Bandwidth Management in Community Networks

The downturn in the economy and related telecom activities has led to the accelerated development of a new concept of Community (owned) Networks. A Community network represents a unique business model whose returns encompass social, economic as well as technology issues of a community. The new concept also provides a platform for multiple vendors to sell products and services, to reach out a larger customer base at a lower cost structure, and new opportunities to providers to work in tandem directly with customers/communities. For OPEX and CAPEX considerations and for better services, in community networks the issue of bandwidth management that supports provisioning in real time on a per demand real-time basis, is a critical issue for the future success of such networks. We address the various issues that need to be considered in designing a unified management scheme in these networks, accompanied by a detailed discussion of the concepts and challenges related community networks.