With the rapid growth of the Internet as well as the increasing demand
for broadband services, access networks have been receiving growing
investments in recent years. This has led to a massive network
deployment with the goal of eliminating the bandwidth bottleneck
between end-users and the network core. Today many diverse technologies
are being used to provide broadband access to end users. The
architecture and performance of the access segment (local loop, wired
and wireless access networks, and even home networks) are getting
increasing attention for ensuring quality of service of diverse
broadband applications. Moreover, most access lines will no longer
terminate on a single device, thus leading to the necessity of having a
home network designed for applications that transcend simple Internet
access sharing among multiple personal computers and enable multimedia
support. Therefore, the access network and its home portion have become
a hot investment pool from both a financial as well as a research
perspective.
The
aim of the annual International Conference on Access Networks
(AccessNets) is to provide a forum that brings together scientists and
researchers from academia as well as managers and engineers from the
industry and government organizations to meet and exchange ideas and
recent work on all aspects of access networks and how they integrate
with their in-home counterparts. AccessNets’08 is the third edition of
this exciting event, which will be held in Las Vegas, USA, in October
2008. The conference will consist of technical sessions, workshops, and
panels. The technical sessions will present original and fundamental
research advances while the workshops and panels will focus on
development, application, and related business issues in this hot and
exciting area.
