The work behind this paper aims at demonstrating innovative solutions for the establishment of sustainable community broadband networks in areas where there is demand but no supply of broadband services. One of the major challenges turns out to be reliable power supply. To overcome this challenge, we explore how to decrease the demand for power as well as the feasibility of using alternative power sources, such as solar and wind, and alternative power storage technologies, such as batteries and ultra-capacitors. In this paper, we present data collected over 2 months from the Serengeti community network in rural Tanzania to discuss the quality of the existing power-grid and the feasibility of using solar and wind energy as alternative energy sources. The network backbone is based on 1Gbps Ethernet links over dark fibre while end-user connections are currently based on WiFi links. Our measurements regarding the quality of the power-grid show up to 21 power-outages in one single day, with an average of 2 outages per day. Some of the outages are due to planned rationing schemes caused by insufficient power generation while some outages are due to poor wiring or installations. Our measurements and analysis of the feasibility of using alternative power sources indicate wind speeds on the average 2m/s and a persistent high-level insolation, making solar energy the prime candidate as an alternative source of electricity. The relatively high cost of solar panels has to be mitigated by increased energy efficiency of the network elements. We also propose power management to be included in the network management system to maximize the availability of the network services and decrease operational costs due to damaged network elements.

This paper presents a high-level overview of the CareNet Home Extension Project that aims to provide support for home-based healthcare for the elderly and outpatients. Details of a home networking environment based on a virtualized Residential Gateway (RG) are provided. The RG architecture is modular and scalable supporting the dynamic provision of third party services. This accommodates multiple independent stakeholders representing healthcare providers, Internet Services Providers (ISPs), and home automation system builders among others. Interoperability is guaranteed through adherence to open standards. Initial mechanisms facilitating the integration and consolidation of in-home systems, whilst providing a flexible framework for autonomous management, are described. This addresses issues of management and configuration of complex environments by individuals with little or no technical expertise. Finally, details of an initial implementation, in terms of architectural descriptions and enabling technological components, are outlined.

Today's Internet is moving away from the essentially single domain and non-commercial Internet to a multi-domain, combined commercial and not-for-profit Internet. Policy is critical for each domain to protect its business interests. However, the current inter-domain routing protocol, BGP, only provides a policy mechanism where operators have to rely on mutual trust to protect themselves. This paper tries to measure and evaluate the current BGP policy model through passively logging BGP update messages. A policy-server based approach is proposed to address some of the problems discovered from the measurement.

The paper reports on a design methodology and an experimental CAD system, named Caddie, based on this methodology. Caddie supports specification, analysis and synthesis of objects that can be described as communicating processes, e.g. electronic circuits, sequential networks, digital processors and programs. Basic ideas behind Caddie are: