Carrier Grade Networks for Developing Countries Net4DC (Language: English)
The environmental, political, socio-economic and technological requirements of rural regions of the world are drastically different than urban areas and need dedicated research. The available technology neither fits to those areas nor enables a profitable business model. The consequence is either a huge isolated population or relief workers trying to finance temporary network deployments, which are completely dependent on donations. This, however, has social, economic and political consequences for all the countries. The role of research institutes and R&D departments is clear: to assist and pave the way to investors by enabling an easier and profitable participation in this new and growing market; gaining the required know-how in different research areas, developing rural-suited communication solutions, bringing interdisciplinary expertise together and harmonizing the endeavors to develop the best strategy for companies. In this respect, NET4DC (www.net4dc.org) is focusing on rural dedicated solutions and preparing cooperation projects in order to synchronize the work realized by different players of ICT4D.



Burak Şimşek
Burak Şimşek received his B.Sc. degree in industrial engineering at the Bilkent University - Ankara in 2000. Following this, he completed his master study in Economics and Business Administration (M. Sc.) at the Humboldt University of Berlin and worked at the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Laboratories of the Technical University of Berlin and Computer Architecture and Communication department of the Humboldt University as a project manager. He is currently working as a senior researcher and project manager at Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS. Among others, he is managing NET4DC project (www.net4dc.org), which targets bringing connectivity to people living in rural regions of the World. His main area of research is autonomic communications with a special focus on self-configuration and optimization. He initiated and chaired the Broadcast Handovers Task Group of IEEE 802.21 (Media Independent Handovers - IEEE802.21b) where he is still responsible as the vice-chair. He also initiated heterogeneous wireless backhauls study group in IEEE802.21.