Abstract :
The author describes how events in the consumer market and the business world have recently shaped (and for the next few years will continue to shape) this area far more than technological breakthroughs. The need for real-time delivery of much higher volumes of data to meet the video and audio requirements of coming multimedia applications has driven developments in data speed and in that new realm of technology where data communications converge with other kinds of inputs. Similarly, a rising interest in increasingly mobile communications has sparked an interest in wireless communications.<>
Keywords :
data communication systems; local area networks; mobile communication systems; multimedia systems; telecommunication services; LAN; audio; business; consumer market; data communications; data speed; mobile communications; multimedia; real-time; video; wireless communications; Asynchronous transfer mode; B-ISDN; Communication industry; Computer industry; Data communication; Educational institutions; IP networks; Internet; Switches; Video sharing;
