Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The Internet is rapidly becoming the universal medium to offer enhanced  services  such as telephony, real-time video and  multimedia communications.  These new services require increasing levels of performance and reliability. Service providers, such as Bell Sympatico, must therefore upgrade their networks to remain competitive. In order to do this, they need evaluation and design tools more suited to these emerging technologies. The major bottleneck to the new service offerings is currently the so-called access network that links the customer's computers and telephones to the core network. These access networks use widely different technologies such as high-speed internet access over telephone lines or wireless communications, but they must all provide the minimal quality of service requirements.  This is not a straightforward task given that the application's quality of service can vary widely depending on the actual technology used and the actual operating conditions at the time of transmission. In this project, we will develop advanced  techniques to measure and control the quality and  reliability of different types of access networks carrying a broad diversity of services.  We will study the current techniques for wireless and  DSL access as well as forthcoming improvements to these technologies. These tools will give a competitive advantage to Canadian companies by allowing them to plan more accurately and economically the access networks. The customers will in turn get  high quality, low cost enhanced services that are not currently available today.