Interactive services over hybrid fibre-coax networks

The access network is under intense research because a significant part of the global infrastructure investment is in that sector. This work fits exactly on the access network, particularly over a hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) access network with end-to-end ATM bi-directional connections. This paper is structured in two parts. The first describes the access network and technologies used and presents a brief overview of the network model constructed, which has been experimentally validated, the results obtained with simulation and some experimental measurements. The model was designed using the OPNET software package. The second part gives an evolution perspective by using the network model employed in simulation. This allows the extrapolation of the system behaviour in network configurations not only not tested in the field, but also not possible to implement in practice within the project time schedule, namely a rise on the number of users and a dynamic medium access control (MAC) algorithm.