Chapter 10. Next-Generation Networks

Chapter 10. Next-Generation Networks

This chapter, which explores next-generation networks, is a very important chapter, particularly for those who are looking into the future of these technologies, attempting to make investment decisions, strategic plans, or decisions regarding business development, marketing, or public relations. This chapter covers the essentials of how architectures are shifting and the driving forces and trends behind the new infrastructures. This chapter examines the evolving broadband infrastructure and includes a high-level summary of two popular network architectures: Internet Protocol (IP) networks and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. It also looks at the broadband architectures, and in doing so, it explores the differences among various Quality of Service (QoS) tactics.