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Scope

Based on the success of its predecessor, the First International Workshop on CN and FTTx, held in Dallas, TX in October 2003, COMNETS 2005 is planned to cover the whole spectrum of issues related to community networks and will integrate the main aspects of planning, design, implementation and operation of Community networks as well as first/last mile access networking technologies.

Community networks have evolved during the last decade in North America and, more recently, in Europe, from the concept of freenets or civic nets to the idea of open access networks, and represent a dramatic shift from the classical telecom infrastructures, service provisioning methods and business models.

The design of community networks requires the solution of challenging engineering tasks. The first objective of the workshop is to address network technology issues that include the optimal combination of wire-based (fiber, copper, DSL, cable etc.) and wireless technologies for the access part, the integration of the core/distribution and access networks, the provisioning of end-to-end quality of service for multimedia and other applications, the design of scalable applications and services tailored to the bandwidth and the access quality.

On the other hand, CNs, often being created, owned and operated with the participation of a local or regional government, are based on specific business models and service provisioning methods. Thus, the second objective of the workshop is to address the related business and social issues that include business models for planning, implementing, and operating CNs, legal/regulatory environment, planning of e-government, e-health, e-learning services. Case studies from all over the world are most welcome.

Workshop proceedings will be published on a CD along with main conference papers and they will appear on IEEE Xplore after the conference

Please join us in Boston for COMNETS 2005!