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Recent technological advances, including faster backbones and lower-cost MPEG 2 compression now allow network operators to build ATM networks that live up to the expectations of a true multimedia delivery medium. Customer demands are validating standards-based ATM as the most cost-effective way of d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Telephony 1999-10, Vol.237 (14), p.84
Main Author: Rasmussen, Steffen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asynchronous transfer mode
Automated teller machine networks
Bandwidths
Competitive local exchange carriers
Computers
Construction costs
Digital video
Distance learning
Educational technology
Multimedia
Multimedia computer applications
School districts
Technological planning
Video compression
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Summary:Recent technological advances, including faster backbones and lower-cost MPEG 2 compression now allow network operators to build ATM networks that live up to the expectations of a true multimedia delivery medium. Customer demands are validating standards-based ATM as the most cost-effective way of delivering high-quality video, CD-quality audio and high-speed data services. As telephony gains a foothold in cable environments and telecom markets begin to offer video, ATM technology is perhaps the most viable common network denominator in their ultimate convergence. Intelligent multimedia access terminals (IMAT) technology combines all the inherent advantages of ATM with the advanced hardware to offer multimedia services; the technology can accept either analog or digital video inputs, integrate MPEG encoding, adapt the MPEG stream to ATM cells and direct them to single- or multipoint destinations throughout the ATM network. IMATs reduce the number of components required at the customer premises while providing carriers with quantifiable advantages for defining and delivering services to broadcast, distance learning, surveillance and telemedicine markets, among others.
ISSN:0040-2656
2161-8690