Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/fade into you/being there/Issues & Ideas/Hybrid Cable/Applications.data.sheet

Text File | 1994-10-09 | 8KB | 153 lines

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2.5 -->Hybrid Case Histories

Accessing the Internet

The Internet, or the data superhighway, is a world-wide system of more than
10,000 linked networks.  The Internet could be described as a global
information storage and retrieval system.  But unless you are connected to the
Internet through a university, research institution, or some similar entity
with an expensive high-speed connection, obtaining the wealth of information
available is a slow process.  Linking to the high-speed backbones of the
Internet from remote locations is currently done over public telephone lines at
speeds typically ranging from 2400 to 9600 bits per second.  At these speeds,
graphic, video, and audio files are too large to transfer in an acceptable
timeframe.  However, with the Hybrid Access System (HAS), these large files can
be transferred over cable TV or wireless channels at speeds up to 10 million
bits per second.  With the high-speed, low-cost cable connection, Hybrid users
have drastically improved the amount of data they can access and process.

Hybrid Users

Universities

Progress today in many domains results from this country's large research
universities, and those research universities depend on their ability to
conduct thorough research efficiently. Standard telephone lines are simply
inadequate for university professors and students working at home.

"With the large files, I'd start them transferring in the evening, and in the
morning, I would be able to use the file.  I found that when I needed a large
file from Stanford, it was holding up my work to wait and transfer it."

                    David Cheriton, Research Professor at Stanford
                    University

With the HAS, documents which took hours to receive now take only seconds.
Professors, like David Cheriton, can now share large amounts of information
with their colleagues allowing for a much more collaborative effort.  Complex
computer imaging needed for research is easily accessed through the HAS and its
use of existing cable lines.

"The cable TV setup is ideal to move the data from the data providers to the
homes where they need it.  I actually see this benefit at Stanford, where there
is a tremendous amount of data at Stanford and other universities that I can
access very quickly, and I can't afford and don't want to keep that amount of
data at my house."

                        David Cheriton, Stanford University


Finance

Whether a stockbroker or an investment banker, most fast-paced business people
know that the job doesn't really stop when they leave the office.  Today's
employees of the financial world need up-to-the-minute information 24 hours a
day, and more importantly, they need it available to them at their homes.

With the HAS, the home can become the office (only when needed, of course), as
your own cable television can be used as a high-speed connection (up to 1000
times faster than modems) to large corporate databases and files.  For the
successful business person, telecommuting will become simply a fact of life.

There are over 5 million telecommuters already in business today using the
standard modem communication.  However, the standard telephone lines used in
this type of communication are not fast enough for the complex computer work
demanded by today's professionals, making the information they transmit
obsolete by the time it finally reaches its destination.

With the HAS large files arrive in minutes rather than hours, because hours are
simply not acceptable in an always changing trader environment.  And knowing
that security is crucial when dealing with confidential files, the HAS
guarantees a safe means (DES encryption) of working with proprietary data from
the home, so that even the most important work can be done outside of the
office.

Engineering

For those people in technical fields, whose work relies extensively on computer
aided design or other visual images comprised of massive data sets,  telephone
lines are  inadequate for transferring information.  The aerospace engineer who
needs a complex computer image sent from another lab will have to wait hours to
receive the image.  The physicist depending on graphical simulations sent from
a colleague needs more than the speeds offered by standard modems.  Most
importantly, engineers in all fields who want to get ahead and desire the
ability to work out of the home or another remote site, need higher speed
capabilities for accessing information.

An engineer working at the Interop`93 Exhibition in San Francisco's Moscone
Center realizes he needs promotional display signs created for the show, and
uses the HAS to transfer a large software drawing package from the University
of Wisconsin to his own workstation at the show in a matter of minutes, a task
that would have taken hours with current dial-up methods.  Result:  Display
signs were created, making for a successful show.

Medicine

Imagine the efficiency of a health care system in which a patient on vacation
injures himself in the mountains of Colorado. The attending physician accesses
his medical file from Nevada in a matter of seconds allowing for a complete and
full diagnosis.  Or think of a situation in which a patient goes to the
hospital after a bad fall and his doctor is not in that day. The X-rays are
sent to the physician at his home in just seconds through the use of his own
cable television line.  With the HAS in effect, these scenarios can become
realities.

This technology can give physicians today a power that physicians just a few
years ago never imagined.  The HAS can give a physician an important link
between hospitals or between hospitals and homes, ensuring that he is always in
touch with patients under his direct care.  A physician at home can receive
important information about a particular patient through his cable television
at speeds up to 1000 times faster than the speeds offered by the standard
telephone modem.  Important medical imaging too large for standard telephone
lines can easily be transmitted through the HAS, either from hospital to home
or from hospital to hospital, and without delays which could prove costly to
the patient.

With the HAS the possibility exists for a standardized system which cuts
through the hours of time consuming paperwork.  All patients can have their own
computer file which stores the essential information about previous medical
history and insurance.  Rather than taking a half hour to fill out  several
forms in the lobby, the patient's unified  document can be accessed in seconds
through the HAS.  The possibility is real for a nationwide medical network
which can send personal files to and from any hospital.

K-12

Already making its mark in public schools, the Hybrid Access System (HAS)
provides teachers with the power to bring the world, via the Internet, to the
classroom within seconds.  Need a quick reference to a Shakespeare text not
found in the library?  The HAS can deliver this in seconds.  Or how about using
video in an earth science class to display up-to-the-minute weather fronts in
the United States?  The HAS does this in no time.  In today's schools, where
classes are at best 45 to 50 minutes long, time is valuable and should be used
in the most optimal way possible.

"We have already run some tests and discovered that some documents it took 15
minutes to download on our old SUN can be brought down in 30 seconds with
Hybrid."
                        Rich Amlin, Monta Vista High School

Besides freeing time for more important activities, the HAS takes already
available time and makes it fun and interesting.  With the HAS, interactive
tutorials open new ways of education for teachers and students alike.  Students
can now see Martin Luther King deliver a speech, or hear the music of Bach,
courtesy of the HAS video and audio access capabilities.  Students also have
the power to interact personally with other students throughout the country,
simply by subscribing to any one of hundreds of available newsgroups accessible
through the HAS.  Newsgroups big and small, covering subjects ranging from
sports to music, or to just about anything, can be an exciting tool for keeping
students in touch with what specifically interests them.  Quite simply, the HAS
creates a learning environment that is ripe for real learning.