In-Reply-To: <199610311529.JAA13213@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII



	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard


On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, Eric Meyer wrote:

> At 2:34 on 31 Oct 96 , Rex Ballard wrote, in part:
> 
> > Worse yet, the ATM backbones cannot distinguish frame-relay traffic
> > and will therefore be uncertain whether the traffic is high priority
> > or low priority.  In some cases we are already trying to share
> > bandwidth with video links across corporate networks, telephone
> > links, and real time data feeds such as quotes.
> 
> As I understand it, Bellcore's plan is to have software and hardware
> that opens up a point-to-point ISDN-quality line directly between
> the two ISPs involved. Even that has its limits, of course.

ISDN is barely tolerable for dial-up workstations.  You have all the
overhead of hop-to-hop handshaking, dedicated connections that don't
optimize routing of each packet, and don't provide transparent redundancy.

Frame-Reley provides all of that, and requires minimal overhead.  Error
correction is done at the end-points.

Also, ISDN pricing is a joke for ISPs.  Just about the time you complete a
hit and hang up the line, you get another hit and another connection.  The
poor system ends up being a dedicated 128 kb link (At T1 costs), or it
turns into a string of 30 second calls which are billed in total minutes
(you get to pay double).  ISDN software is another sticky issue.  Special
software requires specific hardware and specific operating systems.  Many
computer rooms have replaced their mainframes (now the size of a Compaq
full size Tower) with 60 to 70 dedicated PCs. It's funny to walk into a
room filled with over 100 pentium PCs, each running a dedicated service,
because they are running a deliberately crippled operating system
(MS-Windows or OS/2).

> ----------------------------------------------------
>                   N E W S L I N K
>    Online news research, consulting and publishing
> ----------------------------------------------------
>    Eric K, Meyer          http://www.newslink.org
>    managing partner       4,000 media links & more
> ----------------------------------------------------
>     Preview acclaimed guide for online publishers
>            Write to report@newslink.org
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Thu Nov  7 00:07:14 1996
Status: O
X-Status: