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1

S. Sreenath Kashyap, Dr, Kantipudi MVV Prasad, and Dr Vipul M Dabhi. "Novel Microstrip Band Pass Filter for C- Band Wireless Applications." International Journal of Engineering & Technology 7, no. 4.6 (September 25, 2018): 227. http://dx.doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.6.20481.

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In this paper, a novel approach for designing the parallel coupled microstrip bandpass filter operating at C-band frequency is numerically analyzed iteratively and simulated. The physical dimensions are being finalized using standard odd- even impedance method. Various electrical parameters such as insertion loss, reflection loss are being analyzed and practical results are being compared and found same as the predicted results. The proposed design is fabricated on FR4 dielectric substrate and the experimental result shows the scientifically acceptable for C-band Applications.
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Авдєєнко, Гліб Леонідович, Сергій Георгійович Бунін, and Теодор Миколайович Наритник. "ТЕРАГЕРЦОВІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ В ТЕЛЕКОМУНІКАЦІЙНИХ СИСТЕМАХ. ЧАСТИНА 2. ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ТА МОДЕЛЮВАННЯ ПЕРЕДАВАННЯ ТЕЛЕВІЗІЙНИХ СИГНАЛІВ СТАНДАРТУ DVB-C І ІМПУЛЬСНОГО НАДШИРОКОСМУГОВОГО СИГНАЛУ РАДІОЛІНІЄЮ ТЕРАГЕРЦОВОГО ДІАПАЗОНУ." RADIOELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS, no. 3 (October 30, 2018): 80–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.32620/reks.2018.3.09.

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The laboratory testbed of a digital simplex radio-relay system of the terahertz range has been studied for the first time in practical terms. It consists of the receiver and transmitter parts of 130÷134 GHz frequency range and a digital modem with a channel data transmission of up to 1200 Mbps for a communication point-to-point distance under normal conditions within 1 km. It is shown that the proposed telecommunication system, which implements the concept of the creation of software-defined radio systems based on Wi-Fi technology, can be highly productive in the next generation mobile communication networks providing the appropriate transmission speeds, reliability, and security. It is studied the parameters of multichannel digital TV signal DVB-C standard when it is transmitted through the testbed of the transmitter and receiver parts of 130 GHz band. The results of the research showed that the application of lower part of terahertz frequency band (130 GHz) with a bandwidth of 24 MHz allows the transmission of three DVB-C television broadcasting channels with a total transport speed of 125 Mbit/s with a high subjective quality of TV programs. The results of the simulation of impulse ultrawideband (IR-UWB) signal transmission by the wireless link of terahertz band are presented. The results of researches of changes of IR-UWB Gaussian monocycle in the transmitter part and its reception by the receiver part of 130.4÷131.5 GHz terahertz band are presented for the first time. On the basis of the results of the research, the requirements for parameters of terahertz wireless link are formulated to ensure acceptable quality of ultrawideband impulse signals receiving. Development of the transmitter and receiver parts of radio relay system of the terahertz range has no direct current analogs in Ukraine. It can provide a significant breakthrough in the development of the telecommunications industry. The obtained research results will also contribute to the development of telecommunications-related industries, in particular: radio astronomy, inter-satellite communication, radar systems, medicine, etc.
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Bernacki, Krzysztof, Dominik Wybrańczyk, Marcin Zygmanowski, Andrzej Latko, Jarosław Michalak, and Zbigniew Rymarski. "Disturbance and Signal Filter for Power Line Communication." Electronics 8, no. 4 (March 28, 2019): 378. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/electronics8040378.

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Today, to use home automation, intelligent home controls or remote controls in the office, electronic equipment is moving away from wireless communication in favor of Power Line Communication (PLC). In the standard PLC solutions, the corrections that result from error transmissions are based on complex digital modulation methods and algorithms for validating the transmitted data without paying attention to the causes of the errors. This article focuses on the implementation of a filtering system for interference and signals in the 120–150 kHz band (CENELEC band C), which is injected into the network by transmitters. Such a filter separates the desired signal from the interference that is occurring in the network, which can result in communication errors. Moreover, when used properly, the filter can be used as a subsystem separation element. The paper presents the requirements, design, construction, simulation and test results that were obtained under actual operating conditions. It is possible to use less complex methods for correcting errors in transmission signals and to guarantee an improvement in the transmission rate using the proposed filter system.
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4

Afsar, Md Salah Uddin, Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque, Sabirin Abdullah, Mohammad Tariqul Islam, Mayeen Uddin Khandaker, and K. S. Al-Mugren. "An Innovative Compact Split-Ring-Resonator-Based Power Tiller Wheel-Shaped Metamaterial for Quad-Band Wireless Communication." Materials 16, no. 3 (January 28, 2023): 1137. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16031137.

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A split-ring resonator (SRR)-based power tiller wheel-shaped quad-band ℇ-negative metamaterial is presented in this research article. This is a new compact metamaterial with a high effective medium ratio (EMR) designed with three modified octagonal split-ring resonators (OSRRs). The electrical dimension of the proposed metamaterial (MM) unit cell is 0.086λ × 0.086λ, where λ is the wavelength calculated at the lowest resonance frequency of 2.35 GHz. Dielectric RT6002 materials of standard thickness (1.524 mm) were used as a substrate. Computer simulation technology (CST) Microwave Studio simulator shows four resonance peaks at 2.35, 7.72, 9.23 and 10.68 GHz with magnitudes of −43.23 dB −31.05 dB, −44.58 dB and −31.71 dB, respectively. Moreover, negative permittivity (ℇ) is observed in the frequency ranges of 2.35–3.01 GHz, 7.72–8.03 GHz, 9.23–10.02 GHz and 10.69–11.81 GHz. Additionally, a negative refractive index is observed in the frequency ranges of 2.36–3.19 GHz, 7.74–7.87 GHz, 9.26–10.33 GHz and 10.70–11.81 GHz, with near-zero permeability noted in the environments of these frequency ranges. The medium effectiveness indicator effective medium ratio (EMR) of the proposed MM is an estimated 11.61 at the lowest frequency of 2.35 GHz. The simulated results of the anticipated structure are validated by authentication processes such as array orientation, HFSS and ADS for an equivalent electrical circuit model. Given its high EMR and compactness in dimensions, the presented metamaterial can be used in S-, C- and X-band wireless communication applications.
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Sethi, Waleed Tariq, Hamsakutty Vettikalladi, Habib Fathallah, and Mohamed Himdi. "Equilateral Triangular Dielectric Resonator Nantenna at Optical Frequencies for Energy Harvesting." International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 2015 (2015): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/589459.

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The last decade has witnessed a remarkable growth in the telecommunication industry. With the introduction of smart gadgets, the demand for high data rate and bandwidth for wireless applications have increased exponentially at the cost of exponential consumption of energy. The latter is pushing the research and industry communities to devise green communication solutions that require the design of energy saving devices and techniques in one part and ambient energy harvesting techniques in the other part. With the advent of nanocomponents fabrication technology, researchers are now able to tap into the THz frequency regime and fabricate optical low profile antennas at a nanoscale. Optical antennas have proved their potential and are revolutionizing a class of novel optical detectors, interconnectors, sensors, and energy harvesting related fields. Authors in this paper propose an equilateral triangular dielectric resonator nantenna (ETDRNA) working at 193.5 THz standard optical frequency. The simulated antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth from 192.3 THz to 197.3 THz with an end-fire directivity of 8.6 dBi, covering the entire standard optical window of C-band. Numerical demonstrations prove the efficiency of the nantenna at the frequencies of interest, making it a viable candidate for future green energy harvesting and high speed optical applications.
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6

Aghashirin, Gholam D., MagedKafafy, Hoda S. Abdel-Aty-Zohdy, Mohamed A. Zohdy, and Adam Timmons. "Modeling and Designed of a Monopole Antenna that Operate at 3.3 GHz for Future 5G Sub 6 GHz." International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology 10, no. 5 (June 30, 2021): 338–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.35940/ijeat.e2832.0610521.

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Antenna unit is an importantpart of ADAS L2, L2+ and Automated Driving L3 systems. It needs to function as needed in dGPS, HD Map Correction Services, OEM Radios and Navigation Systems. The presented monopoleantenna model for 5G below 6 [GHz] operating at 3.3 [GHz] is developed. This work demonstrates the modeling, design, and determining of monopoleantenna with intended targeted applications within the automotive system emerging autonomous vehicles space and as well as 5G Wireless Cellular Technology domain. FEKO simulation is undertaken rather than mathematical modeling to create the structure and conduct the analysis of the proposed monopole antenna.In order to support the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication networks, SOS messages, vehicle tracking, remote vehicle start, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) L2, L2+/ Autonomous Driving (AD) L3 systems self-driving vehicles powered by 5G with rapidly growing sets of ADAS and AD features and functions within the autonomous space, USA cellular carriers mobile phone communication standard 4G MISO and 5G MIMO, LTE1, LTE2, connected functions, features/services, IoT, DSRC, V2X, and C-V2X applications and 5G enable vehicles destined for the NAFTA (USA, Canada and Mexico) market, a new single monopole antenna that operate at 3.3 [GHz] for future 5G (MIMO) below 6 [GHz] modeling, design and simulation with intended automotive applicability and applications is proposed. The presented novel new 5G below 6 [GHz] monopoleantenna: 1. Is not being investigated on the literatures review and published papers studied. 2. No paper exists on these frequency bands. 3. The desired monopole antenna is a new antenna with fewer components, reduction in size, low profile, competitive cost, better response to received RF signals for frequencies for future 5G below 6 [GHz] with each of the following: a. Range of operating frequencies, 0.6 [GHz] to 5.9256 [GHz]. b. Centerfrequency = 3.2628 [GHz] ~ 3.3 [GHz] for the above band. c. Lambda (λ) = (3.0 x10^8 [m/sec^2])/(3.3x10^9 [Hz])=0.090 [m] = 90 [mm], lambda (λ) /4 = (0.090 [m])/4=0.0225 [m]=22.5 m To be more direct, simulation studies are carried out and are done utilizing FEKO software package from Altair to model the proposed monopole antenna for 5G below 6 [GHz] frequency band. The focus is on the frequency band for 5G sub 6 [GHz] cellular system. The paper will introduce the following key points: 1. Modelled and anayzed single element 5G sub 6 [GHz] monopole antenna. 2. Student version of CAD FEKO program was used to design our desired monopole antenna with a wire feed excitation coupled with step-by-step instructions is undertaken to highlight the model geometry creation of our monopole antenna. POST FEKO program is used to plot and view our simulation results. 3. We report the development of 5G below 6 [GHz] for fifth generation (5G) system that meets automotive and vehicle homologation specification requirement of antenna height < 70 [mm]. So that the proposed monopole antenna can easly be integrated into multi tuned cellular antenna system. 4. The FEKO simulation is conducted in 2D and 3D element model, in terms of Far-Field Vertical Gain as a function of an Elevation Angle plots. 5. Future research work and study for the next steps will be recommended.
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7

Saraswat, Ritesh Kumar, and Mithilesh Kumar. "Design and Implementation of a Multiband Metamaterial-Loaded Reconfigurable Antenna for Wireless Applications." International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 2021 (December 13, 2021): 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/3888563.

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This article presents a multiband antenna with the implementation of a metamaterial split-ring resonator (SRR), quasicomplementary split-ring resonator (CSRR), and slots to achieve octaband characteristics for wireless standards. Multiband features are accomplished by the implementation of the slot approach within the radiating section part and loading the SRR and CSRR cells. The electrical dimension is 0.256λ × 0.176 λ × 0.0128λ (32 × 22 × 1.6 mm3) of the proposed design, at a lower frequency of 2.4 GHz. The proposed design indicates the frequency-band reconfigurability nature by using the switching PIN diode placed at the slotted section of the ground plane. During the OFF state of switching, the element structure resonates in eight wireless communication bands covering various high-speed multiple applications of Internet of Things (IoT) regarding wireless standards S-band WLAN (WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-wave, wireless HART, and WBAN), lower C-band (WAIC, satellite communication transmission application), C-band WLAN, X-band (ITU region 2), Ku-band (direct broadcast satellite system and terrestrial microwave communication system service), and K-band (radar communication application) at 2.4, 4.3, 5.8, 8.5, 11.1, 13.9, 16.1, and 18.9 GHz, respectively, with S11 ≤ −10 dB. The antenna achieves an optimum peak gain of 4.23 dBi and radiation efficiency of 82.78% at operating frequency regarding wireless standards. The average efficiency of the proposed design is more than 70% for all resonant modes. The radiation characteristics (gain/efficiency/patterns/impedance matching) are shown in the stable and improved form at achieved wireless modes.
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8

Chiu, Chung-Hsiu, Chun-Cheng Lin, Chih-Yu Huang, and Tsai-Ku Lin. "Compact Dual-Band Dipole Antenna with Asymmetric Arms for WLAN Applications." International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 2014 (2014): 1–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/195749.

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A dual-band dipole antenna that consists of a horn- and a C-shaped metallic arm is presented. Depending on the asymmetric arms, the antenna provides two −10 dB impedance bandwidths of 225 MHz (about 9.2% at 2.45 GHz) and 1190 MHz (about 21.6% at 5.5 GHz), respectively. This feature enables it to cover the required bandwidths for wireless local area network (WLAN) operation at the 2.4 GHz band and 5.2/5.8 GHz bands for IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standards. More importantly, the compact size (7 mm × 24 mm) and good radiating performance of the antenna are profitable to be integrated with wireless communication devices on restricted RF-elements spaces.
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9

Saraswat, Ritesh Kumar, and Mithilesh Kumar. "A metamaterial loaded hybrid fractal multiband antenna for wireless applications with frequency band reconfigurability characteristics." Frequenz 74, no. 11-12 (November 26, 2020): 401–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/freq-2020-0022.

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AbstractIn the present article authors propose the design and analysis of an octagonal shape multiband metamaterial loaded antenna with implementation of hybrid fractal geometry for wireless applications. Multiband features in the antenna structure is realized by applying the slotted and hybrid fractalization of Moore and Koch curve approach in radiating section along with introduction of two metamaterial SRR cells. The frequency band reconfigurability characteristics in proposed design is achieved by placing the PIN diode inside the connecting strip between the central hybrid fractal geometry and feedline. During forward bias condition of PIN diode antenna structure resonates at hepta (seven) band mode at WiMAX (3.5 GHz)/Lower C-band (4.41 GHz)/WLAN (5.4/5.8 GHz)/Lower X-band (8.26 GHz)/Upper X-band (10.48 GHz)/Lower Ku-band (13.35 GHz)/Middle Ku-band (14.42 GHz) wireless standards with S11 ≤ −10 dB. Proposed antenna represent the hexa and hepta band features during reverse bias (OFF-state) and forward bias condition (ON-state) of PIN diode respectively. A stable and consistent radiation patterns, appropriate impedance matching and an acceptable gain are achieved at all the operating frequencies of the proposed antenna.
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10

Qahtan Wali, S. "RF-EMF Measurement for 5G over C-band and mm-Wave frequency band: Exposure assessment and Procedures." IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1254, no. 1 (September 1, 2022): 012002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1254/1/012002.

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Abstract The 5G network is intended to accommodate a significant quantity of mobile data traffic as well as a great number of wireless connections. It improves cost, power consumption, and offers ultra-low latency and ultra-high dependability to enable new services in a variety of sectors. However, the general public is concerned about the possible health dangers linked with 5G equipment's Radio Frequency (RF) radiation, and numerous localities are actively lobbying to prevent 5G implementation. This aims to demonstrate the cause of increasing the amount of RF-EMF exposure, and the international standards of RF-EMF accepted limits. In addition, it aims to illustrate some measurement procedures to conduct RF-EMF measurement for different researchers and two other procedures and the result of the maximum exposure emitted by a 5G base station operating on 3.5 GHz and the mm-Wave frequency band by the author of this paper.
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11

Alok, Dubey, Srivastava Akhilesh, Ashutosh, and Chandan. "A compact triple bands C shaped multiband monopole antenna for WLAN and WiMAX application." i-manager's Journal on Communication Engineering and Systems 12, no. 1 (2023): 17. http://dx.doi.org/10.26634/jcs.12.1.19767.

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Antennas play a crucial role in communication as they serve as both transmitters and receivers. They are capable of supporting numerous applications and demanding higher bandwidth among which monopole antennas have emerged as a superior alternative to traditional antennas. A novel coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed triple-band monopole antenna is proposed for WLAN and WiMAX applications. The antenna features a compact and simple Cshaped strip structure, allowing for easy fabrication. The prototype exhibits triple operating bands covering the required bandwidths of 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN and 3.5/5.5 GHz WiMAX standards. Good radiation performance and antenna gain are achieved across the three frequency ranges. Another compact monopole multiband antenna is designed, consisting of five rectangular patches forming a C-shaped structure. It operates at frequencies covering WiMAX, WLAN, short-range radar, and wireless data transmission applications. The antenna demonstrates significant bandwidth to accommodate the respective frequency ranges required for these applications. The antenna design is simulated using HFSS v13 software.
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Dalla Valle, Paul, and Nicolas Cavassilas. "A Van Der Waals Heterojunction Based on Monolayers of MoS2 and WSe2 for Overall Solar Water Splitting." ECS Meeting Abstracts MA2022-02, no. 48 (October 9, 2022): 1797. http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/ma2022-02481797mtgabs.

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Solar water splitting (SWS) has been widely studied as a promising technology for generating carbon-free hydrogen. In overall water splitting, the cathode and the anode produce simultaneously H2 and O2, respectively. This process requires a bias of 1.23 V between the two electrodes. Considering the various intrinsic losses in the system (such as the catalytic overpotentials), the bias is reported as 1.6-2.4 V.1 In SWS, the active core of the system absorbs sunlight to generate non-equilibrium electron-hole pairs producing a bias. Considering an absorber made of a single material, this bias is inversely proportional to the amount of sunlight absorbed, leading to the Shockley–Queisser limit. To achieve high bias while maximising the absorption, one can use a type II heterojunction of two absorbers in a Z-scheme configuration.2 Moreover, to improve the overall water splitting process, the electron-hole pairs must be generated as close to the surface as possible. Here, we present a complete design of a direct Z-scheme system based on two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC). We also implement a multi-physics model using density functional theory (DFT), the detailed balance method and the Butler-Volmer kinetics to compute the STH efficiency. TMDCs and their van der Waals heterojunctions (vdWH) are attractive for photovoltaic3 and catalytic4,5 applications and the production of 2D TMDC is easy and low-cost thanks to the exfoliation process.6 The active core of the presented system is a MoS2/WSe2 vdWH where MoS2 and WSe2 are the anode and the cathode, respectively. The scheme of the proposed cell is presented in Fig. 1(a) where two distinct regions form its active core: with and without a 2D hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layer isolating the MoS2 and WSe2 layers. Fig. 1(b) represents the band diagram of region 1, where the two layers are isolated. In this region 1, electrons generated in WSe2 and holes generated in MoS2 produce the electrochemical reactions. As confirmed by our DFT calculations, the band edges positions are suitable with χO2 and χH2 equal to 0.66 eV and 0.50 eV respectively at pH 7 (see Fig 1(b)). The extra carriers generated in the first region (i.e., the electrons of MoS2 and the holes of WSe2) must recombine to avoid an accumulation of carriers which would stop the SWS process. They have to diffuse into region 2, without hBN. As depicted in Fig. 1(c), which presents the band diagram of this corresponding region, the recombination is ensured by the hybridisation of the electronic states in the valence band of the TMDCs. This hybridisation, which is confirmed by our DFT calculations, has also been experimentally observed7. Our ab initio calculations show very efficient recombination. Consequently, a small fraction of region 2 suffices to enable the recombination of all extra electron-hole pairs. This is advantageous for the design of the device since we can imagine stacking exfoliated flakes of MoS2, hBN and WSe2 randomly to produce the active core. The non-ideal stacking will inevitably create some regions 2 without hBN. Finally, we propose that the ultra-thin active core is protected and supported by mesoporous transparent oxide, enabling the free circulation of gases and water. Since some parameters of the considered materials are not well known, we calculate the STH efficiency using our multi-physics model considering 3 different cases: ideal, high-performance, and standard quality. In the latter case, with an optimized ratio of regions 1 and 2 and considering a high optical absorption, we find a 14 % efficiency Since the ultimate thinness of the active region limits the optical absorption, we propose that the mesoporous oxide serves as a support for absorption enhancement systems, such as photonic crystals, resonant cavities, nanoparticles. This work, therefore, proposes the design of a system that exceeds the critical 10% efficiency required to make SWS economically viable.8 Since our system is wireless and requires simple manufacturing processes (exfoliation), this result is remarkable. References M. G. Walter et al., Chem. Rev., 110, 6446–6473 (2010). Q. Xu et al., Materials Today, 21, 1042–1063 (2018). S. Das, D. Pandey, J. Thomas, and T. Roy, Adv. Mater., 31, 1802722 (2019). J. Wu et al., Adv. Mater. Interfaces, 3, 1500669 (2016). X. Yin et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 50, 10087–10115 (2021). K. Si et al., Appl. Surf. Sci., 507, 145082 (2020). O. Karni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 123, 247402 (2019). Y. Fan, J. Wang, and M. Zhao, Nanoscale, 11, 14836–14843 (2019). Figure 1
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Diet, Antoine M., Nicolas Ribière-Tharaud, Martine Villegas, and Geneviève Baudoin. "Front-end HPA/antenna for multi-radio." International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 4, no. 5 (May 1, 2012): 483–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1759078712000372.

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This paper focuses on multi-radio front-end transmitter, a function implied by cognitive radio (0.5–6 GHz). S and C bands standards (wireless local and metropolitan area networks) present a challenge, due to the signal modulation schemes (orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM)/WCDMA, wideband code division multiple access) dynamic (tens of dBs), driving us to a mandatory transmitter linearization. The idea is to provide frequency, flexibility, and average power control of a multi-radio high-efficiency front end for such signals (polar/envelope elimination and restoration (EER) structure). The study implies antennas design and average power control demonstration. Based on a switched mode power amplifier (PA), a discrete detuning is possible to adapt the PA at both “WiMAX” and “Wifi5” frequencies. This architecture amplifies signals with amplitude information. This is coded here by the ΣΔ/PWM (pulse width modulation) technique, to present a constant envelope signal. The amplitude information is restored by a pass-band radio frequency (RF) filter. The antenna can be designed with a notch, to reduce the filtering constraints (selectivity and standards coexistences) and to help in the restoration of amplitude information. Average power control is illustrated by voltage supply variation and results are a possible dynamic of 9.5 dB. To complete the analysis, the simulation of the propagation channel, including antennas, with CST (free space, line of sight) is imported under AGILENT-ADS.
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Goulart, Ana E., and Abhijeet Sahu. "Cellular IoT for Mobile Autonomous Reporting in the Smart Grid." International Journal of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications and Networking 8, no. 3 (July 2016): 50–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijitn.2016070104.

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Wireless access technologies are being embedded in utility meters, health devices, public safety systems, among others. These devices have low processing power and communicate at low data rates. New communication standards are being developed to support these machine-type communications (MTC), such as Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT), which is being developed by the third generation partnership project (3GPP). CIoT introduces cooperative ultra-narrow band (C-UNB) communications. It supports ad-hoc uplink transmissions, delay-tolerant downlink transmissions, and a simple authentication scheme. The C-UNB approach is proposed for Mobile Autonomous Reporting (MAR) applications, but it is not clear if it can be used for smart grid systems, such as sensors and smart meters in the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). In this paper, the authors review the C-UNB approach, study its performance in terms of collision rate and throughput, and discuss its potential for smart grid reporting applications.
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Wu, Zhuofei, Stefania Bartoletti, Vincent Martinez, Vittorio Todisco, and Alessandro Bazzi. "Analysis of Co-Channel Coexistence Mitigation Methods Applied to IEEE 802.11p and 5G NR-V2X Sidelink." Sensors 23, no. 9 (April 27, 2023): 4337. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23094337.

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Direct communication between vehicles and surrounding objects, called vehicle-to-everything (V2X), is ready for the market and promises to raise the level of safety and comfort while driving. To this aim, specific bands have been reserved in some countries worldwide and different wireless technologies have been developed; however, these are not interoperable. Recently, the issue of co-channel coexistence has been raised, leading the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to propose a number of solutions, called mitigation methods, for the coexistence of the IEEE 802.11p based ITS-G5 and the 3GPP fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE)-V2X sidelink. In this work, several of the envisioned alternatives are investigated when adapted to the coexistence of the IEEE 802.11p with its enhancement IEEE 802.11bd and the latest 3GPP standards, i.e., the fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR)-V2X. The results, obtained through an open-source simulator that is shared with the research community for the evaluation of additional proposals, show that the methods called A and C, which require modifications to the standards, improve the transmission range of one or both systems without affecting the other, at least in low-density scenarios.
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Graña, Manuel, Marina Aguilar-Moreno, Javier De Lope Asiain, Ibai Baglietto Araquistain, and Xavier Garmendia. "Improved Activity Recognition Combining Inertial Motion Sensors and Electroencephalogram Signals." International Journal of Neural Systems 30, no. 10 (September 11, 2020): 2050053. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0129065720500537.

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Human activity recognition and neural activity analysis are the basis for human computational neureoethology research dealing with the simultaneous analysis of behavioral ethogram descriptions and neural activity measurements. Wireless electroencephalography (EEG) and wireless inertial measurement units (IMU) allow the realization of experimental data recording with improved ecological validity where the subjects can be carrying out natural activities while data recording is minimally invasive. Specifically, we aim to show that EEG and IMU data fusion allows improved human activity recognition in a natural setting. We have defined an experimental protocol composed of natural sitting, standing and walking activities, and we have recruited subjects in two sites: in-house ([Formula: see text]) and out-house ([Formula: see text]) populations with different demographics. Experimental protocol data capture was carried out with validated commercial systems. Classifier model training and validation were carried out with scikit-learn open source machine learning python package. EEG features consist of the amplitude of the standard EEG frequency bands. Inertial features were the instantaneous position of the body tracked points after a moving average smoothing to remove noise. We carry out three validation processes: a 10-fold cross-validation process per experimental protocol repetition, (b) the inference of the ethograms, and (c) the transfer learning from each experimental protocol repetition to the remaining repetitions. The in-house accuracy results were lower and much more variable than the out-house sessions results. In general, random forest was the best performing classifier model. Best cross-validation results, ethogram accuracy, and transfer learning were achieved from the fusion of EEG and IMUs data. Transfer learning behaved poorly compared to classification on the same protocol repetition, but it has accuracy still greater than 0.75 on average for the out-house data sessions. Transfer leaning accuracy among repetitions of the same subject was above 0.88 on average. Ethogram prediction accuracy was above 0.96 on average. Therefore, we conclude that wireless EEG and IMUs allow for the definition of natural experimental designs with high ecological validity toward human computational neuroethology research. The fusion of both EEG and IMUs signals improves activity and ethogram recognition.
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López, Juan Manuel, Jesús Alonso, César Asensio, Ignacio Pavón, Luis Gascó, and Guillermo de Arcas. "A Digital Signal Processor Based Acoustic Sensor for Outdoor Noise Monitoring in Smart Cities." Sensors 20, no. 3 (January 22, 2020): 605. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20030605.

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Presently, large cities have significant problems with noise pollution due to human activity. Transportation, economic activities, and leisure activities have an important impact on noise pollution. Acoustic noise monitoring must be done with equipment of high quality. Thus, long-term noise monitoring is a high-cost activity for administrations. For this reason, new alternative technological solutions are being used to reduce the costs of measurement instruments. This article presents a design for a versatile electronic device to measure outdoor noise. This device has been designed according to the technical standards for this type of instrument, which impose strict requirements on both the design and the quality of the device’s measurements. This instrument has been designed under the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) concept, so the microphone–electronics set can be used as a sensor that can be connected to any microprocessor-based device, and therefore can be easily attached to a monitoring network. To validate the instrument’s design, the device has been tested following the regulations of the calibration laboratories for sound level meters (SLM). These tests allowed us to evaluate the behavior of the electronics and the microphone, obtaining different results for these two elements. The results show that the electronics and algorithms implemented fully fit within the requirements of type 1 noise measurement instruments. However, the use of an electret microphone reduces the technical features of the designed instrument, which can only fully fit the requirements of type 2 noise measurement instruments. This situation shows that the microphone is a key element in this kind of instrument and an important element in the overall price. To test the instrument’s quality and show how it can be used for monitoring noise in smart wireless acoustic sensor networks, the designed equipment was connected to a commercial microprocessor board and inserted into the infrastructure of an existing outdoor monitoring network. This allowed us to deploy a low-cost sub-network in the city of Málaga (Spain) to analyze the noise of conflict areas due to high levels of leisure noise. The results obtained with this equipment are also shown. It has been verified that this equipment meets the similar requirements to those obtained for type 2 instruments for measuring outdoor noise. The designed equipment is a two-channel instrument, that simultaneously measures, in real time, 86 sound noise parameters for each channel, such as the equivalent continuous sound level (Leq) (with Z, C, and A frequency weighting), the peak level (with Z, C, and A frequency weighting), the maximum and minimum levels (with Z, C, and A frequency weighting), and the impulse, fast, and slow time weighting; seven percentiles (1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 90%, 95%, and 99%); as well as continuous equivalent sound pressure levels in the one-third octave and octave frequency bands.
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18

Alam, Md Mottahir, Rezaul Azim, Nebras M. Sobahi, Asif Irshad Khan, and Mohammad Tariqul Islam. "A dual-band CPW-fed miniature planar antenna for S-, C-, WiMAX, WLAN, UWB, and X-band applications." Scientific Reports 12, no. 1 (May 9, 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11679-7.

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AbstractA miniature planar antenna is a vital component of any portable wireless communication device. The antenna in portable devices should provide wide/multiple operating bands to cover a good number of narrowband services as a multi-band antenna not only reduces the number of antennas but also lessens the system complexity, cost, and device size. To operate over S-, C-, WiMAX, WLAN, UWB, and X-communication bands, in this paper, a dual-band CPW-fed antenna is presented. The anticipated antenna is made up of a vertical bow-tie-shaped patch and two asymmetric ground planes and etched on the same side of the single-sided standard substrate material. To generate two distinct operating bands, an inverted L-shaped parasitic element is inserted within the modified U-shaped coplanar ground plane. The antenna achieved dual operating bands of 3.24–8.29 GHz and 9.12–11.25 GHz in measurement which helps the proposed antenna to cover S-, C-, WiMAX, WLAN, 4G LTE, 5G sub-6 GHz, UWB, and X-communication bands. In the two operating bands, the antenna realized a peak gain of 4.33 dBi, and 4.80 dBi, the maximum radiation efficiency of 86.6%, and 72.6%, and exhibits symmetric radiation patterns. In the operating bands, the antenna also exhibits good time-domain behavior which helps it to transmit the signal with minimum distortion.
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Truong, Duc-Tai, Quoc-Tuan Nguyen, and Thai-Mai Thi Dinh. "Performance of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Based Advanced Encryption Standard." VNU Journal of Science: Computer Science and Communication Engineering 36, no. 1 (June 3, 2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.25073/2588-1086/vnucsce.240.

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Currently, there are a lot of secure communication schemes have been proposed to hide secret contents. In this work, one of the methods deploying encryption to cipher data is represented. The primary object of this project is applying Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in communications based Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). This article discusses the security of the method encrypting directly QAM symbols instead of input bit-stream. This leads to improving the security of transmitting data by utilization of authentication key between the mobile and base station. The archived results demonstrate that the performance of the AES-OFDM system is completely acceptable to compare with the criteria for 4G. Keywords: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Authentication Key, Cellular Network, Encryption, Physical Layer, 4G, LTE. References [1] M.A. Jessen, “Wireless communication security: Physical-Layer techniques exploiting radio and propagation characteristics”, Wireless Information Technology and Systems (ICWITS), IEEE International Conference, 2012.[2] M. Kim, M. Lee, S. Kim, D. Won, “Weakness and Improvements of a One-time Password Authentication Scheme”, International Journal of Future Generation Communication and Networking, 2009. [3] Alabaichi, Ashwaq, Salih, Adnan, “Enhance security of advance encryption standard algorithm based on key-dependent S-box”, 2015, pp. 44-53. [4] S. Xiao, W. Gong, D. Towsley, “Secure Wireless Communication with Dynamic secrets”, IEEE INFOCOM, 2010.[5] N.U. Rehman, L. Zhang, M.Z. Hammad, “ICI cancellation in OFDM system by frequency offset reduction”, Journal of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014. [6] Nikita Agrawal, Neelesh Gupta, “Security of OFDM through Steganography”, International Journal of Computer Applications 121(20) (2015) 41-43. [7] A. Al-Dweik, M. Mirahmadi, A. Sharmi, Z. Ding, R. Hamila, “Joint Secured and Robust technique for OFDM systems”, Western University, Canada, IEEE ICC 2013. [8] G.R. Tsouri, D. Wulich, “Securing OFDM over Wireless Time-varying channel using subcarrier overloading with Joint signal constellations”, Hindawi Publishing Corporation, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communication and Networking, 2009. [9] D. Rajaveerappa, A. Almarimi, A., “RSA/Shift secured IFFT/FFT based OFDM wireless system,” Fifth International Conference on Information Assurance and Security, 2009. [10] M. Hilmey, S. Elhalafwy, M. Zein Eldin, “Efficient transmission of chaotic and AES encrypted images with OFDM over an AWGN channel”, 2009 International Conference on Computer Engineering & Systems, Cairo, 2009, pp. 353-358. [11] B.V. Naik, N.L.K. Sai, C.M. Kumar, “Efficient transmission of encrypted images with OFDM system”, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI), Chennai, 2017, pp. 2383-2388. [12] S.M.S. Eldin, “Optimized OFDM Transmission of Encrypted Image Over Fading Channel”, An International Journal on Sensing and Imaging 15(1) (2014), pp. 1-14. [13] C. Akbar, H. Mahmood, Q. Minhas, I. Mustafa, “Secure AES OFDM with channel reciprocity exploitation through relative calibration”, 2016 International Conference on Open Source Systems & Technologies (ICOSST), Lahore, 2016, pp. 54-61. [14] Y. Liang, J. Ren, T. Li, “Secure OFDM System Design and Capacity Analysis Under Disguised Jamming”, in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 15 (2020) 738-752. [15] Westlund, B. Harold, “NIST reports measurable success of Advanced Encryption Standard”,Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2002. [16] B. Schneier, J. Kelsey, D. Whiting, D. Wagner, C. Hall, N. Ferguson, Performance Comparison of the AES Submissions, Proceedings of the Second AES Candidate Conference, 1999. [17] S. He, A. Tang, H. Zhang, “A high-performance Implementation of OFDM-MIMO base-band in wireless video system”, Information Technology Journal 13 (2014), pp. 1678-1685.
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Ramachandran, Tayaallen, Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque, Air Mohammad Siddiky, and Mohammad Tariqul Islam. "Reduction of 5G cellular network radiation in wireless mobile phone using an asymmetric square shaped passive metamaterial design." Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (January 29, 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82105-7.

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AbstractThis study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of metamaterial application in absorption reduction of 5G electromagnetic (EM) energy in the human head tissue. In a general sense, the radio frequency (RF) energy that received by wireless mobile phone from the base station, will emit to surrounding when the devices are in active mode. Since the latest fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks is upon us, the emission of radiation from any wireless devices needs to be taken into consideration. This motivation helps to prepare this paper that focuses on construction of novel and compact square-shaped metamaterial (SM) design to reduce electromagnetic exposure to humans. The commercially available substrate material known as FR-4 with thickness of 1.6 mm was selected to place the metamaterial design on it. The electromagnetic properties and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) analyses were carried out numerically by utilising high-performance 3D EM analysis, Computer Simulation Technology Studio (CST) software. Meanwhile, for the validation purpose, the metamaterial designs for both unit and array cells were fabricated to measure the electromagnetic properties of the material. From the numerical simulation, the introduced SM design manifested quadruple resonance frequencies in multi bands precisely at 1.246 (at L-band), 3.052, 3.794 (at S-band), and 4.858 (C-band) GHz. However, the comparison of numerically simulated and measured data reveals a slight difference between them where only the second resonance frequency was decreased by 0.009 GHz while other frequencies were increased by 0.002, 0.045, and 0.117 GHz in sequential order. Moreover, the SAR analysis recorded high values at 3.794 GHz with 61.16% and 70.33% for 1 g and 10 g of tissue volumes, respectively. Overall, our results demonstrate strong SAR reduction effects, and the proposed SM design may be considered a promising aspect in the telecommunication field.
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Lima, Eduardo Saia, Ramon Maia Borges, Nicola Andriolli, Evandro Conforti, Giampiero Contestabile, and Arismar Cerqueira Sodré. "Integrated optical frequency comb for 5G NR Xhauls." Scientific Reports 12, no. 1 (September 30, 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20553-5.

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AbstractWe experimentally demonstrate the use of optical frequency combs (OFCs), generated by a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), in a flexible optical distribution network based on fiber-optics and free-space optics (FSOs) links, aimed at the fifth generation of mobile network (5G) Xhauls. The Indium Phosphide (InP) monolithically integrated OFC is based on cascaded optical modulators and is broadly tunable in terms of operating wavelength and frequency spacing. Particularly, our approach relies on applying the PIC in a centralized radio access network (C-RAN) architecture, with the purpose of optically generating two low-phase noise mm-waves signals for simultaneously enabling a 12.5-km of single-mode fiber (SMF) fronthaul and a 12.5-km SMF midhaul, followed by a 10-m long FSO fronthaul link. Moreover, the demonstrator contemplates two 10-m reach 5G wireless access networks operating in the 26 GHz band, i.e. over the frequency range 2 (FR2) from the 5G NR standard. The proposed integrated OFC-based 5G system performance is in accordance to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 15 requirements, achieving a total wireless throughput of 900 Mbit/s.
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Zhao, Chonghao, and Gang Wu. "On potential challenges of V2X sidelink relaying under interference: link-level and system-level simulation with neural network assisted." EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2023, no. 1 (April 25, 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13638-023-02244-5.

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AbstractThe ever-increasing demand for high data rates and high connection densities in the vehicle communication network, along with the widespread adoption of radio access over the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, has been a major driver for the research on cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communication. Nevertheless, Wi-Fi and other wireless communication technology work on the 5.9 GHz unlicensed band has also undergone booming proliferation over the years. C-V2X users dedicated band on the 5.9 GHz spectrum may thus suffer from both co-channel and adjacent channel interference, which cannot be negligible, especially in urban scenarios. To this end, 3GPP has standardized relay technology in New Radio (NR) V2X sidelink to extend the transmission range under interference. In this paper, through a link-level and system-level simulation study, we evaluate the sidelink performance in relaying scenarios under different interference. Motivated by the recent success of deep learning, a novel neural network is further introduced as a unified benchmark for interference mitigation evaluation. Numerical results show that there exist challenges in the real-time optimization of transmission scheme selection and power allocation in relay-assisted cases. The simulation also reveals that the interference incurred by NR on unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) signals and other sidelink signals is intractable to be suppressed, which may bring potential challenges in future works.
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23

Noori, Hamed, Ruizhan Shen, Amith Khandakar, Lorena de Geuser, and David G. Michelson. "Detection and Reporting of Wireless Channel Congestion and Interference in Connected Vehicle Networks." Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, February 28, 2023, 036119812211124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03611981221112421.

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Connected vehicle (CV) wireless networks based on dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) intelligent transportation systems (ITS-G5), and C-V2X technologies are susceptible to interference from both unintentional emitters and non-CV devices that may be authorized to share the same or adjacent bands. Such interference may lead to unreliable communication and disruption of CV services with a particular impact on safety-related applications. Surprisingly, considering the safety-critical nature of CV applications, there is no simple mechanism for detecting congestion or interference in such networks over wide areas. To address this gap, we propose and demonstrate that both interference and congestion in DSRC and ETSI ITS-G5 networks can be detected simply and inexpensively using capabilities that are already incorporated into the IEEE 802.11p standard, specifically the flags and statistics generated mostly in the physical layer (physical layer convergence procedure and physical medium dependent) state machines. Such a capability could be realized through a relatively minor software upgrade but would resolve a longstanding but underappreciated concern that CV networks are vulnerable to both congestion and a variety of short-range interferers but lack the capability to detect or report this. Although our focus was on DSRC and ITS-G5, similar considerations apply to related schemes such as C-V2X.
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Min, Jin-Young, Sang-Won Ha, Kiwon Lee, and Kyoung-Bok Min. "Use of electroencephalogram, gait, and their combined signals for classifying cognitive impairment and normal cognition." Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 14 (September 7, 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.927295.

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BackgroundEarly identification of people at risk for cognitive decline is an important step in delaying the occurrence of cognitive impairment. This study investigated whether multimodal signals assessed using electroencephalogram (EEG) and gait kinematic parameters could be used to identify individuals at risk of cognitive impairment.MethodsThe survey was conducted at the Veterans Medical Research Institute in the Veterans Health Service Medical Center. A total of 220 individuals volunteered for this study and provided informed consent at enrollment. A cap-type wireless EEG device was used for EEG recording, with a linked-ear references based on a standard international 10/20 system. Three-dimensional motion capture equipment was used to collect kinematic gait parameters. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was evaluated by Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Core (SNSB-C).ResultsThe mean age of the study participants was 73.5 years, and 54.7% were male. We found that specific EEG and gait parameters were significantly associated with cognitive status. Individuals with decreases in high-frequency EEG activity in high beta (25–30 Hz) and gamma (30–40 Hz) bands increased the odds ratio of MCI. There was an association between the pelvic obliquity angle and cognitive status, assessed by MCI or SNSB-C scores. Results from the ROC analysis revealed that multimodal signals combining high beta or gamma and pelvic obliquity improved the ability to discriminate MCI individuals from normal controls.ConclusionThese findings support prior work on the association between cognitive status and EEG or gait, and offer new insights into the applicability of multimodal signals to distinguish cognitive impairment.
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Dwyer, Tim. "Transformations." M/C Journal 7, no. 2 (March 1, 2004). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2339.

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The Australian Government has been actively evaluating how best to merge the functions of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) for around two years now. Broadly, the reason for this is an attempt to keep pace with the communications media transformations we reduce to the term “convergence.” Mounting pressure for restructuring is emerging as a site of turf contestation: the possibility of a regulatory “one-stop shop” for governments (and some industry players) is an end game of considerable force. But, from a public interest perspective, the case for a converged regulator needs to make sense to audiences using various media, as well as in terms of arguments about global, industrial, and technological change. This national debate about the institutional reshaping of media regulation is occurring within a wider global context of transformations in social, technological, and politico-economic frameworks of open capital and cultural markets, including the increasing prominence of international economic organisations, corporations, and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Although the recently concluded FTA with the US explicitly carves out a right for Australian Governments to make regulatory policy in relation to existing and new media, considerable uncertainty remains as to future regulatory arrangements. A key concern is how a right to intervene in cultural markets will be sustained in the face of cultural, politico-economic, and technological pressures that are reconfiguring creative industries on an international scale. While the right to intervene was retained for the audiovisual sector in the FTA, by contrast, it appears that comparable unilateral rights to intervene will not operate for telecommunications, e-commerce or intellectual property (DFAT). Blurring Boundaries A lack of certainty for audiences is a by-product of industry change, and further blurs regulatory boundaries: new digital media content and overlapping delivering technologies are already a reality for Australia’s media regulators. These hypothetical media usage scenarios indicate how confusion over the appropriate regulatory agency may arise: 1. playing electronic games that use racist language; 2. being subjected to deceptive or misleading pop-up advertising online 3. receiving messaged imagery on your mobile phone that offends, disturbs, or annoys; 4. watching a program like World Idol with SMS voting that subsequently raises charging or billing issues; or 5. watching a new “reality” TV program where products are being promoted with no explicit acknowledgement of the underlying commercial arrangements either during or at the end of the program. These are all instances where, theoretically, regulatory mechanisms are in place that allow individuals to complain and to seek some kind of redress as consumers and citizens. In the last scenario, in commercial television under the sector code, no clear-cut rules exist as to the precise form of the disclosure—as there is (from 2000) in commercial radio. It’s one of a number of issues the peak TV industry lobby Commercial TV Australia (CTVA) is considering in their review of the industry’s code of practice. CTVA have proposed an amendment to the code that will simply formalise the already existing practice . That is, commercial arrangements that assist in the making of a program should be acknowledged either during programs, or in their credits. In my view, this amendment doesn’t go far enough in post “cash for comment” mediascapes (Dwyer). Audiences have a right to expect that broadcasters, production companies and program celebrities are open and transparent with the Australian community about these kinds of arrangements. They need to be far more clearly signposted, and people better informed about their role. In the US, the “Commercial Alert” <http://www.commercialalert.org/> organisation has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to achieve similar in-program “visual acknowledgements.” The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (“Cash-for-Comment”) found widespread systemic regulatory failure and introduced three new standards. On that basis, how could a “standstill” response by CTVA, constitute best practice for such a pervasive and influential medium as contemporary commercial television? The World Idol example may lead to confusion for some audiences, who are unsure whether the issues involved relate to broadcasting or telecommunications. In fact, it could be dealt with as a complaint to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) under an ACA registered, but Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) developed, code of practice. These kind of cross-platform issues may become more vexed in future years from an audience’s perspective, especially if reality formats using on-screen premium rate service numbers invite audiences to participate, by sending MMS (multimedia messaging services) images or short video grabs over wireless networks. The political and cultural implications of this kind of audience interaction, in terms of access, participation, and more generally the symbolic power of media, may perhaps even indicate a longer-term shift in relations with consumers and citizens. In the Internet example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Internet advertising jurisdiction would apply—not the ABA’s “co-regulatory” Internet content regime as some may have thought. Although the ACCC deals with complaints relating to Internet advertising, there won’t be much traction for them in a more complex issue that also includes, say, racist or religious bigotry. The DVD example would probably fall between the remits of the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) new “convergent” Guidelines for the Classification of Film and Computer Games and race discrimination legislation administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The OFLC’s National Classification Scheme is really geared to provide consumer advice on media products that contain sexual and violent imagery or coarse language, rather than issues of racist language. And it’s unlikely that a single person would have the locus standito even apply for a reclassification. It may fall within the jurisdiction of the HREOC depending on whether it was played in public or not. Even then it would probably be considered exempt on free speech grounds as an “artistic work.” Unsolicited, potentially illegal, content transmitted via mobile wireless devices, in particular 3G phones, provide another example of content that falls between the media regulation cracks. It illustrates a potential content policy “turf grab” too. Image-enabled mobile phones create a variety of novel issues for content producers, network operators, regulators, parents and viewers. There is no one government media authority or agency with a remit to deal with this issue. Although it has elements relating to the regulatory activities of the ACA, the ABA, the OFLC, the TIO, and TISSC, the combination of illegal or potentially prohibited content and its carriage over wireless networks positions it outside their current frameworks. The ACA may argue it should have responsibility for this kind of content since: it now enforces the recently enacted Commonwealth anti-Spam laws; has registered an industry code of practice for unsolicited content delivered over wireless networks; is seeking to include ‘adult’ content within premium rate service numbers, and, has been actively involved in consumer education for mobile telephony. It has also worked with TISSC and the ABA in relation to telephone sex information services over voice networks. On the other hand, the ABA would probably argue that it has the relevant expertise for regulating wirelessly transmitted image-content, arising from its experience of Internet and free and subscription TV industries, under co-regulatory codes of practice. The OFLC can also stake its claim for policy and compliance expertise, since the recently implemented Guidelines for Classification of Film and Computer Games were specifically developed to address issues of industry convergence. These Guidelines now underpin the regulation of content across the film, TV, video, subscription TV, computer games and Internet sectors. Reshaping Institutions Debates around the “merged regulator” concept have occurred on and off for at least a decade, with vested interests in agencies and the executive jockeying to stake claims over new turf. On several occasions the debate has been given renewed impetus in the context of ruling conservative parties’ mooted changes to the ownership and control regime. It’s tended to highlight demarcations of remit, informed as they are by historical and legal developments, and the gradual accretion of regulatory cultures. Now the key pressure points for regulatory change include the mere existence of already converged single regulatory structures in those countries with whom we tend to triangulate our policy comparisons—the US, the UK and Canada—increasingly in a context of debates concerning international trade agreements; and, overlaying this, new media formats and devices are complicating existing institutional arrangements and legal frameworks. The Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts’s (DCITA) review brief was initially framed as “options for reform in spectrum management,” but was then widened to include “new institutional arrangements” for a converged regulator, to deal with visual content in the latest generation of mobile telephony, and other image-enabled wireless devices (DCITA). No other regulatory agencies appear, at this point, to be actively on the Government’s radar screen (although they previously have been). Were the review to look more inclusively, the ACCC, the OFLC and the specialist telecommunications bodies, the TIO and the TISSC may also be drawn in. Current regulatory arrangements see the ACA delegate responsibility for broadcasting services bands of the radio frequency spectrum to the ABA. In fact, spectrum management is the turf least contested by the regulatory players themselves, although the “convergent regulator” issue provokes considerable angst among powerful incumbent media players. The consensus that exists at a regulatory level can be linked to the scientific convention that holds the radio frequency spectrum is a continuum of electromagnetic bands. In this view, it becomes artificial to sever broadcasting, as “broadcasting services bands” from the other remaining highly diverse communications uses, as occurred from 1992 when the Broadcasting Services Act was introduced. The prospect of new forms of spectrum charging is highly alarming for commercial broadcasters. In a joint submission to the DCITA review, the peak TV and radio industry lobby groups have indicated they will fight tooth and nail to resist new regulatory arrangements that would see a move away from the existing licence fee arrangements. These are paid as a sliding scale percentage of gross earnings that, it has been argued by Julian Thomas and Marion McCutcheon, “do not reflect the amount of spectrum used by a broadcaster, do not reflect the opportunity cost of using the spectrum, and do not provide an incentive for broadcasters to pursue more efficient ways of delivering their services” (6). An economic rationalist logic underpins pressure to modify the spectrum management (and charging) regime, and undoubtedly contributes to the commercial broadcasting industry’s general paranoia about reform. Total revenues collected by the ABA and the ACA between 1997 and 2002 were, respectively, $1423 million and $3644.7 million. Of these sums, using auction mechanisms, the ABA collected $391 million, while the ACA collected some $3 billion. The sale of spectrum that will be returned to the Commonwealth by television broadcasters when analog spectrum is eventually switched off, around the end of the decade, is a salivating prospect for Treasury officials. The large sums that have been successfully raised by the ACA boosts their position in planning discussions for the convergent media regulatory agency. The way in which media outlets and regulators respond to publics is an enduring question for a democratic polity, irrespective of how the product itself has been mediated and accessed. Media regulation and civic responsibility, including frameworks for negotiating consumer and citizen rights, are fundamental democratic rights (Keane; Tambini). The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (‘cash for comment’) has also reminded us that regulatory frameworks are important at the level of corporate conduct, as well as how they negotiate relations with specific media audiences (Johnson; Turner; Gordon-Smith). Building publicly meaningful regulatory frameworks will be demanding: relationships with audiences are often complex as people are constructed as both consumers and citizens, through marketised media regulation, institutions and more recently, through hybridising program formats (Murdock and Golding; Lumby and Probyn). In TV, we’ve seen the growth of infotainment formats blending entertainment and informational aspects of media consumption. At a deeper level, changes in the regulatory landscape are symptomatic of broader tectonic shifts in the discourses of governance in advanced information economies from the late 1980s onwards, where deregulatory agendas created an increasing reliance on free market, business-oriented solutions to regulation. “Co-regulation” and “self-regulation’ became the preferred mechanisms to more direct state control. Yet, curiously contradicting these market transformations, we continue to witness recurring instances of direct intervention on the basis of censorship rationales (Dwyer and Stockbridge). That digital media content is “converging” between different technologies and modes of delivery is the norm in “new media” regulatory rhetoric. Others critique “visions of techno-glory,” arguing instead for a view that sees fundamental continuities in media technologies (Winston). But the socio-cultural impacts of new media developments surround us: the introduction of multichannel digital and interactive TV (in free-to-air and subscription variants); broadband access in the office and home; wirelessly delivered content and mobility, and, as Jock Given notes, around the corner, there’s the possibility of “an Amazon.Com of movies-on-demand, with the local video and DVD store replaced by online access to a distant server” (90). Taking a longer view of media history, these changes can be seen to be embedded in the global (and local) “innovation frontier” of converging digital media content industries and its transforming modes of delivery and access technologies (QUT/CIRAC/Cutler & Co). The activities of regulatory agencies will continue to be a source of policy rivalry and turf contestation until such time as a convergent regulator is established to the satisfaction of key players. However, there are risks that the benefits of institutional reshaping will not be readily available for either audiences or industry. In the past, the idea that media power and responsibility ought to coexist has been recognised in both the regulation of the media by the state, and the field of communications media analysis (Curran and Seaton; Couldry). But for now, as media industries transform, whatever the eventual institutional configuration, the evolution of media power in neo-liberal market mediascapes will challenge the ongoing capacity for interventions by national governments and their agencies. Works Cited Australian Broadcasting Authority. Commercial Radio Inquiry: Final Report of the Australian Broadcasting Authority. Sydney: ABA, 2000. Australian Communications Information Forum. Industry Code: Short Message Service (SMS) Issues. Dec. 2002. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.acif.org.au/__data/page/3235/C580_Dec_2002_ACA.pdf >. Commercial Television Australia. Draft Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Aug. 2003. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.ctva.com.au/control.cfm?page=codereview&pageID=171&menucat=1.2.110.171&Level=3>. Couldry, Nick. The Place of Media Power: Pilgrims and Witnesses of the Media Age. London: Routledge, 2000. Curran, James, and Jean Seaton. Power without Responsibility: The Press, Broadcasting and New Media in Britain. 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2003. Dept. of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts. Options for Structural Reform in Spectrum Management. Canberra: DCITA, Aug. 2002. ---. Proposal for New Institutional Arrangements for the ACA and the ABA. Aug. 2003. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_1-4_116552,00.php>. Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. Feb. 2004. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us_fta/outcomes/11_audio_visual.php>. Dwyer, Tim. Submission to Commercial Television Australia’s Review of the Commercial Television Industry’s Code of Practice. Sept. 2003. Dwyer, Tim, and Sally Stockbridge. “Putting Violence to Work in New Media Policies: Trends in Australian Internet, Computer Game and Video Regulation.” New Media and Society 1.2 (1999): 227-49. Given, Jock. America’s Pie: Trade and Culture After 9/11. Sydney: U of NSW P, 2003. Gordon-Smith, Michael. “Media Ethics After Cash-for-Comment.” The Media and Communications in Australia. Ed. Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002. Johnson, Rob. Cash-for-Comment: The Seduction of Journo Culture. Sydney: Pluto, 2000. Keane, John. The Media and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity, 1991. Lumby, Cathy, and Elspeth Probyn, eds. Remote Control: New Media, New Ethics. Melbourne: Cambridge UP, 2003. Murdock, Graham, and Peter Golding. “Information Poverty and Political Inequality: Citizenship in the Age of Privatized Communications.” Journal of Communication 39.3 (1991): 180-95. QUT, CIRAC, and Cutler & Co. Research and Innovation Systems in the Production of Digital Content and Applications: Report for the National Office for the Information Economy. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, Sept. 2003. Tambini, Damian. Universal Access: A Realistic View. IPPR/Citizens Online Research Publication 1. London: IPPR, 2000. Thomas, Julian and Marion McCutcheon. “Is Broadcasting Special? Charging for Spectrum.” Conference paper. ABA conference, Canberra. May 2003. Turner, Graeme. “Talkback, Advertising and Journalism: A cautionary tale of self-regulated radio”. International Journal of Cultural Studies 3.2 (2000): 247-255. ---. “Reshaping Australian Institutions: Popular Culture, the Market and the Public Sphere.” Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs. Ed. Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne: Cambridge UP, 2001. Winston, Brian. Media, Technology and Society: A History from the Telegraph to the Internet. London: Routledge, 1998. Web Links http://www.aba.gov.au http://www.aca.gov.au http://www.accc.gov.au http://www.acif.org.au http://www.adma.com.au http://www.ctva.com.au http://www.crtc.gc.ca http://www.dcita.com.au http://www.dfat.gov.au http://www.fcc.gov http://www.ippr.org.uk http://www.ofcom.org.uk http://www.oflc.gov.au Links http://www.commercialalert.org/ Citation reference for this article MLA Style Dwyer, Tim. "Transformations" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>. APA Style Dwyer, T. (2004, Mar17). Transformations. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>
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26

Goggin, Gerard. "Broadband." M/C Journal 6, no. 4 (August 1, 2003). http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2219.

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Abstract:
Connecting I’ve moved house on the weekend, closer to the centre of an Australian capital city. I had recently signed up for broadband, with a major Australian Internet company (my first contact, cf. Turner). Now I am the proud owner of a larger modem than I have ever owned: a white cable modem. I gaze out into our new street: two thick black cables cosseted in silver wire. I am relieved. My new home is located in one of those streets, double-cabled by Telstra and Optus in the data-rush of the mid-1990s. Otherwise, I’d be moth-balling the cable modem, and the thrill of my data percolating down coaxial cable. And it would be off to the computer supermarket to buy an ASDL modem, then to pick a provider, to squeeze some twenty-first century connectivity out of old copper (the phone network our grandparents and great-grandparents built). If I still lived in the country, or the outskirts of the city, or anywhere else more than four kilometres from the phone exchange, and somewhere that cable pay TV will never reach, it would be a dish for me — satellite. Our digital lives are premised upon infrastructure, the networks through which we shape what we do, fashion the meanings of our customs and practices, and exchange signs with others. Infrastructure is not simply the material or the technical (Lamberton), but it is the dense, fibrous knotting together of social visions, cultural resources, individual desires, and connections. No more can one easily discern between ‘society’ and ‘technology’, ‘carriage’ and ‘content’, ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’, or ‘infrastructure’ and ‘applications’ (or ‘services’ or ‘content’). To understand telecommunications in action, or the vectors of fibre, we need to consider the long and heterogeneous list of links among different human and non-human actors — the long networks, to take Bruno Latour’s evocative concept, that confect our broadband networks (Latour). The co-ordinates of our infrastructure still build on a century-long history of telecommunications networks, on the nineteenth-century centrality of telegraphy preceding this, and on the histories of the public and private so inscribed. Yet we are in the midst of a long, slow dismantling of the posts-telegraph-telephone (PTT) model of the monopoly carrier for each nation that dominated the twentieth century, with its deep colonial foundations. Instead our New World Information and Communication Order is not the decolonising UNESCO vision of the late 1970s and early 1980s (MacBride, Maitland). Rather it is the neoliberal, free trade, market access model, its symbol the 1984 US judicial decision to require the break-up of AT&T and the UK legislation in the same year that underpinned the Thatcherite twin move to privatize British Telecom and introduce telecommunications competition. Between 1984 and 1999, 110 telecommunications companies were privatized, and the ‘acquisition of privatized PTOs [public telecommunications operators] by European and American operators does follow colonial lines’ (Winseck 396; see also Mody, Bauer & Straubhaar). The competitive market has now been uneasily installed as the paradigm for convergent communications networks, not least with the World Trade Organisation’s 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services and Annex on Telecommunications. As the citizen is recast as consumer and customer (Goggin, ‘Citizens and Beyond’), we rethink our cultural and political axioms as well as the axes that orient our understandings in this area. Information might travel close to the speed of light, and we might fantasise about optical fibre to the home (or pillow), but our terrain, our band where the struggle lies today, is narrower than we wish. Begging for broadband, it seems, is a long way from warchalking for WiFi. Policy Circuits The dreary everyday business of getting connected plugs the individual netizen into a tangled mess of policy circuits, as much as tricky network negotiations. Broadband in mid-2003 in Australia is a curious chimera, welded together from a patchwork of technologies, old and newer communications industries, emerging economies and patterns of use. Broadband conjures up grander visions, however, of communication and cultural cornucopia. Broadband is high-speed, high-bandwidth, ‘always-on’, networked communications. People can send and receive video, engage in multimedia exchanges of all sorts, make the most of online education, realise the vision of home-based work and trading, have access to telemedicine, and entertainment. Broadband really entered the lexicon with the mass takeup of the Internet in the early to mid-1990s, and with the debates about something called the ‘information superhighway’. The rise of the Internet, the deregulation of telecommunications, and the involuted convergence of communications and media technologies saw broadband positioned at the centre of policy debates nearly a decade ago. In 1993-1994, Australia had its Broadband Services Expert Group (BSEG), established by the then Labor government. The BSEG was charged with inquiring into ‘issues relating to the delivery of broadband services to homes, schools and businesses’. Stung by criticisms of elite composition (a narrow membership, with only one woman among its twelve members, and no consumer or citizen group representation), the BSEG was prompted into wider public discussion and consultation (Goggin & Newell). The then Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE), since transmogrified into the Communications Research Unit of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), conducted its large-scale Communications Futures Project (BTCE and Luck). The BSEG Final report posed the question starkly: As a society we have choices to make. If we ignore the opportunities we run the risk of being left behind as other countries introduce new services and make themselves more competitive: we will become consumers of other countries’ content, culture and technologies rather than our own. Or we could adopt new technologies at any cost…This report puts forward a different approach, one based on developing a new, user-oriented strategy for communications. The emphasis will be on communication among people... (BSEG v) The BSEG proposed a ‘National Strategy for New Communications Networks’ based on three aspects: education and community access, industry development, and the role of government (BSEG x). Ironically, while the nation, or at least its policy elites, pondered the weighty question of broadband, Australia’s two largest telcos were doing it. The commercial decision of Telstra/Foxtel and Optus Vision, and their various television partners, was to nail their colours (black) to the mast, or rather telegraph pole, and to lay cable in the major capital cities. In fact, they duplicated the infrastructure in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, then deciding it would not be profitable to cable up even regional centres, let alone small country towns or settlements. As Terry Flew and Christina Spurgeon observe: This wasteful duplication contrasted with many other parts of the country that would never have access to this infrastructure, or to the social and economic benefits that it was perceived to deliver. (Flew & Spurgeon 72) The implications of this decision for Australia’s telecommunications and television were profound, but there was little, if any, public input into this. Then Minister Michael Lee was very proud of his anti-siphoning list of programs, such as national sporting events, that would remain on free-to-air television rather than screen on pay, but was unwilling, or unable, to develop policy on broadband and pay TV cable infrastructure (on the ironies of Australia’s television history, see Given’s masterly account). During this period also, it may be remembered, Australia’s Internet was being passed into private hands, with the tendering out of AARNET (see Spurgeon for discussion). No such national strategy on broadband really emerged in the intervening years, nor has the market provided integrated, accessible broadband services. In 1997, landmark telecommunications legislation was enacted that provided a comprehensive framework for competition in telecommunications, as well as consolidating and extending consumer protection, universal service, customer service standards, and other reforms (CLC). Carrier and reseller competition had commenced in 1991, and the 1997 legislation gave it further impetus. Effective competition is now well established in long distance telephone markets, and in mobiles. Rivalrous competition exists in the market for local-call services, though viable alternatives to Telstra’s dominance are still few (Fels). Broadband too is an area where there is symbolic rivalry rather than effective competition. This is most visible in advertised ADSL offerings in large cities, yet most of the infrastructure for these services is comprised by Telstra’s copper, fixed-line network. Facilities-based duopoly competition exists principally where Telstra/Foxtel and Optus cable networks have been laid, though there are quite a number of ventures underway by regional telcos, power companies, and, most substantial perhaps, the ACT government’s TransACT broadband network. Policymakers and industry have been greatly concerned about what they see as slow takeup of broadband, compared to other countries, and by barriers to broadband competition and access to ‘bottleneck’ facilities (such as Telstra or Optus’s networks) by potential competitors. The government has alternated between trying to talk up broadband benefits and rates of take up and recognising the real difficulties Australia faces as a large country with a relative small and dispersed population. In March 2003, Minister Alston directed the ACCC to implement new monitoring and reporting arrangements on competition in the broadband industry. A key site for discussion of these matters has been the competition policy institution, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and its various inquiries, reports, and considerations (consult ACCC’s telecommunications homepage at http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm). Another key site has been the Productivity Commission (http://www.pc.gov.au), while a third is the National Office on the Information Economy (NOIE - http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm). Others have questioned whether even the most perfectly competitive market in broadband will actually provide access to citizens and consumers. A great deal of work on this issue has been undertaken by DCITA, NOIE, the regulators, and industry bodies, not to mention consumer and public interest groups. Since 1997, there have been a number of governmental inquiries undertaken or in progress concerning the takeup of broadband and networked new media (for example, a House of Representatives Wireless Broadband Inquiry), as well as important inquiries into the still most strategically important of Australia’s companies in this area, Telstra. Much of this effort on an ersatz broadband policy has been piecemeal and fragmented. There are fundamental difficulties with the large size of the Australian continent and its harsh terrain, the small size of the Australian market, the number of providers, and the dominant position effectively still held by Telstra, as well as Singtel Optus (Optus’s previous overseas investors included Cable & Wireless and Bell South), and the larger telecommunications and Internet companies (such as Ozemail). Many consumers living in metropolitan Australia still face real difficulties in realising the slogan ‘bandwidth for all’, but the situation in parts of rural Australia is far worse. Satellite ‘broadband’ solutions are available, through Telstra Countrywide or other providers, but these offer limited two-way interactivity. Data can be received at reasonable speeds (though at far lower data rates than how ‘broadband’ used to be defined), but can only be sent at far slower rates (Goggin, Rural Communities Online). The cultural implications of these digital constraints may well be considerable. Computer gamers, for instance, are frustrated by slow return paths. In this light, the final report of the January 2003 Broadband Advisory Group (BAG) is very timely. The BAG report opens with a broadband rhapsody: Broadband communications technologies can deliver substantial economic and social benefits to Australia…As well as producing productivity gains in traditional and new industries, advanced connectivity can enrich community life, particularly in rural and regional areas. It provides the basis for integration of remote communities into national economic, cultural and social life. (BAG 1, 7) Its prescriptions include: Australia will be a world leader in the availability and effective use of broadband...and to capture the economic and social benefits of broadband connectivity...Broadband should be available to all Australians at fair and reasonable prices…Market arrangements should be pro-competitive and encourage investment...The Government should adopt a National Broadband Strategy (BAG 1) And, like its predecessor nine years earlier, the BAG report does make reference to a national broadband strategy aiming to maximise “choice in work and recreation activities available to all Australians independent of location, background, age or interests” (17). However, the idea of a national broadband strategy is not something the BAG really comes to grips with. The final report is keen on encouraging broadband adoption, but not explicit on how barriers to broadband can be addressed. Perhaps this is not surprising given that the membership of the BAG, dominated by representatives of large corporations and senior bureaucrats was even less representative than its BSEG predecessor. Some months after the BAG report, the Federal government did declare a broadband strategy. It did so, intriguingly enough, under the rubric of its response to the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry report (Estens), the second inquiry responsible for reassuring citizens nervous about the full-privatisation of Telstra (the first inquiry being Besley). The government’s grand $142.8 million National Broadband Strategy focusses on the ‘broadband needs of regional Australians, in partnership with all levels of government’ (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’). Among other things, the government claims that the Strategy will result in “improved outcomes in terms of services and prices for regional broadband access; [and] the development of national broadband infrastructure assets.” (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’) At the same time, the government announced an overall response to the Estens Inquiry, with specific safeguards for Telstra’s role in regional communications — a preliminary to the full Telstra sale (Alston, ‘Future Proofing’). Less publicised was the government’s further initiative in indigenous telecommunications, complementing its Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (DCITA). Indigenous people, it can be argued, were never really contemplated as citizens with the ken of the universal service policy taken to underpin the twentieth-century government monopoly PTT project. In Australia during the deregulatory and re-regulatory 1990s, there was a great reluctance on the part of Labor and Coalition Federal governments, Telstra and other industry participants, even to research issues of access to and use of telecommunications by indigenous communicators. Telstra, and to a lesser extent Optus (who had purchased AUSSAT as part of their licence arrangements), shrouded the issue of indigenous communications in mystery that policymakers were very reluctant to uncover, let alone systematically address. Then regulator, the Australian Telecommunications Authority (AUSTEL), had raised grave concerns about indigenous telecommunications access in its 1991 Rural Communications inquiry. However, there was no government consideration of, nor research upon, these issues until Alston commissioned a study in 2001 — the basis for the TAPRIC strategy (DCITA). The elision of indigenous telecommunications from mainstream industry and government policy is all the more puzzling, if one considers the extraordinarily varied and significant experiments by indigenous Australians in telecommunications and Internet (not least in the early work of the Tanami community, made famous in media and cultural studies by the writings of anthropologist Eric Michaels). While the government’s mid-2003 moves on a ‘National Broadband Strategy’ attend to some details of the broadband predicament, they fall well short of an integrated framework that grasps the shortcomings of the neoliberal communications model. The funding offered is a token amount. The view from the seat of government is a glance from the rear-view mirror: taking a snapshot of rural communications in the years 2000-2002 and projecting this tableau into a safety-net ‘future proofing’ for the inevitable turning away of a fully-privately-owned Telstra from its previously universal, ‘carrier of last resort’ responsibilities. In this aetiolated, residualist policy gaze, citizens remain constructed as consumers in a very narrow sense in this incremental, quietist version of state securing of market arrangements. What is missing is any more expansive notion of citizens, their varied needs, expectations, uses, and cultural imaginings of ‘always on’ broadband networks. Hybrid Networks “Most people on earth will eventually have access to networks that are all switched, interactive, and broadband”, wrote Frances Cairncross in 1998. ‘Eventually’ is a very appropriate word to describe the parlous state of broadband technology implementation. Broadband is in a slow state of evolution and invention. The story of broadband so far underscores the predicament for Australian access to bandwidth, when we lack any comprehensive, integrated, effective, and fair policy in communications and information technology. We have only begun to experiment with broadband technologies and understand their evolving uses, cultural forms, and the sense in which they rework us as subjects. Our communications networks are not superhighways, to invoke an enduring artefact from an older technology. Nor any longer are they a single ‘public’ switched telecommunications network, like those presided over by the post-telegraph-telephone monopolies of old. Like roads themselves, or the nascent postal system of the sixteenth century, broadband is a patchwork quilt. The ‘fibre’ of our communications networks is hybrid. To be sure, powerful corporations dominate, like the Tassis or Taxis who served as postmasters to the Habsburg emperors (Briggs & Burke 25). Activating broadband today provides a perspective on the path dependency of technology history, and how we can open up new threads of a communications fabric. Our options for transforming our multitudinous networked lives emerge as much from everyday tactics and strategies as they do from grander schemes and unifying policies. We may care to reflect on the waning potential for nation-building technology, in the wake of globalisation. We no longer gather our imagined community around a Community Telephone Plan as it was called in 1960 (Barr, Moyal, and PMG). Yet we do require national and international strategies to get and stay connected (Barr), ideas and funding that concretely address the wider dimensions of access and use. We do need to debate the respective roles of Telstra, the state, community initiatives, and industry competition in fair telecommunications futures. Networks have global reach and require global and national integration. Here vision, co-ordination, and resources are urgently required for our commonweal and moral fibre. To feel the width of the band we desire, we need to plug into and activate the policy circuits. Thanks to Grayson Cooke, Patrick Lichty, Ned Rossiter, John Pace, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Works Cited Alston, Richard. ‘ “Future Proofing” Regional Communications.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.php> —. ‘A National Broadband Strategy.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.php>. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Broadband Services Report March 2003. Canberra: ACCC, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm>. —. Emerging Market Structures in the Communications Sector. 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Geneva: World Trade Organisation. 17 July 2003 <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm>. Links http://www.accc.gov.au/pubs/publications/utilities/telecommunications/Emerg_mar_struc.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2003/Fels_ATUG_6March03.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/cita/Wbt/report.htm http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.html http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.html http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/BAG/report/index.htm http://www.pc.gov.au http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/telecommunications/finalreport/ http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/final_report.html http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/rti-report.html http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/12-tel_e.htm http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Goggin, Gerard. "Broadband" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>. APA Style Goggin, G. (2003, Aug 26). Broadband. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>
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