Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies
The lack of access to broadband services and speeds that allows urban and rural populations to meet the minimum requirements of today’s society creates a lack of economic opportunities and digital inequality. In contrast, regions with adequate broadband infrastructure can attract investor...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2023-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10244030/ |
| _version_ | 1827304670039638016 |
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| author | Reinaldo Sanchez-Arias Luis G. Jaimes Shahram Taj Md. Selim Habib |
| author_facet | Reinaldo Sanchez-Arias Luis G. Jaimes Shahram Taj Md. Selim Habib |
| author_sort | Reinaldo Sanchez-Arias |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The lack of access to broadband services and speeds that allows urban and rural populations to meet the minimum requirements of today’s society creates a lack of economic opportunities and digital inequality. In contrast, regions with adequate broadband infrastructure can attract investors and become the home of tech workers while boosting the local economy. To level the field and promote the expansion and improvement of broadband infrastructure, federal and state agencies in the U.S. provide funding through programs such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, and The Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program among others. Here, counties assess their broadband infrastructure, identify the funding opportunity, and compete for that funding by submitting grant applications. In this research paper, we present the problems, challenges, and lessons learned during the process of assessment of the broadband infrastructure for Polk County, Florida, USA. In addition, connectivity technologies and physical layer options for broadband internet infrastructure were reviewed and we present our recommendation in terms of technology for the upgrading and expansion of the current network. In particular, we discuss the challenges in determining actual network coverage by contrasting official data of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with several crowd-sensing datasets such M-Lab (Measurement Lab), Ookla Open Datasets, and results from the Polk County community broadband survey. We discuss the advantages and limitations of using these publicly available datasets and open-source tools. Finally, we provide guidelines and best practices in terms of data analysis and visualization that may be used by city planners and researchers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:57:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-88eaa80a145b45c0a15448497835fb06 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:41:55Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-88eaa80a145b45c0a15448497835fb062024-03-27T23:00:10ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-011110158010160310.1109/ACCESS.2023.331323110244030Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging TechnologiesReinaldo Sanchez-Arias0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6145-7122Luis G. Jaimes1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4914-6740Shahram Taj2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6409-2053Md. Selim Habib3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0161-5325Department of Data Science and Business Analytics, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, FL, USADepartment of Computer Science, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, FL, USADepartment of Data Science and Business Analytics, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, FL, USADepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USAThe lack of access to broadband services and speeds that allows urban and rural populations to meet the minimum requirements of today’s society creates a lack of economic opportunities and digital inequality. In contrast, regions with adequate broadband infrastructure can attract investors and become the home of tech workers while boosting the local economy. To level the field and promote the expansion and improvement of broadband infrastructure, federal and state agencies in the U.S. provide funding through programs such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, and The Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program among others. Here, counties assess their broadband infrastructure, identify the funding opportunity, and compete for that funding by submitting grant applications. In this research paper, we present the problems, challenges, and lessons learned during the process of assessment of the broadband infrastructure for Polk County, Florida, USA. In addition, connectivity technologies and physical layer options for broadband internet infrastructure were reviewed and we present our recommendation in terms of technology for the upgrading and expansion of the current network. In particular, we discuss the challenges in determining actual network coverage by contrasting official data of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with several crowd-sensing datasets such M-Lab (Measurement Lab), Ookla Open Datasets, and results from the Polk County community broadband survey. We discuss the advantages and limitations of using these publicly available datasets and open-source tools. Finally, we provide guidelines and best practices in terms of data analysis and visualization that may be used by city planners and researchers.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10244030/Broadbandinternetspeed test analyticssingle-mode fiberhollow-core fiber |
| spellingShingle | Reinaldo Sanchez-Arias Luis G. Jaimes Shahram Taj Md. Selim Habib Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies IEEE Access Broadband internet speed test analytics single-mode fiber hollow-core fiber |
| title | Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies |
| title_full | Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies |
| title_fullStr | Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies |
| title_short | Understanding the State of Broadband Connectivity: An Analysis of Speedtests and Emerging Technologies |
| title_sort | understanding the state of broadband connectivity an analysis of speedtests and emerging technologies |
| topic | Broadband internet speed test analytics single-mode fiber hollow-core fiber |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10244030/ |
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