A multi-faceted approach to forecasting broadband demand and traffic

When forecasting the development of new services, it is advisable to look closely at user demand and the way it is developing, to understand what is driving the changes in demand. Because of the varied nature of these new services, a number of different approaches to forecasting their demand can be applied. The growth in new services, as modeled in this optimistic scenario, leads to a massive increase in the volume of traffic carried by the network. This is not due solely to the growth in the number of terminals, but also to the availability of bandwidth at reasonable prices. The services would still exist if they had to operate over ISDN, but once ATM starts to be used, the available bandwidth allows application designers to incorporate the features and offer the response times needed to provide truly usable applications. This, in turn, reinforces the growth in demand