By combining satellite and terrestrial (wireless) technologies, full coverage and high capacity can be achieved for true broadband services. The interoperability of such diverse networks imposes a number of challenges regarding service provision and management. The end-to-end quality of service (QoS) management implies that features such as service scalability between different networks have to be available. On the other hand, wireless QoS capabilities provide a promising diversity for a wide range of seamless applications. However, differences in QoS properties between both the wired and the wireless applications have a considerable effect on the quality level as well as platform and application dimensions of network interoperability. This paper examines the so-called interoperability requirements in integrated uses of satellite communication technology together with terrestrial (wireless) network technology for seamless delivery of broadband services (using ISABEL and CLIX e-learning applications) in rural and remote areas. This is demonstrated with an example of two educational, real-time and recorded, eLearning services.
展开▼
