  We study the S parameter, considering especially its sign, in models of
electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) in extra dimensions, with fermions
localized near the UV brane. Such models are conjectured to be dual to 4D
strong dynamics triggering EWSB. The motivation for such a study is that a
negative value of S can significantly ameliorate the constraints from
electroweak precision data on these models, allowing lower mass scales (TeV or
below) for the new particles and leading to easier discovery at the LHC. We
first extend an earlier proof of S>0 for EWSB by boundary conditions in
arbitrary metric to the case of general kinetic functions for the gauge fields
or arbitrary kinetic mixing. We then consider EWSB in the bulk by a Higgs VEV
showing that S is positive for arbitrary metric and Higgs profile, assuming
that the effects from higher-dimensional operators in the 5D theory are
sub-leading and can therefore be neglected. For the specific case of AdS_5 with
a power law Higgs profile, we also show that S ~ + O(1), including effects of
possible kinetic mixing from higher-dimensional operator (of NDA size) in the
$5D$ theory. Therefore, our work strongly suggests that S is positive in
calculable models in extra dimensions.
