The Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) is a telephone network architecture that separates service logic from switching equipment,

allowing new services to be added without having to redesign switches to support new services. It encourages competition among service providers since it makes it easier for a provider to add services and it offers customers more service choices.

Developed by Bell Communications Research, AIN is recognized as an industry standard in North America. Its initial version, AIN Release 1, is considered a model toward which services will evolve. Meanwhile, evolutionary subsets of AIN Release 1 have been developed. These are shown in the AIN Release Table below. Elsewhere, the International Telecommunications Union (see ITU-T), endorsing the concepts of AIN, developed an equivalent version of AIN called Capability Set 1 (CS-1). It comes in evolutionary subsets called the Core INAP capabilities.

How It Works Briefly, here's how AIN Release 1 works:

A telephone caller dials a number that is received by a switch at the telephone company central office. The switch - known as the Service Switching Point (SSP) - forwards the call over a Signaling System 7 (SS7) network to a Service Control Point (SCP) where the service logic is located. The Service Control Point identifies the service requested from part of the number that was dialed and returns information about how to handle the call to the Service Switching Point. Examples of services that the SCP might provide include area number calling service, disaster recovery service, do not disturb service, and 5-digit extension dialing service. In some cases, the call can be handled more quickly by an Intelligent Peripheral (IP) that is attached to the Service Switching Point over a high-speed connection. For example, a customized voice announcement can be delivered in response to the dialed number or a voice call can be analyzed and recognized. In addition, an "adjunct" facility can be added directly to the Service Switching Point for high-speed connection to additional, undefined services. One of the services that AIN makes possible is Local Number Portability (LNP).

Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of DSL technology that provides greater bandwidth and provides higher-speed transmission over traditional copper telephone wires than conventional voice band modem. ADSL is characterized by high speeds and always on connectivity. This is achieved by using the frequencies not being used by voice calls.

ADSL was designed to support the typical home Internet user who downloads frequently rather than uploads data. Techopedia explains Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) ADSL is the most common type of DSL connectivity offered by Internet service providers as it uses wires that have already been laid for telephone service. This makes it a cheap and viable option for distributing Internet connectivity to homes.

For ADSL to work, only a microfilter and an ADSL modem need to be installed and so installation typically only takes a few hours, including the settings for the connection. With real-world speeds of about 2Mbps, it is well suited to home use.

A special filter called a microfilter is needed in order for the regular voice service and ADSL to be used at the same time. It is installed in the telephone line just before the modem and the telephone. Both modem and telephone connects to the microfilter.

Technically, ADSL can reach speeds of up to 6Mbps, but only receives 2Mbps downstream (download) and 512Kbps upstream (upload) speeds.

ADSL can only be distributed within short distances from the central office, usually less than 2.5 miles. It may exceed 5 miles if the gauge of the existing wires allow for further distribution.

Definition - What does Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) mean? Very high speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) is a DSL technology that provides a faster data transfer rate than asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) and ADSL2+ technologies. It sends out data in the 13 to 55 Mbps range over small distances, which are typically between 330 to 1650 yards of twisted pair copper wire. The shorter the distance, the higher the data transfer rate. VDSL enables users to upload, download and process data more rapidly. Techopedia explains Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) VDSL is known as the next generation DSL, operating at data transfer rates of up to 52 Mbps for downstream and 12 Mbps for upstream. VDSL architecture is based on two technologies, quarantine amplitude modulation (QAM) and discrete multitone modulation (DMT), which are not compatible with each other. DMT technology is most commonly used by equipment manufacturers. The VDSL connection is based on DMT architecture and consists of 247 virtual channels, which populate the available bandwidth.

VDSL is capable of providing services like high-definition television (HDTV) and video-on-demand (VOD) along with Internet access. VDSL may be bundled with HDTV packages as it establishes a presence in the marketplace.

Local Multipoint Distribution Service(LMDS), is a broadband wireless point to multipoint communication system that provides reliable digital two-way voice, data and Internet services. The term "Local" indicates that the signals range limit. "Multipoint" indicates a broadcast signal from the subscribers, the term "distribution" defines the wide range of data that can be transmitted, data ranging anywhere from voice, or video to Internet and video traffic(Later on in the 3rd section, the emergence of LMDS shows why it is good at transmitting such a wide variety of data.)It provides high capacity point to multipoint data access that is less investment intensive. LMDS with its wireless delivery combined with a significant amount of spectrum allocated, promises to allow for a very high quality communication services. It transmits milliwave signals with-in small cells. As it has been tested by the US milatary and the corporate pioneers like the SpeedUs, it is undoubtedly a proven technology. Originally designed for wireless digital telivision transmission LMDS and MMDS(Microwave Multipoint Distribution System) were predicted to serve the wireless Subscription Television needs. MMDS is also a broadband wireless communication service which operates at lower frequencies. Usually, LMDS operates at frequencies above the 10Ghz range and MMDS at frequencies below the 10GHz range. Later on they were extended to offer other interactice services.

Before giving more information about LMDS, it becomes necessary to understand the importance of using Wireless technology for local LANS and then see the different methods available for wireless communication.

1.1 Using the Fixed wireless technology

Until about 1996, the only economical way to connect LAN's was through a wired infrastructure. In the last three years several new wireless LAN infrastructures are being proposed and built. wireless local loop is a new wireless option and comes under the Fixed wireless as opposed to mobile. Fixed here, refers to fixed location. It means though the data transmission is wireless, the stations are fixed,unlike in mobile where the stations could be moving(asssuming a station is a subscriber). They give a very high speed communication. Dense modulation schemes are required and higher signal to noise ratio is required in a fixed wireless scheme. 1.2 Advantages of using the Fixed wireless technology for LAN

Some of the various advantages of adopting a fixed wireless paradigm are The entry and setup costs are very small, ie. setup cost is very low and expantion can always be opted on demand. Systems can be setup with great ease and speed. All equipment can be carried and installed with great ease.

Equipment can be setup only after a customer signs up. This is different from wired systems because for wired LANS, a complete infrastructure has to be built even before the customers show up. Thus the build out becomes "Demand Based" which is a major advantage when compared to wired architectures. Cost of upgrading can be substantially less, as there is no other infrastructure other than the end equipment, once the equipment is designed to be upgradable, upgrading becomes very easy. There is less overhead of changing the transmission equipment and many problems of wired LANS such as tracing of damage in transmission equipment, donot exist at all. Once the basic infrastructure is handled, quality of service can be achieved. Bandwidth reuse is very high because of the cell structure used. Ntwork management , maintenance and operation costs can be very less.

ATM is not contention-based or shared like FDDI, ethernet or token ring. A full 155 Mbps is continuously available to every endstation. ATM transmits fixed-length 53 bytes cells. It consists of a header field (5 bytes) and information field of 48 bytes. The header field contains routing info and the information field carries the service data. Small fixed length cells facilitate efficient multiplexing and a traffic prioritization scheme ensures delay-sensitive traffic receives special consideration. Multiplexing techniques allow more than one service to share a particular ATM link at any given time. Services are organized into virtual channels(VC) and virtual paths(VP). A VC identifies the service and a VP identifies a collection of VC's. ATM can be switched at both the VP and VC level. ATM uses cell switches, not bridges or routers. Switching is done by connecting one port to another directly. All this is done in hardware which makes it more efficient and faster. Bridges and routers also introduce latency/delays. This is because bridges and routers normally process large/variable length packets. These large packets introduce noticeable application delay to a user. In Ehternet or FDDI rings, media is shared. As more stations are added, available bandwidth to each station decreases. When this happens, we normally segment the network into smaller peices by adding bridges and routers. However, these now increases latency since packets must cross more devices between endstations. Additionally, adding more routers/bridges means adding more subnets and additional complexity. So traditonal networks scales poorly. As we add more bandwidth by adding more devices like bridges and routers, we suffer from higher latency, worse performance end to end and added complexity to a network. ATM is scalable and inherently exhibits low latentcy. ATM networks are not contention-based. There are built on point-to-point connections between endstations and switches. Each connection runs at a full guaranteed 155Mbps even through a switch. Stations are added by plugging in to an unused port or additional port modules. Also good ATM switches can tie switches/modules together to act like a bigger switch. Also, switch-to-switch rates normally can run faster than 155 Mbps.