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Epilogue

Epilogue

pp. 512-518

Authors

, University of California, Santa Barbara
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Summary

We conclude with a brief discussion of research and development frontiers in communication systems. This discussion is speculative by its very nature (it is difficult to predict progress in science and technology) and is significantly biased by the author's own research experience. There is no attempt to be comprehensive. The goal is to highlight a few of the exciting challenges in communication systems in order to stimulate the reader to explore further.

The continuing wireless story

The growth of content on the Internet continues unabated, driven by applications such as video on demand, online social networks, and online learning. At the same time, there have been significant advances in the sophistication of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers, which greatly enhance the quality of the content these devices can support (e.g., smart phones today provide high-quality displays for video on demand). As a result, users increasingly expect Internet content to be ubiquitously and seamlessly Available on their mobile device. This means that, even after the runaway growth of cellular And WiFi starting in the 1990s, wireless remains the big technology story. Mobile operators today face the daunting task of evolving networks originally designed to support voice into broadband networks supplying data rates of the order of tens of Mbps or more to their users.

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