Broadband Applications and the Digital Home

by John Turnbull, Simon Garrett

Overview

This book explores some of the technological challenges in the application of digital communications technology in the home, including provision of fast, 'always on' internet connections. It looks at the ways consumers will use broadband access and what the key applications will be for provider and consumer. More broadly it aims to describe how communication to and within the home is evolving, and how people's lives are changing as they take advantage of the new technology and its applications.

The expert contributors consider delivery mechanisms for broadband, connecting the home to external networks as well as connecting devices and applications within the home. They discuss how people use and relate to the technology, and how it should be developed to meet their evolving needs. Current applications are described and how new applications are being developed to take advantage of new digital technology. Finally two visionaries give their insights into aspects of the future for the home environment and how much it will be a digital home.

This fascinating book provides balanced coverage of the issues surrounding this next phase of the development of communications and the Internet, which may transform our homes and the way we live. It will be of major interest to engineers and other professionals working in communications, IT, new technology and entertainment, as well as those active in research within a number of fields of technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780852964286
Publisher:	The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Publication date:	12/20/2002
Series:	Telecommunications , #5
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Turnbull joined BT in 1973, successively working on customer products, video-conferencing terminal equipment and new payphone terminals. He has worked on interactive TV trials, involving set-top box development and integration, multimedia terminal trials and early Midband ADSL trials. This work supported the launch and roll-out of the broadband ADSL service. He then led the Multimedia Terminals Group involved in further developments to support broadband, development of in-home networks, and the Easylife Home project. More recently, he has taken an organizational role in the Terminal and Applications unit and runs the Home Infrastructure Special Interest Group.

Simon Garrett heads the New Service Development team for Internet and multimedia products in BT. Previously he has led a wide variety of product developments in IT, telecommunications and consumer electronics. These have included e-Business, trust and security products, interactive TV services, electronic funds transfer, and screen-phone services. He was the designer of BT's Caller ID service and was one of the videotex pioneers He is also a consultant for the European Commission, and has chaired several government advisory committees for technical issues such as cable TV policy.

Table of Contents

• Part One: Delivery to the home
• Chapter 1: Broadband Access Technologies
• Chapter 2: Satellite - A New Opportunity for Broadband Access
• Part Two: Networking the Home
• Chapter 3: Introducing Home Area Networks
• Chapter 4: Broadband in the Home
• Chapter 5: Residential Gateways
• Chapter 6: Home Area Network Technologies
• Chapter 7: Standards for Broadband Customer Premises Equipment
• Part Three: Living in the Home
• Chapter 8: Domesticating Broadband - What Really Matters to Consumers
• Chapter 9: Is the Future Really Always-On?
• Chapter 10: Digital Living - People Centred Innovation and Strategy
• Chapter 11: Digital Homes - For Richer For Poorer, Who Are They For?
• Part Four: Applications
• Chapter 12: Clients, Servers and Broadband
• Chapter 13: Bandwidth-on-Demand Networks - a Solution to Peer-to-Peer
• Chapter 14: A 3-D Telepresence Collaborative Working Environment
• Chapter 15: A Virtual Studio Production Chain
• Part Five: The future digital home
• Chapter 16: Personal Virtual Humans - from Inhabiting the TalkZone to Populating the Digital Home
• Chapter 17: Hype and Reality in the Future Home