QoS for Fixed and Mobile Ultra-Broadband

4QoS for Fixed Ultra‐Broadband

Quality of service is equally important for both main types of access networks, fixed and mobile. Both have converged on the all‐IP principles, meaning that the user traffic end‐to‐end is IP traffic, so the QoS is directly related to end‐to‐end QoS in IP networks. In this chapter we cover the fixed access network technologies which are developing toward ultra‐broadband access as the first wave of broadband access. However, the term “ultra‐broadband” is a relative term, which refers to higher bitrates than previous broadband bitrates. Any bitrates in the access part (which directly influence the end‐to‐end bitrates if the access part is considered as a major possible bottleneck) are directly related to the time when a certain book is written.

So, if we are writing at the end of the second decade of the twenty‐first century about tens, hundreds, Mbit/s, and even Gbit/s achievable per individual users (including fixed and mobile access parts), in a couple of decades the numbers will develop further toward higher and higher bitrates, and that is a normal expectation. Of course, no one can really predict the access technologies in three, four, five, or more decades in the future because if that were the case then such technologies would be developed sooner. But, as is typical in telecommunications, one may look into the past and predict the development of the technology in a certain future. We do that for signals on the physical layer, so copper or fiber ...