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Will faster networks simply allow us to do the same things more quickly, or will they set us free to imagine new possibilities? The "Futures Testbed" at BT Labs was conceived as an attempt to answer this and other questions by providing the 700 people in BT's long-term research community with high speed network connectivity from their desktops, homes and when on the move. The testbed uses a range of network technologies to satisfy these requirements, including ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) at bit rates up to 155 Mbps; fast ethernet; switched ethernet; single node ethernet subnets; radio LANs; dial-on-demand ISDN; the GSM data service; and the humble modem over standard telephone lines. Collaborative work with universities uses a 10 Mbps SMDS (switched multimegabit data service) link to SuperJANET, and links to the European ATM pilot can be provided as required. Although AppleTalk and IPX are of some importance in this user community, the glue for the testbed is TCP/IP, and the most interesting areas of development continue to be in IP and ATM. The testbed is used for examining potential scenarios for the convergence of the Internet with more traditional telecommunications networks. |
