Creating a network for interactivity

The one most likely system, to serve as the common meeting ground for phone and cable companies, is a hybrid network architecture of optical fibers and coaxial cables. As the industry evolves toward interactive services, three considerations will become paramount. One is the ability to deliver individualized programming to customers, and get responses from them as well. Here, the instantaneous network bandwidth is of less concern than the effective bandwidth per customer. So long as all the programming and services a customer desires are available in a user-friendly way, it is irrelevant how the network delivers them. By its nature, interactivity also implies that the measure of effective bandwidth per customer be extended to bidirectional communication between the customer and the head-end. Several ways of providing that increased effective bandwidth are discussed. A second prime concern is the need for more attention to network reliability in delivering services. Finally, the issues of standards and security must be dealt with