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September 1996
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Special Report
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Convergence Strategies
/ No Shortage of Standards
As a computer wag once said, the nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from. Datacom standards are no exception. For example, in the emerging market for cable modems, no less than six standards bodies are involved, including the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineering (IEEE)'s 802.14 Working Group, the Digital Audio-Visual Council (DAVIC),
the ATM Forum's Residential Broadband Group, the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
From the standpoint of any-to-any digital data networking, the key will be standards, such as TCP/IP and
ATM, that can be effectively internetworked. "Will TCP/IP always be the king or will ATM eventually make it to the desktop?" Bill Lawrence, vice president of network systems engineering for Bell Atlantic, asks. "While there is equipment available that can encapsulate TCP/IP on ATM, this becomes problematic because most existing end devices support TCP/IP connectivity, not ATM."
Today, we're also seeing equipment that encapsulates ATM packets within TCP/IP, a concept known as cells in frames.
Matthew Wilson more...
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No Shortage of Standards
