Archives for 2015

Broadband is a relatively new technology, and its underlying science is still being developed. We have long understood the ‘right’ units in other engineering disciplines: mass, length, hardness, etc. What is the ‘right’ unit for broadband?

This is the third and final part of series of articles, the first two being The remarkable story of Future Combat Systems and Five key lessons from Future Combat Systems. In this article, Dr Neil Davies and Fred Hammond re-examine those five lessons from the different perspective: that of people doing performance engineering in the telecoms industry today.

This article follows on from “The remarkable story of Future Combat Systems”. FCS was the first project to apply the new science of network performance to a complex distributed system. In this second part, we hear from Fred Hammond and Dr Neil Davies the five key lessons from the project:

As part of my research and consulting work I have assembled a huge library of article references. They cover both specific technologies as well as the contextual societal trends. I have collated these for anyone and everyone to read.

Not many people can legitimately claim to have helped their client to make a $270bn cost saving. The remarkable story of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) project is an important one in the history of data networking. It was the trigger for the development of the new science of network performance.Until now, the story has […]

“Anyone wanting to weigh into the net neutrality fight should first read this report.” (Link) – Guy Daniels, Editorial Director, Telecom TV

Imagine for a moment that a regulator, prior to issuing potentially controversial rules about “network neutrality”, got its technical house fully in order. Imagine that regulator hired the leading experts in the field for scientific advice, so that its rulings were grounded in technical reality. If you can, imagine an open process that was open […]

Last year I co-authored a report on ‘Human Technology’, which proposes computing is in the midst of a paradigm shift beyond ‘Information Technology’. Its conclusion is that the leading edge of digital technology is in the engineering of feeling states and ethical outcomes.

In this second part of my interview with Dr Neil Davies of Predictable Network Solutions Ltd, I explore the future of quality-assured broadband access. (For part one, see “How Wales got the first Internet ‘fast lane’”.)

Imagine that someone had constructed the world’s most technically capable ISP, but practically nobody knew about it. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, so here is the true story of the world’s first quality-assured ISP. It was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly in 2006 to serve the needs of deaf people across Wales.