The open access network architectural paradigm viewed versus peer approaches

Currently, the demand for wireless ubiquitous connectivity is increasing; moreover, as new types of applications and services emerge, the need for more bandwidth is steadily growing too. All of this promotes broadband deployment, integration with other access technologies, and additionally paves the way for new paradigms which solve the modern communication requirements of users. Among the paradigms currently successful and promising are Open Access Networks and Wireless Mesh Networks. OBAN (Open Broadband Access Network) [3] is the leading solution in the OAN trend. On the other hand, competing solutions are emerging especially ‘quick-and-dirty' drafted models which are trying to penetrate the market. Among those solutions is FON [4], whose core idea is identical to that of OBAN, but which only focuses on establishing a circle-of-trust among private users so as to increase the number of coverage spots. OBAN on the other hand focuses on supporting seamless handover, quality of service awareness and a sufficient level of security for residential as well as roaming users. This article analyzes from an architectural as well as a functional perspective the different trends and points out pros and cons of peer approaches compared to OBAN.