Network Empowerment

This is the age of information and the Internet. It is based on the blend of two powerful technologies such as telecommunications and computing, which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. Science and education are one of the main pillars of every contemporary society. Therefore, the importance of networking in research and higher education has been recognized by many countries with the establishment of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). This publication covers a range of topics such as Quality of Service (QoS), TCP performance related to congestion management, security issues in open systems, schemes for tariffing and micro-payments so much needed in the realm of e-business, cashing mechanisms and content delivery, the ubiquity of the Internet, the experience from a unique multi-country distance education project, and finally a comparative analysis of a few well-known e-learning environments. This publication is the effort of CEENet (The Central and Eastern European Networking Association). Today, they are in the forefront of Information and Communication Technology in their respective countries, bringing closer the information horizons of the Internet and the high-performance networking, firstly to academic communities and later to other segments of the society.