IEEE Communications Magazine
                          Broadband Access Series
                              Call for Papers

          Not  so long ago, each of the major telecommunications networks
   (switched telephony, data transmission, cable television, and wireless
   networks)  was  evolving  in  order  to  more effectively support that
   network's  legacy  services.  However,  growing  pressure  to  provide
   multimedia  services,  the  explosive  growth  of  the Internet, and a
   progressive deregulation of the telecommunications market have changed
   the landscape. In order to meet the increasing demands of their legacy
   services  and  to  position themselves for new services, each of these
   networks  has  moved  to  a  fiber-optic broadband backbone network. A
   bottleneck  remains,  however, in the subscriber access portion of the
   network;  the  "last  mile."  Telephone  networks  provide ubiquitous,
   efficient  two-connections to homes and businesses, but are limited by
   the  bandwidth  that can be obtained through twisted pair cables. CATV
   operators, on the other hand, deliver huge bandwidth in the downstream
   direction  to  our  homes  but  suffer  from  a  limited bandwidth and
   infrastructure   for  supporting  an  upstream  return  channel.  CATV
   operators  have  also traditionally lacked connectivity to businesses.
   Wireless  service  providers suffer from limited spectrum availability
   and the various signal propagation constraints. Data service providers
   have  typically  relied  on  one  of the other networks to provide the
   last-mile connection.
        In  recent years, different access technologies were brought into
   existence  in  order  to  provide  the  last  mile  with  an increased
   bandwidth and a two-way connectivity.
        Telecom  operators  are  lobbying for both xDSL technologies that
   expand  the  bandwidth of the existing copper plant up to several tens
   of  Mbps  and  FITL  solutions  that allow for an efficient sharing of
   access fibers by residential customers.
        CATV operators are not lagging behind and are installing a return
   communication channel in a low-frequency part of a coax bandwidth.
          Two  other  relative  newcomers  to  the  multimedia  market --
   wireless  solutions and digital satellites -- offer important benefits
   such as rapid deployment and are thus not to be ignored. It is an easy
   guess that they will also serve some part of the multimedia cake.
          While  the current economic condition in the telecommunications
   industry  creates  pressure  to minimize capital spending on broadband
   infrastructure  on  one  hand,  on  the  other  hand it also creates a
   greater  urgency  to  deploy  new, revenue-generating services such as
   high-speed data interconnectivity.
             The  Broadband  Access  series  addresses a full spectrum of
   issues  related  to  a residential access - from signal level, through
   network  architectures together with their life cycle costs up to live
   trial descriptions. We encourage experts in these areas to share their
   knowledge  with the readership of the IEEE Communications Magazine. We
   are  going to publish reviewed submission relevant to broadband access
   three  times  per  year  (months  to  be set by the Chief Editor). The
   papers,  prepared  according  to the author's guidelines (available at
   http://www.comsoc.org/~ci/),  should  be submitted by e-mail to series
   editors at least four months before the issue. The 2003 calendar is:

   Manuscripts due  	Final Manuscript Due	Publication Date
   October 31, 2002	December 31, 2002	March 2003
   January 31           March 31		June 2003
   May 31		July 31			October 2003

   Send materials to: 

   Steve GORSHE                Zdzislaw PAPIR
   PMC-Sierra, Inc.            Dept. Telecommunications
   Portland, OR U.S.A.         AGH University of Technology
   steve_gorshe@pmc-sierra.com Cracow, Poland
                               papir@kt.agh.edu.pl