Data networking trends

Summary form only given. In addition to the change from mainframe-dominated point-to-point networks, wide-area technology now offers a variety of transmission speeds and accommodates a variety of standards, all vendor independent. Technology trends and increased activity in the standards bodies allow the customer to select technology that can be offered from both private and public network providers. Public network providers will provide standards-based solutions with extra emphasis on reliability, management, security, and cost control. One such solution that is rapidly being deployed in the United States is SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Service). This paper consists of a slide presentation with some accompanying text.< >