During the past years, there has been a quickly rising interest in radio access tech-
nologies for providing mobile as well as nomadic and fixed services for voice,
video, and data. The difference in design, implementation, and use between
TELECOM and datacom technologies is also getting more blurred. One example is
cellular technologies from the TELECOM world being used for broadband data and
wireless LAN from the datacom world being used for voice over IP.
Duringthe past years, there has been a quickly rising interest in radio access technologies for providing
mobile as well as nomadic and fixed services for voice, video, and data. This proves that the difference
in design, implementation, and use between TELECOM and datacom technologies is also becoming more
blurred. What used to be a mobile phone used for voice communication is today increasingly
becoming the main data communication device for end-users, providing web browsing, social
networking, and many other services.
In 2005, when the world crossed-over to Web 2.0, business professionals and managers in
every industry – from traditional retail to high tech media and TELECOM – felt the first powerful
tremors of the strategic shifts taking place, sweeping away traditional business models and
altering competitive landscapes.
Cellular communications is one of the fastest growing and most challenging TELECOM-
munication applications ever. Today, it represents a large and continuously increasing
percentage of all new telephone subscribers around the world. In the long term,
cellular digital technology may become the universal way of communication.
This book is intended to help electric power and telephone company
personnel and individuals interested in properly protecting critical tele-
communications circuits and equipment located in high voltage (HV)
environments and to improve service reliability while maintaining safe
working conditions. Critical TELECOMmunications circuits are often
located in HV environments such as electric utility power plants,
substations, cell sites on power towers, and standalone TELECOMmuni-
cations facilities such as 911 call centers and mountaintop TELECOM-
munications sites.
Convergence between the two largest networks (TELECOM and IP) is taking place
very rapidly and at diff erent levels: (1) network level: unifi cation of IP networks
with traditional TELECOM networks through evolving standards (Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP), Realtime Transfer Protocol (RTP), SS7, 3G) to support interopera-
bility; (2) service level: traditional TELECOM services like voice calls are being provi-
sioned on the IP backbone (VoIP), while traditional IP services (most data-driven
services such as multimedia, browsing, chatting, gaming, etc.) are accessible over
the TELECOM network.
The ability to analyze system or circuit behavior is one of the key requirements for
successful design. To put an idea to work, a designer needs both the knowledge
and tools for analyzing the behavior of that new system architecture or that experi-
mental circuit topology. Design decisions are grounded on the results obtained from
analysis.
Long-TermEvolution(LTE)isarguablyoneofthemostimportantstepsinthecurrentphaseof
the development of modern mobile communications. It provides a suitable base for enhanced
services due to increased data throughput and lower latency figures, and also gives extra
impetus to the modernization of TELECOM architectures. The decision to leave the circuit-
switched domainoutofthescope ofLTE/SAEsystem standardization might soundradical but
itindicatesthattheTELECOMworldisgoingstronglyfortheall-IPconcept----andthedeployment
of LTE/SAE is concrete evidence of this global trend.
Changes in TELECOMmunications are impacting all types of user
group, which include business users, traveling users, small and
home offices, and residential users. The acceptance rate of TELECOM-
munications and information services is accelerating significantly.
Voice services needed approximately 50 years to reach a very high
teledensity; television needed just 15 years to change the culture
and lives of many families; the Internet and its related services have
been penetrating and changing business practices and private com-
munications over the last 2 to 3 years.
Today wireless is becoming the leader in communication choices among
users. It is not anymore a backup solution for nomadic travellers but really a
newmoodnaturallyusedeverywhereevenwhenthewiredcommunicationsare
possible. Many technologies evolve then continuously, changing the TELECOM-
munication world. We talk about wireless local area networks (WLANs), wire-
less personal area networks (WPANs), wireless metropolitan area networks
(WMANs), wireless wide area networks (WWANs), mobile ad hoc networks
(MANETs), wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and mesh networks. Since we
can find today a multitude of wireless technologies we decided to group a
numberofcomplementarytechnologiesintoonedocumenttomakeiteasierfor
areadertounderstandsomeofthetechnicaldetailsofeachmedia.
