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Home Networking
Today, there is an increasing demand for connectivity. Most network users wish to be always on-line for business or for entertainment purposes. Thus, providing network services also at home is becoming increasingly important. A home network can be defined as a communication system that aims to interconnect household appliances, share Internet access, and give support to several applications. Among these applications are voice and video transmissions, interactive games, and house automation. Besides being commercially attractive, these applications may require quality of service and large bandwidth. There are different technologies to build home networks. These technologies can be classified according to their physical media as: wired, wireless, and "no-new-wires". The wired technology deploys an infrastructure specifically designed for high-speed data transmissions. In opposition, the wireless technology does not use any wires. Wired and wireless technologies are mainly represented by Ethernet and IEEE 802.11, respectively. Although the "no-new-wires" technology still uses wires, it takes advantage of the existent in-home infrastructure and does not require new cabling. HomePNA and HomePlug are two important examples. They use, respectively, the available in-home telephone and electrical wiring. The "no-new-wires" solution drops down the network final cost since it avoids cabling expenses. Besides "no-new-wires", the wireless technology is another low-cost alternative for home networking. In this research theme, we analyze the performance of the different existent home-networking protocols. In addition, we propose new schemes to improve data communications at the MAC (Medium Access Control) sub-layer. Selected Publications
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