed insignificant coefficient estimates, suggesting largely offsetting environmental impacts. Our main findings were subject to various robustness checks and were broadly consistent with previous literature using data from developed countries. Our results suggested that old and new broadband networks as enabling technology could generate positive environmental effects for society.

The impact of taxation in the telecommunications industry

In this article we study the impact of taxation in the performance of the telecommunications sector. To do so, we develop a model that considers the taxes and fees imposed directly or indirectly along the telecommunications value chain. Overall, we find strong evidence of a negative impact on investment from an increase in regulatory fees, profit taxes, and excise taxes. In addition, telecommunication service prices are affected by the fiscal regime, both directly -through taxation over services- and indirectly, through obligations imposed on operators that can ultimately have an impact on service prices. We also find some evidence of the effect of custom duties for equipment and smartphones on the decrease of investment on broadband network deployment and service adoption, respectively. On this basis, we simulate a fiscal-reform scenario, consisting in removing sector-specific contributions to eliminate inter-sectoral asymmetries, with results suggesting significant gains in investment, coverage, and adoption. Considering these findings, and the potential socioeconomic gains from increasing broadband adoption, we believe that governments pursuing the development of digital agendas should consider potential fiscal reforms to accelerate the development of the digital economy. That being said, considering the potential loses in tax collection, a careful trade-off analysis should be performed before determining the nature and the scope of the fiscal reforms to be introduced.

Net neutrality and high-speed broadband networks: evidence from OECD countries

Network neutrality regulations are intended to preserve the Internet as a non-discriminatory, public network and an open platform for innovation. Whereas the U.S. reversed its regulations in 2017, returning to a less strict regime, the EU has maintained its course and recently revised implementation guidelines for its strict and rather interventionist net neutrality regulations. To this day, there exist only a few empirical investigations on the impact of network neutrality regulations, based on rather broad measures of investment activities for individual countries. Our paper provides the first estimation results on the causal impact of net neutrality regulations on new high-speed (fiber-optic cable-based) infrastructure investment by Internet service providers. We use a comprehensive and most recent OECD panel data set for 32 countries for the period from 2000 to 2021 covering the entire high-speed broadband network deployment period. We employ various panel estimation techniques, including instrumental variables estimation. Our empirical analysis is based on theoretical underpinnings derived from a simplified model in a two-sided market framework. We find empirical evidence that net neutrality regulations exert a significant and strong negative impact on fiber investments. Our results suggest that, while we cannot provide evidence on the overall welfare consequences of net neutrality, imposing strict net neutrality regulations clearly slow down the deployment of new fiber-based broadband connections.

A Techno-Economic Framework for Installing Broadband Networks in Rural and Remote Areas

Expanding broadband services represents a significant challenge for broadband operators, especially in light of the requirements related to the total cost of ownership of these technologies. In the last few years, this expansion has advanced significantly, but it still represents a challenge that must be overcome since there is a need to provide low-cost services to rural communities in remote areas. Issues related to geographical location, the low income of residents, and the lack of public infrastructural facilities lead to a disadvantageous relationship between the potential revenue for operators and the high costs of deploying infrastructure. Although there are several research endeavors in the literature aimed at addressing how connectivity can be provided, they do not discuss systems that take account of the specific features of these regions or that have adapted services and network applications to meet the needs of these communities. Thus, using dimensioning systems for the total cost of network ownership and taking into account capital and network operating expenses, this study establishes a technical and economic framework for the deployment of broadband networks in rural and remote areas. It also applies economic feasibility analysis techniques designed to assist decision making by interpreting the effects of any financial investment made and estimating the expected profits of the broadband operators. We also recommend the use of socioeconomic indicators to predict the potential social impact of this framework on the development of these regions. We employ a case study to demonstrate the operational features of the planned framework. Based on real data obtained from a municipality located in the Brazilian Amazon region, we show that it is possible to reduce the cost of subscribing to broadband services for end-users by reducing deployment costs and thus ensure that access to digital services can be equitably obtained.

An optimization model for robust FSO network dimensioning

FSO (Free Space Optics) is a well established wireless optical transmission technology considered as an alternative to radio communications, for example in metropolitan wireless mesh networks. An FSO link is established by means of a laser beam connecting the transmitter and the receiver placed in the line of sight. A major disadvantage of FSO links (with respect to fiber links) is their sensitivity to weather conditions such as fog, rain and snow, causing substantial loss of the transmission power over the optical channel due mostly to absorption and scattering. Thus, although the FSO technology allows for fast and low-cost deployment of broadband networks, its operation will be affected by this sensitivity, manifested by substantial losses in links' transmission capacity with respect to the nominal capacity. Therefore, a proper approach to FSO network dimensioning should take such losses into account so that the level of carried traffic is satisfactory under all observed weather conditions. In the paper we describe such an approach. We introduce a relevant dimensioning problem and present a robust optimization algorithm for such enhanced dimensioning. A substantial part of the paper is devoted to present a numerical study of two FSO network instances that illustrates the promising effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Service Class Resource Management for Green Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Networks (WOBAN)

Exponential growth in the volume of wireless data, boosted by the growing popularity of mobile devices, such as smartphone and tablets, has forced the telecommunication industries to rethink the way networks are currently designed, and to focus on the development of high-capacity mobile broadband networks. In response to this challenge, researchers have been working toward the development of an integrated wireless optical broadband access network. Two major candidate technologies, which are currently known for their high capacity as well as quality of service (QoS) for multimedia traffic, are passive optical networks (PON), and fourth generation (4G) wireless networks. PON is a wired access technology, well known for its cost efficiency and high capacity; whereas 4G is a wireless broadband access technology, which has achieved broad market acceptance because of its ease of deployment, ability to offer mobility, and its cost efficiency. Integration of PON and 4G technologies in the form of wireless-optical broadband access networks, offers advantages, such as extension of networks in rural areas, support for mobile broadband services, and quick deployment of broadband networks. These two technologies however, have different design architectures for handling broadband services that require quality of service. For example, 4G networks use traffic classification for supporting different QoS demands, whereas the PON architecture has no such mechanism to differentiate between types of traffic. These two technologies also differ in their power saving mechanisms. In this paper, we propose a service class mapping for the integrated PON-4G network, which is based on the M/G/1 queuing model. We also propose a class-based power saving mechanism which significantly improves the sleep period for the integrated optical wireless unit, without compromising support for QoS. Results indicate that our proposed class-based power saving scheme reduces power consumption by up to 80%, and maintains the QoS within the requirements of the service level agreement.

Challenges for a broadband service strategy in rural areas: A Romanian case study

Broadband network deployment plays an important part in the strategic policies in Europe to promote growth and innovation in all sectors of the economy in addition to social and territorial cohesion. In compliance with existing community policies, Romanian strategies in this field seek to provide the necessary support for broadband connectivity in rural areas. The goal of this study is to define a rural end-user profile to plan the most appropriate broadband service strategy from both a technical and a marketing perspective. Our empirical research involves an exploratory survey conducted in rural areas in northwestern Romania (n=1040 respondents). The findings reveal low levels of customer satisfaction and users more interested in data transfer than voice or video applications. Given this rural user profile, simulations of network traffic were conducted. The simulation results suggest that WLANs are the most suitable solution for the “last mile” broadband segment.

Unlocking the potential of Italian broadband: Case studies and policy lessons

A number of regional initiatives have recently revived the Italian broadband sector, although their fortunes vary depending on governance, market and geographical issues. However, all these initiatives jointly succeeded in sparking a heated debate on how public–private interplay can facilitate the deployment of broadband networks in a country still lagging behind European frontrunners such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. In the light of European Union regulation and recent case law, the paper examines three regional initiatives (Progetto Banda Ultra Larga Lombardia, Trentino Network and Lepida Emilia Romagna) by using the conceptual model on public private interplay developed by Nucciarelli, Sadowski, and Achard (2010). Thereafter, the paper elaborates on initiatives' ups and downs to focus on conditions and trigger events that have made them a success or a failure story. Lessons learnt conclude.

Integrated multicast routing algorithms considering traffic engineering for broadband IPTV services

Abstract With the rapid growth of broadband network deployment and multimedia streaming development, Internet protocol (IP) multicast networks have become a delivery mechanism for Internet protocol television (IPTV). IPTV provides a two-way interactive service to the viewers, which generates the path request for IP multicast network. Thus, it is essential to evaluate the path rejection probability accurately and further to reduce it. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic multicast routing algorithm for broadband IPTV services and apply it to three legacy algorithms. These integrated multicast routing algorithms support the minimum cost and the traffic engineering features, in order to maximize the acceptance rate for bandwidth constraint path request under IPTV service environments. Furthermore, we compare their network performances in terms of the acceptance rate and delay by experimental simulations. The simulation result gives us that the nearest node first Dijkstra algorithm can be the optimal solution of multicast connection for IPTV service delivery.

Collaborative caching for efficient dissemination of personalized video streams in resource constrained environments

The ever increasing deployment of broadband networks and simultaneous proliferation of low-cost video capturing and multimedia-enabled mobile devices such as smart cellular phones, netbook computers, and tablet computers have triggered a wave of novel mobile multimedia applications making video streaming on mobile devices increasingly popular and commonplace. Networked environments consisting of mobile devices tend to be highly heterogeneous in terms of client-side and system-wide resource constraints, clients' queries for information, geospatial distribution, and dynamic trajectories of the mobile clients, and client-side and server-side privacy and security requirements. Invariably, the video streams need to be personalized to provide a resource-constrained mobile device with video content that is most relevant to the client's request while simultaneously satisfying the client-side and system-wide resource constraints, privacy and security requirements and the constraints imposed by the geospatial distribution and dynamic trajectories of the mobile clients relative to the server(s). In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a distributed system, consisting of several geographically distributed video personalization servers and proxy caches, for efficient dissemination of personalized video in a resource-constrained mobile environment. With the objective of optimizing cache performance, a novel cache replacement policy and multi-stage client request aggregation strategy, both of which are specifically tailored for personalized video content, are proposed. A novel Latency-Biased Collaborative Caching (LBCC) protocol based on counting Bloom filters is designed for further enhancing the scalability and efficiency of disseminating personalized video content. The benefits and costs associated with collaborative caching for disseminating personalized video content to resource-constrained and geographically distributed clients are analyzed and experimentally verified. The impact of different levels of collaboration among the caches and the advantages of using multiple video personalization servers with varying degrees of mirrored content on the efficiency of personalized video delivery are also studied. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed collaborative caching scheme, coupled with the proposed personalization-aware cache replacement and client request aggregation strategies, provides a means for efficient dissemination of personalized video streams in resource-constrained environments.

A comprehensive study of the use of advertisements as incentives in P2P streaming systems

P2P streaming systems, such as PPLive and PPStream, have become popular services with the widespread deployment of broadband networks. However, P2P streaming systems still face free-riding problems, similar to those that have been observed in P2P file sharing systems. Thus, one important problem in providing streaming services is that of providing appropriate incentives for peers to contribute their upload capacity. To this end, we propose the use of advertisements as an incentive for peers to contribute upload capacity. In the proposed framework, peers enjoy the same quality of streamed media, with the difference in quality of service being achieved through different amounts of advertisements viewed, based on the resource contributions to the system. Moreover, since calculating peers’ contributions accurately is important to successfully deploying such systems, we design a token-based framework to address this problem. An extensive simulation-based study is performed to evaluate the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that our approach provides appropriate incentives for peers to contribute their resources. Furthermore, we explore several characteristics of the token-based mechanism which can provide system developers with insight into efficient development of such systems.

Toward Intelligent Thessaloniki: from an Agglomeration of Apps to Smart Districts

The new planning paradigm of “intelligent cities” is replacing the principles of smart growth and new urbanism which have inspired urban planning over the past 20 years. The “Intelligent Thessaloniki” case study highlights how a city is adopting this new paradigm and how the deployment of broadband networks, smart urban spaces, web-based applications and e-services is helping every district of the city to address its particular objectives of competitiveness and sustainable development. The paper examines the current state of development of broadband infrastructure and e-services in the city of Thessaloniki, the strategy that has been adopted to stimulate the future development of the city with respect to smart environments and districts, and the gaps and bottlenecks influencing this transformation of the city. The conclusions stress that a new orientation of urban governance is needed to address the challenges of digital literacy, creativity in the making of smart environments and business models for the long-term sustainability of e-services enhancing urban intelligence.

The Guidelines for the Application of State aid Rules in Relation to Rapid Deployment of Broadband Networks--Remedy for a Market Failure?

Contrary to what it sometimes claims, the European Commission has accepted the injection of massive national funds in broadband networks not to address a market failure, but to further universal service policies.

Volition versus feasibility: state aid when aid is looked upon favourably: the broadband example

The European Commission published on September 30, 2009, Guidelines for the application of State aid rules in relation to rapid deployment of broadband networks. These Guidelines are applicable to two markets that are connected, although somewhat different. In “traditional” or “first generation” broadband networks, public intervention mainly relates to rural communities or areas which are economically underdeveloped. Therefore, a corrective nature of the aid is maintained. However, the Guidelines are also applied to accelerate the deployment of next-generation access (NGA) networks, which implies a driving conception of State aid, as this is an emerging market and there are relatively few Europeans who have access to these networks. The analysis of these Guidelines thus seems relevant due to its novelty and, particularly, to the results that it can bring.

Challenges of the Rural Healthcare Pilot Program Broadband Initiative

The Federal Communication Commission initiated the Rural Healthcare Pilot Program Broadband Initiative in 2007 to provide funds for deployment of broadband networks to rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the preliminary findings of the first phase of a larger study designed to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the Rural Healthcare Pilot Program. Interviews with 40 organizations (response rate = 64.5%) that were awarded funds from the Federal Communication Commission for this project were conducted. Two questions from the interviews were coded, and overall themes are presented here. The questions are, "Did unexpected issues/challenges emerge during the planning stage?" and "What were they?" Ninety percent of the respondents stated that they had encountered challenges. The types of challenges reflect two overarching themes: program deployment issues and communication issues. The ultimate goal of this research project is to improve awareness of the challenges that telemedicine grantees often face when they receive funds from external agencies and also to use this information to facilitate this process.

Applying multiple description coding to enhance the streaming scalability on CDN‐P2P network

AbstractOwing to the wide deployment of broadband networks, information can now be rapidly disseminated all over the world. Only the content of static texts and pictures has not yet met users' demands. Along with the rapid advance of computer‐related technologies, how to efficiently provide multimedia content for a large number of heterogeneous users on the Internet, especially videos, has become a noticeable issue. In this paper, we discuss the adaptation of multiple description coding (MDC) for the loopback buffering mechanism to address the issue of peer heterogeneity on content distribution network–peer to peer (CDN‐P2P) video‐on‐demand systems. Three description selection policies, Ordered, Round‐Robin, and Open‐Loop‐First (OLF), are studied. In addition, we propose the intra‐description recovery and inter‐description recovery to deal with failed peers. The simulation results show that the OLF with loopback‐MDC can significantly reduce the amount of uploading bandwidth of a proxy on CDN‐P2P video‐on‐demand systems, and the inter‐description recovery, sewing, can further effectively recover missing blocks and restore the continuity of a breaking sharing loop among peers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Steal More Wifi!

An accurate analytical model on blocking performance of multicast three-stage networks

The fast deployment of broadband networks and the evolution of communication services has revealed the importance of a network-wide availability of multicast communications, that is from one source to multiple destinations. This paper considers three-stage switching networks able to support multicast traffic, i.e. connections in which one inlet of a node is connected to more than one outlet of the node at the same time. An analytical model is developed here that evaluates the blocking probability of multicast connections taking into account statistically the correlation between occupancy events in links belonging to different interstage patterns. Such new model proves to be more accurate than any previous model addressing the same issue. Interestingly enough, unlike other models the new formulation is consistent with the theoretical conditions of a non-blocking three-stage switching network.

Broadband Access Network Planning Optimization Considering Real Copper Cable Lengths

Broadband access network planning strategies with techno-economic calculations are important topics, when optimal broadband network deployments are considered. This paper analyzes optimal deployment combination of digital subscriber line technologies (xDSL) and fiber to the home technologies (FTTx), following different user bandwidth demand scenarios. For this reason, optimal placement of remote digital subscriber line multiplexer (RDSLAM) is examined. Furthermore, the article also discusses the economy of investments, depending on certain investment threshold and the reach of different xDSL technologies. Finally, the difference between broadband network deployment in a characteristic urban and rural area in Republic of Slovenia, in terms of required optical cable dig length per household is shown. A tree structure network model of a traditional copper access network is introduced. A dynamic programming logic, with recursion as a basis of a tree structure examination and evaluation of optimal network elements placement is used. The tree structure network model considers several real network parameters (e. g.: copper cable lengths, user coordinates, node coordinates). The main input for the optimization is a local loop distance between each user and a candidate node for RDSLAM placement. Modelling of copper access networks with a tree structure makes new extensions in planning optimization of broadband access networks. Optimization of network elements placement has direct influence on efficiency and profitability of broadband access telecommunication networks.