Fearing loss of market share, and facing the need to offer advanced services to remain
economically viable, key multiple service operators (MSO) formed the Multimedia Cable
Network System Partners Ltd. (MCNS), with the purpose of de?¬?ning a product and system
standard capable of providing data and future services over cable television (CATV)
plants. MCNS proposed a packet-based (IP) solution in contention with a cell-based
(ATM) solution promoted by IEEE 802.14. MCNS partners included Comcast Cable
Communications, Cox Communications, Tele-Communications, Time Warner Cable,
MediaOne, Rogers Cablesystems, and Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs).
Global Internet: The Largest WAN
The Internet can be thought of as a WAN that spans the globe. In the 1960s, researchers at
the U.S. Department of Defense wanted to build a command-and-control network by
linking several of their computing facilities around the country. This early WAN could be
vulnerable, however, to natural disaster or military attack. Therefore, it was necessary to
ensure that if part of the network was destroyed, the rest of the system would still function.
Thus, the network would have no central authority, and the computers running it could
automatically reroute the ?¬‚ow of information around any broken links.
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