This paper covers the keynote address delivered by the
Chairman of the COST Action 285 at the Symposium. It outlines the
studies undertaken by the members of the Action with the objective of
enhancing existing modeling and simulation tools and to develop new ones
for research in emerging multiservice TELECOMMUNICATION networks. The
paper shows how the scope of COST Action 285 has been enriched by the
contributions made at the Symposium.
Communication protocols – for short protocols – form the basis for the opera-
tion of computer networks and TELECOMMUNICATION systems. They are behavior
conventions which describe how communication systems interact with each other
in computer networks. Protocols define the temporal order of the interactions and
the formats of the data units exchanged. Communication protocols comprise a
wide range of different functions and mechanisms, such as the sending and receiv-
ing of data units, their coding/decoding, error control mechanisms, timer control,
flow control, and many others.
Soon after Samuel Morse’s telegraphing device led to a deployed electri-
cal TELECOMMUNICATIONs system in 1843, waiting lines began to form by those
wanting to use the system. At this writing queueing is still a significant factor in
designing and operating communications services, whether they are provided
over the Internet or by other means, such as circuit switched networks.
One of the prerequisites for the development of TELECOMMUNICATION services is the
understanding of the propagation of the waves, either acoustic, electromagnetic,
radio or light waves, which are used for the transmission of information.
In this work, we shall limit ourselves to the study of radio waves: this term
apply to the electromagnetic waves used in radio communications. Their
frequency spectrum is very broad, and is divided into the following frequency
bands : ELF waves (f < 3 kHz), VLF (3-30 kHz), LF waves (30-300 kHz), MF
waves (300-3000 kHz), HF (3-30 MHz), VHF waves (30-300 MHz), UHF waves
(300-3000 MHz), SHF waves (3-30 GHz), EHF waves (30-300 GHz) and sub-
EHF waves (300-3000 GHz).
The idea for this book was born during one of my project-related trips to the beautiful city
of Hangzhou in China, where in the role of Chief Architect I had to guide a team of very
young, very smart and extremely dedicated software developers and verification engineers.
Soon it became clear that as eager as the team was to jump into the coding, it did not have
any experience in system architecture and design and if I did not want to spend all my time in
constant travel between San Francisco and Hangzhou, the only option was to groom a number
of local junior architects. Logically, one of the first questions being asked by these carefully
selected future architects was whether I could recommend a book or other learning material
that could speed up the learning cycle. I could not. Of course, there were many books on
various related topics, but many of them were too old and most of the updated information
was either somewhere on the Internet dispersed between many sites and online magazines, or
buried in my brain along with many years of experience of system architecture.
The dictionary definition of TELECOMMUNICATIONs is ‘communication over long
distance by cable, telegraph, telephone or broadcasting’, but since its initiation over
100yearsagothingshavemovedrapidly.TELECOMMUNICATIONsisnowaverycomplex
industrywithmanydifferentpressures,operatinginahighlydynamic environment.It
is best viewed as part of a wider industry known as information and communication
technology (ICT). The purpose of this chapter is to explain where TELECOMMUNICATION
fits in, to highlight some of the complexities – hopefully to simplify them – and to
position the industry in today’s dynamic business environment.
Second-generation TELECOMMUNICATION systems, such as the Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM), enabled voice traffic to go wireless: the number of mobile phones
exceeds the number of landline phones and the mobile phone penetration is approaching
100% in several markets. The data-handling capabilities of second-generation systems are
limited, however, and third-generation systems are needed to provide the high bit-rate
services that enable high-quality images and video to be transmitted and received, and to
provide access to the Web with higher data rates.
This book paves the path toward fourth generation (4G) mobile communica-
tion by introducing mobility in heterogeneous IP networks with both third
generation (3G) and wireless local area networks (WLANs), which is seen as
one of the central issues in the becoming 4G of TELECOMMUNICATIONs networks
and systems. This book presents a thorough overview of 3G networks and
standards and discusses interworking and handover mechanisms between
WLANs and the Universal Mobile TELECOMMUNICATION System (UMTS).
