Rationale, directions, and issues surrounding high speed networks

Abstract

An examination is made of the rationale behind the need for ever higher networking speeds, the technological developments that are making them possible on a commercial basis, the directions being taken in their development, and the issues surrounding their construction and use. Roadblocks to providing high-speed networks are discussed. The impact of standardization efforts on development efforts is considered, focusing on the HSC channels, the fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), and metropolitan- and wide-area networks (MANs and WANs). Possibilities for future technologies and architectures are described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>