A First Glance Comparison of Next and New Generation Network Approaches

ext Generation etworks ( xG ), as pursued by international standards development organizations, represent the telecommunication operator approach to provide convergent multimedia experience for their users with improved support for mobility and unfettered service access. In contrast, research efforts in so-called ew Generation etworks ( wG ), such as the Japanese project Akari and the European Future Internet initiatives, are part of an exciting trend towards re-architecting the Internet. Despite the enormous interest regarding both lines of work, few comparisons between their design approaches have been discussed in the literature. This paper provides a first glance comparison between key aspects of both proposals.