Creating a functional Internet-ready building is not a trivial task. The following is a list of issues raised when investigating the requirements and functionality needed by the tenants of various buildings:

Infrastructure Issues

• copper wiring category
• number of twisted pairs for each tenant
• distance from the basement to the customer premises
• apartment internal wiring topology
• splitters and filters

Networking Issues

• bandwidth allocation
• symmetrical versus asymmetrical
• caching
• IP addressing
• VPN, routing, tunneling, intrabuilding switching, and virtual local-area networks (VLANs)
• frame versus cell (IP versus ATM)

Operation Issues

• accounting and billing
• distributed operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM)
• user self-configuration
• piracy prevention

Service Issues

• termination—Does the service provider support customer home area network (HAN)?
• regulation issues (ISP, CLEC, ILEC, ILEC.NET, tariffing)
• integrated services (voice, Internet video streaming, data): service consolidation
• dynamic Internet service selection
• portal services
• user analysis

A flexible model for creating IRBs will address the relevant issues related to each segment—residential, commercial, hospitality, or other.