Experimental Infrastructures for IP/DVB Convergence: an Actual Substantiation for Triple Play Services Provision at Remote Areas

This paper introduces and validates an experimental infrastructure of a fusion IP/DVB networking environment for the provision of triple play services at remote areas exploiting the synergy of Broadcasting, Internet and Telecommunication sectors technologies. This synergy constitutes a challenge for creating a networking platform which exploits the particularities and complementarities of these sectors for the support of ubiquitous services and always-on connectivity enabling passive rural citizens to become active Information Society participants. This paper describes important directions for exploiting the proposed unified platform alleviating the digital divide that currently exists not only among countries but also within most regions of the same country.