Hybrid Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Network (WOBAN): A Network for Future

Speaker:	Suman Sarkar
		University of California, Davis

Title:		"Hybrid Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Network
		(WOBAN): A Network for Future"

Date:		Friday, 16 March 2007

Time:		2:00pm-3:00pm

Venue:		Rm4480 (via lift nos.25/26)
		HKUST

Abstract:

Hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN) is a promising
architecture for future access networks. Recently, the wireless part of
WOBAN has been gaining increasing attention and early versions are being
deployed as municipal access solutions to eliminate the wired drop to
every wireless router at customer premise. This architecture saves on
network deployment cost because fiber need not penetrate to each end user,
and it extends the reach of emerging optical access solutions such as
Passive Optical Networks (PONs).

This talk presents an architecture and a vision for WOBAN, and articulates
why the combination of wireless and optical presents a compelling solution
that optimizes the best of both worlds. While it briefly touches upon the
business drivers, the main arguments are based on technical and deployment
considerations. Consequently, the rest of the talk reviews a variety of
relevant research challenges, namely network setup, network connectivity,
and fault-tolerant behavior of WOBAN.


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Biography:

Suman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Networks Research Lab at UC Davis. His
research focuses on the design and analysis of a hybrid wireless-optical
broadband access network (WOBAN). Suman's other research interests are
optical access network and wireless mesh network.