Whither broadband-a perspective on wide-area networking

More or less distinct strands can be identified in wide-area network development at present. Public telephone networks are being enhanced to provide digital end-to-end connectivity at 64 kbits/s, forming `national´ ISDNs with increasing international interconnectivity. At the same time global data networks are being introduced or planned supporting frame relay or SMDS (switched multimegabit data service) services at higher data rates, the latter being seen by many as an important intermediate step on the road to broadband ISDN. The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches are now beginning to become available supporting even higher data rates and multimedia applications. But there seems to be little clarity on how these wide-area network developments relate to each other or how the evolution will actually happen. The paper develops a picture of how these major networking developments fit together, what the associated interworking issues are likely to be, and how the evolution is likely to happen. The theme is developed that these two strands of network development are being driven by different, though overlapping, markets-referred to here as the Value Seekers and the Economy Seekers-which evolve at different rates