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In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure. [1]
In software development, a greenfield project could be one of developing a system for a totally new environment, without concern for integrating with other systems, especially not legacy systems. Such projects are deemed higher risk, as they are often for new infrastructure, new customers, and even new owners.
In wireless engineering, a greenfield project could be that of rolling out a new generation of cell phone networks. The first cellular telephone networks were built primarily on tall existing tower structures or on high ground in an effort to cover as much territory as possible in as little time as possible and with a minimum number of base stations.[ citation needed ] These early wireless telephone network designs were later augmented with additional base stations and antennas to handle the growing demand for additional voice traffic and higher network capacity. As wireless networks quickly evolved, it was evident that the earlier designs constrained the growth of the network. As governments made more radio spectrum available for licensed wireless telephone operators in the late 1980s, entirely new networks were built that performed better than legacy networks because their designs were free from the constraints of existing systems. Today, any new network designed from scratch to enable new Radio Access Network technologies, such as 3G, 4G, and WiMAX are also referred to as greenfield projects.
Literal examples of greenfield projects are new factories, power plants, airports which are built from scratch on greenfield land. Those facilities which are modified/upgraded are called brownfield land projects (often the pre-existing site/facilities are contaminated/polluted.)
In transportation industries (e.g., automotive, aircraft, engines) the equivalent concept is called "clean sheet design".
Greenfield also has meaning in sales. A greenfield opportunity refers to a marketplace that is completely untapped and free for the taking.
From an Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) perspective, an IT organization that is being set up from scratch is said to start from a "greenfield" situation. This is because it would have no live services or practices in place to start with.
Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) was a wide-area mobile data service which used unused bandwidth normally used by Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) mobile phones between 800 and 900 MHz to transfer data. Speeds up to 19.2 kbit/s were possible, though real world speeds seldom reached higher than 9.6 kbit/s. The service was discontinued in conjunction with the retirement of the parent AMPS service; it has been functionally replaced by faster services such as 1xRTT, Evolution-Data Optimized, and UMTS/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA).
In computing, a legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program, "of, relating to, or being a previous or outdated computer system", yet still in use. Often referencing a system as "legacy" means that it paved the way for the standards that would follow it. This can also imply that the system is out of date or in need of replacement.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service specifically refer to the provisioning of communications services over the Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN), also known as plain old telephone service (POTS).
Brownfield refers to land that is abandoned or underutilized due to pollution from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and/or land developers within different countries. The main difference in definitions of whether a piece of land is considered a brownfield or not depends on the presence or absence of pollution. Overall, brownfield land is a site previously developed for industrial or commercial purposes and thus requires further development before reuse.
Wireless communication is the transfer of information (telecommunication) between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves, intended distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking. Other examples of applications of radio wireless technology include GPS units, garage door openers, wireless computer mouse, keyboards and headsets, headphones, radio receivers, satellite television, broadcast television and cordless telephones. Somewhat less common methods of achieving wireless communications involve other electromagnetic phenomena, such as light and magnetic or electric fields, or the use of sound.
A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. It can also be a form of wireless ad hoc network.
Brownfield development is a term commonly used in the information technology industry to describe problem spaces needing the development and deployment of new software systems in the immediate presence of existing (legacy) software applications/systems. This implies that any new software architecture must take into account and coexist with live software already in situ.
Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties being considered for urban development.
A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short distance from the base station.
Future-proofing is the process of anticipating the future and developing methods of minimizing the effects of shocks and stresses of future events. Future-proofing is used in industries such as electronics, medical industry, industrial design, and more recently, in design for climate change. The principles of future-proofing are extracted from other industries and codified as a system for approaching an intervention in an historic building.
The next-generation network (NGN) is a body of key architectural changes in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into IP packets, similar to those used on the Internet. NGNs are commonly built around the Internet Protocol, and therefore the term all IP is also sometimes used to describe the transformation of formerly telephone-centric networks toward NGN.
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning, over a single broadband connection, of two bandwidth-intensive services, broadband Internet access and television, and the latency-sensitive telephone. Triple play focuses on a supplier convergence rather than solving technical issues or a common standard. However, standards like G.hn might deliver all these services on a common technology.
iProvo is the name of the fiber to the home service in Provo, Utah. Provo's backbone connects homes and businesses throughout the city, as well as municipal buildings, schools, power stations, and traffic signals. Construction began in July 2004 and was completed within two years. With the exception of new subdivisions not included in the original build out contract, the fiber optic backbone is available in all areas of the city. The network's fiber optic equipment is manufactured by World Wide Packets.
A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.
Telecommunications engineering is a subfield of electrical engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication engineer is responsible for designing and overseeing the installation of telecommunications equipment and facilities, such as complex electronic switching systems, and other plain old telephone service facilities, optical fiber cabling, IP networks, and microwave transmission systems. Telecommunications engineering also overlaps with broadcast engineering.
Trillium Digital Systems, Inc. developed and licensed standards-based communications source code software to telecommunications equipment manufacturers for the wireless, broadband, Internet and telephone network infrastructure. Trillium was an early company to license source code. The Trillium Digital Systems business entity no longer exists, but the Trillium communications software is still developed and licensed. Trillium software is used in the network infrastructure as well as associated service platforms, clients and devices.
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information, while the receiver demodulates the signal to recreate the original digital information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded reliably. Modems can be used with almost any means of transmitting analog signals, from light-emitting diodes to radio.
Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underused properties for redevelopment or repurposing.
Mastec, Inc. is an American multinational infrastructure engineering and construction company based in Coral Gables, Florida. The company provides engineering, building, installation, maintenance and upgrade of energy, utility and communications infrastructure. Its customers are primarily in the utility, communications and government industries.
A greenfield airport is an aviation facility with greenfield project characteristics. The designation reflects certain environmental qualities and commissioning, planning and construction processes that are generally carried out from scratch. While a green field in nature is defined as a wide expanse of natural land, here greenfield denotes that a project lacks any constraints imposed upon it by prior work or existing infrastructure. Such projects can be highly coveted by engineers as no time must be allotted for demolition of unneeded buildings, etc. constructed in developed areas for the development of the particular place