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61
The Awakening 3.0: PCs, TSBs, or DTMF-TV—Which Telecomputer
Architecture is Right for the Next Generation's Public
Network?
John W. Thompson, Jr.
GNOSTECH Incorporated
Abstract
Universal, equitable, and affordable access to the national
information infrastructure (NII) is achievable over the next 5 to 7
years. However, our switched and broadcast telecommunications
industries have not been given the national goal and task of
pursuing the network architecture and technologies that can provide
such access to interactive media public utility services.
At present, these communications industries are pursuing
variations of the personal computer and TV set-top box network
architecture models. These public network architectures are
inappropriate and have economic handicaps that will cause them to
fail in the provision of universal access and service for the
American public. However, there is at least one network
architecture model—DTMF-TV—that does appear capable of
delivering on the NII promise. This "architecture," based on the
existing and universally available telephone and NTSC video
networks, can provide universal and affordable access to the
Internet, the Library of Congress, and any other source of
entertainment and knowledge 1R.
However, the NII needs an encouraging, supporting, and regulating
public policy. This public policy should provide for the nationwide
common carriage of real-time addressable video to the home, equal
access to cable TV head ends for interactive multimedia providers,
and the appropriate video dialtone rules.
Statement of the Problem
The national information infrastructure (NII) is totally
dependent on the proper convergence of our public switched
telecommunications network (PSTN) and mass media public broadcast
network (PBN) into a nationwide telecomputer system. Two
predominant network architecture models and one emerging model are
competing to be "the" information superhighway. The interactive
media network architecture deployed by our nation's cable and
telephone companies will have a significant impact on whether the
general public will begin to have equal, affordable, and universal
access to the NII by 2000. Over the next 5 to 7 years we can expect
the interactive multimedia industry to continue to improve PC
technology and program content. However, the model that posits a PC
in every home, connected to an online network of "PC" telecomputer
systems, will fail to provide universal access to the NII because
of the economic burden of PC hardware and software purchase and
maintenance, and their constant obsolescence. Similarly, today's
cable and telco interactive TV trials, using the TV set-top box
telecomputer system model, will also fail to provide universal
access because of the same economic burdens of their underlying
telecomputer network architecture. Unless the PSTN and PBN
industries change their current architectural focus, we will
continue down paths that will lead to greater division between our
nation's information haves and have-nots.
To best serve the public with interactive media services will
require a fully integrated system of switched and broadcasted
telecommunications common carriers. Considering the asymmetrical
nature of interactive multimedia networks, the switching technology
and broadband distribution media are already in place to integrate
these information superhighways in a way that is economical for
universal access 2R. Unfortunately,
these key NII elements are owned primarily by two competing
corporate entities within any given geographic locality. Even
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the aborted Bell Atlantic-TIC megamerger reveals the economic
shortcomings of integrating the broadband loops of cable TV with
the switches and back-office operations of telcos when they are not
located within the same geographic locality. As a result, these
telco and cable companies are struggling to add to their networks
what the other already has in operation. For two capital-intensive
industries, this economically taxing competition begs the public
policy question: If building the information superhighway is so
expensive, why, as a nation, are we trying to build two of them?
The problem is that public policy has not charged our PSTN and PBN
industries with the goal and task of creating a new and shared
"public utility" system nationwide, a public telecomputer
network (PTN) providing universal and equal access to
interactive media on a common carrier basis. This is the strange
attractor toward which our communications and computing industries
have been converging since the breakup of the Bell system. However,
the current chaos will continue and public network engineers will
pursue inappropriate network architectures until our country
proclaims such a goal with the proper laws to encourage, support,
and regulate the enterprise.
Background
Before 1993, the public policy issues surrounding the evolving
NII were mostly limited to industrial infighting. It was the telcos
versus newspapers over interpretation of the MFJ, broadcasters
versus studios over Fin/Syn rules, and everyone taking opposing
positions on the FCC's proposed video dialtone rules. These public
policy debates were, for the most part, kept within the
communications industry establishment and the hallways and offices
of Congress and the FCC. Then someone said "500 TV channels," and
visions of the entertainment possibilities and public service
opportunities moved from the industry trade rags to the front pages
and covers of our national consumer publications. This media
attention captured the public's imagination as the now infamous
information superhighway.
Since then, most of our leading telecommunications and media
executives have declared themselves "infobahn" road warriors. They
rushed off to announce their respective multimedia trials and
megamergers to deliver tele-this, cyber-that, and your own personal
virtual-reality Xanadu. Within the next 5 to 7 years, the public
will expect the NII, as the next generation's "public network" of
switched and broadcasted communications, to deliver on these
entertainment, education, and public utility promises. This is a
major undertaking for private industry and public policymakers. To
understand the network and regulatory engineering paradigm shift
that must take place, one needs to comprehend the existing and
evolving public network infrastructure within a common context.
That context is "video dialtone."
The current state of play within the industry involves two
predominant, and one emerging, telecomputer system models. A
telecomputer system, in the fuzzy macro context of the NII, is the
mass media system that our nation's cable and telephone companies
are striving to create to deliver interactive digital everything to
the consuming public. It is the underlying hardware infrastructure
that will integrate telecommunications, television, computing, and
publishing into a seamless national multimedia network.
The older and more familiar of the predominant telecomputer
models is that of the PC in every home connected to the Internet
and other packet-switched networks of computers. This is the "PC"
model. Although this model was a dismal failure as a mass medium
during the brief videotext era, it has had a recent resurgence
encouraged by flashy multimedia PCs, GUIs, CD-ROMs, and the
explosive worldwide growth of the Internet. The champions of this
model tend to be the manufacturers and sophisticated users of
advanced PCs, workstations, and high-speed data networking gear.
The essential NII elements that this model brings to a telecomputer
architecture are those that offer the most artistic, creative, and
communication freedoms to users, programmers, and publishers.
The other predominant model, getting off to a dubious start, is
that of the "smart" TV set-top box (TSB) in every home interfacing
with a video server. This is the "TSB" telecomputing model. This
model is the result of recent advances in microprocessor, video
compression, and network transmission technologies. The champions
of this model tend to be the manufacturers of cable converters,
microprocessors, and midrange computers in partnership with cable
and television companies. In apparent conflict with the PC model,
the essential NII elements of the TSB network architecture are
those necessary for responsible mass media broadcasting and
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network operator control. More important for the NII, the TSB
telecomputer model recognizes the public utility potential of an
unlimited number of addressable video channels to the consumer.
These two models expose most of the essential NII elements
perceived by the converging industries as necessary for the
successful introduction of a new mass medium. Between the two, it
is possible to extract the inherent objective of a telecomputer
system. The objective is to offer all consumers the potential and
opportunity for interactive access to all multimedia publications
over a public network. The objective is also to provide this access
in a responsible and socially acceptable manner. Although each of
the incumbent models has technical and philosophical advantages
over the other, neither will pass the test of being economically
feasible as a mass medium.
Taking lessons from early industry trial experiences and
failures, just now emerging is a third telecomputer model. This
telecomputer model envisions the public using ordinary telephones
and Touch-Tone (DTMF) signaling over PSTN networks, and using only
the buttons of an ordinary telephone as an interactive TV (ITV)
''remote unit" to access and interact with centralized computers
broadcasting user-personalized output over ordinary NTSC video
channels. This telecomputer network architecture combines the best
of the other two models in a way that can offer universal access to
interactive multimedia services. The DTMF-TV model can deliver on
the promise of common carrier interactive TV and programmer
competition. Whether or not this public utility service will be
made available to the public over the next 5 to 7 years will depend
on the creation of a new video dialtone policy, a policy that will
lead to fully integrated switched and broadcasted services on an
equal access and common carrier basis. Such an NII policy should
influence the choice of an appropriate telecomputer network
architecture by our nation's cable and telephone engineers.
Analysis and Forecast
Video Dialtone(s)
To use video dialtone as a common context for NII issues, we
need to define it. There are three distinct types of video dialtone
networks and regulatory models. The first compares to traditional
PSTN services because that is all it is. This video dialtone is now
finding its way into the marketplace as compressed video
teleconferencing and transfers of digital data to office desktops
via multimedia workstations and data networking services. As the
economics for these switched services improve, this form of video
dialtone will likely find its way into the homes of telecommuters.
Over the next 5 to 7 years, videophones and PC videoconferencing
windows will penetrate the home in the same way that facsimile
machines and other home office productivity tools do. This form of
video dialtone, VD-1, is only a common carrier's analog or digital
switched service offered on demand. Switched point-to-point and
bridged two-way point-to-multipoint communications, video or not,
are covered by generally accepted PSTN regulations and tariffs.
The second form of video dialtone originates from satellite and
local TV transmitters over federally regulated and licensed public
spectrum. It also comes from cable TV head ends transmitting over
locally franchised rights-of-way. This form of "passive" video
dialtone is one means of access to the consuming audiences of the
PBN. The public's TVs are now limited to receiving their principal
choices for necessary, convenient, and entertaining or interesting
passive video program transmissions in this form. This nonswitched
one-way, point-to-multipoint video delivery is the most efficient
and economical method to distribute high-quality video programming
to the viewing public on a "scheduled" basis. Advances in digital
video compression and fiber optic transmission technologies have
led to the potential for a quantum leap in the number of broadcast
video channels that can be delivered to the public. These
developments led to the so-called 500 channels and video-on-demand
bandwagons. However, this form of video dialtone, VD-2, does not
yet have a recognized and accepted common carrier regulatory model.
When approached from the common carrier perspective there are some
natural, yet severe, technical and network architecture
limitations. These limitations relate to channel and time slot
availability and social responsibility concerns. If the NII is to
include a common carrier infrastructure that would permit any
programmer or content creator equal access to America's TV
audiences, the evolving public network will require a virtually
unlimited number of addressed video channels.
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The third form of video dialtone is an integrated media mix of
the PSTN and PBN, a "mix" permitting services with favorable
economics for a national interactive multimedia medium. It is this
evolving new form of public network dialtone (VD-1 + VD-2) that is
of particular interest to the NII. This form of video dialtone is
VD-3. It will be those "interactive and on-demand multimedia
communications" services available from nationwide PTN networks on
a common carrier basis. This form of video dialtone will satisfy
the promises hyped to the public, thus far, as the information
superhighway 3R.
Telco (VD-1) and Cable (VD-2)
Subscribers: One and the Same (VD-3)
A major factor affecting the evolution of the NII and the
technology to be deployed for it is the need for a clearer
understanding of just who are the "public" in the evolving public
network. As the now separated wireline network industries converge
on the fully integrated network services "attractor," the
characteristics that once distinguished video broadcast (VD-2) from
switched telephony (VD-1) subscribers are rapidly blurring. This
phenomenon will dramatically influence the VD-3 or "interactive
video dialtone'' regulatory model. Do cable subscribers want to
subsidize cable's entry into telephony any more than telco
subscribers want to subsidize telco's entry into cable? From an NII
public policy standpoint, these subscribers are one and the same.
They should not be burdened with paying for a redundant
infrastructure in the name of full-service networks' competition in
a "natural monopoly" environment. To further compound this issue,
as the wireless industries of over-the-air, satellite, and
microwave broadcasters also converge on the same "fully integrated
network services" attractor over the next 5 to 7 years, the issue
of "who are the public" as public utility subscribers accessing
this evolving public network will become even more blurred.
Over the next 3 to 5 years we can expect that the quest for
spectrum efficiency on the cabled wireline side, through digital
compression and multiplexing, will apply equally to the wireless
over-the-air side of VD-2 video broadcasting. As the broadcasters
of subscription channels (e.g., HBO, Showtime, Cinemax) continue to
explore multicasting opportunities (e.g., HBO-1/2/3, ESPN and
ESPN2), one can expect the more traditional VHF and UHF networks of
the PBN (i.e., CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox) to want access to the same
commercial opportunities. This trend, however, will require the NII
to set VD-2 standards for compressed audio and video broadcasting
in order to encourage a market for the associated consumer
electronics (i.e., wireline and wireless broadcast receivers) and
other addressable customer premises equipment (CPE). These
standards may be based on a version of the Motion Pictures Encoding
Group (MPEG) standard, the Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) standard, or some future NTSC/FCC or industry digital
standard. This trend of subscriber evolution is even more apparent
when one considers the eventual societal ramifications of video on
demand (VOD), near-VOD (NVOD), and other on-demand "audience
targeting" (e.g., billing, screening, selectivity, transactional)
functionality. The fundamental NII element at issue here is
broadband household "addressability" in the mass media environment
of broadcast video networks (VD-2). Beginning with the addition of
the ever increasing numbers of pay-per-view (PPV) channels that
will eventually constitute NVOD, over the next 3 to 5 years cabled
systems will continue to expand the commercial opportunities
associated with VD-2 addressability. It is this addressability
element and the efficiency of electronic distribution that will
eventually attract the direct mail and advertising industry into
the interactive multimedia (analog and digital) convergence. Also
attracted will be the catalog shopping industry as a natural
evolution of the switched telephone (i.e., 800-number service,
VD-1) and broadcasted NTSC video (i.e., VHF, UHF, CATV, VD-2) TV
home shopping industry. As the electronic publishing industry
(i.e., audio, video, and multimedia programmers) converges on a
single and fully integrated VD-3 or (VD-1 + VD-2) communications
network, the concept of "the subscriber" will evolve from one of
being either a VD-1 (i.e., telco) or VD-2 (i.e., CATV) subscriber
to that of being a VD-3 subscriber more closely resembling an a la
carte magazine subscriber in a "common carrier" postal distribution
system.
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I Have an Address … Therefore I
Am
The bottom line is that the regulatory model for the NII must
acknowledge the emergence of a new public utility network system
that will eventually, among other things, enhance if not replace
our national postal system and local systems of public and private
libraries, bookstores, movie theaters, and video rental outlets.
The NII is a public network that carries broadcasted (VD-2) and
switched (VD-1) information and entertainment (i.e., electronic
communications and publishing) to the "addressable households" of
VD-3 (i.e., NII) subscribers.
Utility Potential Comes from
Controlled Flow
Assuming a proper interactive video dialtone (VD-3) regulatory
model for the encouragement of an NII with public utility
potential, the services for these subscribers will have to come
from someone. That someone will be those corporate and commercial
entities investing in the necessary hardware, software, and
"wetware" (i.e., R&D and other creative talents) for some given
and recognized, regulated and unregulated, return on investment(s).
This brings us back to PTN architecture and the technology
deployment issues. The PTN hardware/software, regardless of
architecture model (i.e., PC, TSB, DTMF-TV), for delivering and
controlling the public utility potential of an information "flow"
consists of the following elements:
•
"Pipes" (e.g., DS-0, ISDN, SONET, NTSC, and other
transmission standards);
•
"Valves" (e.g., DXC, ATM, USPS—zip code,
Bellcore administered—NPA—addressing plans; and other
household routing and switching standards); and
•
"Reservoirs" of information (e.g., databases, film
libraries, the Internet, the Library of Congress).
One must understand that the metaphor of an information
superhighway (VD-1) is only half of the bigger public works
picture. The NII (i.e., VD-3) is also an information superpower
utility project (i.e., water, gas, electric light, sewage,
VD-2).
Although their roles are still to be determined, these corporate
entities (i.e., private sector investors) for the next decade or
two will nevertheless consist of variations and combinations of
LECs, IXCs, MSOs, broadcasters, publishers, and other agents. Their
high-level PTN architecture will consist of the following
elements:
•
"Dams" (i.e., technical, economic, regulatory,
legislative, and licensing parameters) to channel the flow;
•
"Floodgates" (i.e., LEC COs, MSO head ends, and
IXC POPs) to regulate, meter, and bill for the flow; and
•
"Generators" (i.e., networked computers) to serve
the public with information and entertainment services.
The bottom line is that the dams and floodgates are PTN
architectural "barriers and bottlenecks" that will control the flow
of information and entertainment to the public. Consequently, the
NII will need to provide for dams with equal-access floodgates and
pipes.
LATAS, MSAS, RSAS, MTAS, and
BTAS: The Issue of Territory
Attracting the investment necessary to build this new public
network, as in any public utility infrastructure project, will
likely require grants of clearly defined market territories to
licensed operators. The more exclusive the legal right to exclude
nonlicensed competition in a given VD-3 subscriber serving area
(SSA), the more attractive these pioneering PTN operators will
become to long-term private sector investors. Hence, exclusivity
will drive the private sector's funding of the NII.
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Recommendations
Set a National Goal
Our former Bell system had a simple but broad goal: a phone in
every home that wanted one. Since the Communications Act of 1934,
this natural monopoly public network was tasked with providing the
public utility infrastructure necessary to permit any person in the
United States to communicate with any other person in an affordable
way. That goal, for its time, was enormously ambitious; but
everyone, from planner to engineer, lineman to operator, clerk to
executive, public consumer to regulator, intuitively understood it.
It took half a century of dedicated work by telephone pioneers to
achieve that goal of universal service.
The public sector should set a similar goal that will challenge
the private sector to create a ubiquitous interactive multimedia
common carrier system to serve the next two to four generations of
Americans. That goal should include a public telecomputer network
system harnessing the diversified and collective intelligence of
our entire country for the public's convenience, interest, and
necessity.
Develop a National Channel Numbering
Plan
In the same way that the public and private sector cooperated to
develop a channel numbering plan for VHF (i.e., channels 2 through
13) and UHF VD-2 channels, nationwide VD-3 network operators will
require a consistent and national CATV (i.e., community antenna TV)
channel numbering plan. A video program on a broadband TV channel
in one state should be on the same NII channel in any other state.
This NII numbering plan should accommodate both the existing
wireless and wireline broadcasters in a common carrier environment,
provide for equal access by all information and entertainment
generators, and reserve channel space for education and government.
It should also make allowances for significant channel numbers
(e.g., 411, 555, 800, 900, 911) that will assist the public in
navigating a VD-3 world. Such a plan is needed to offer the public
network channel surfers a "logical interface" to the 500+ channel
systems of the relatively near future (see Reference 3 for plan
proposal).
Define the Classes of Service
NII policy should also define the classes of (nondiscriminatory)
VD-3 service. These classes in a common carrier environment of
addressable VD-3 or (VD-1 + VD-2) households will consist of the
classes permitted by combining the PSTN's nationwide automatic
number identification (ANI) capability with a numbering plan for
the growing number of addressable broadband receivers in the PBN.
With the coming evolution of video "mail," the classes of service
can, if not should, be modeled after those used in our postal
system (see Reference 3 for plan proposal).
Develop a PTN Test and
Demonstration
The PTN will consist of VD-3 network operators providing a
public network of common carrier services to the next generation.
The public and private sectors should jointly develop the criteria
that will define a PTN public utility system. The criteria should
set parameters that include demonstrating the inherent capability
of the PTN architecture (i.e., PC, TSB, DTMF-TV) both to provide
universal and affordable interactive multimedia access and to serve
all of America's communities in a nondiscriminatory fashion.
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Offer the Prize
There is at least one enabling public utility technology (see
Reference 4 for an example) that can deliver on the VD-3 universal
access promise. The public sector may need to acknowledge that this
form of public utility service, like all others before it, requires
a "federal franchise" to operate as a regulated monopoly. Such a
franchise will be required in order to attract the necessary
capital to build an information superpower system. This approach
worked before as the Bell system. With a pioneering spirit, it can
work again for a new generation of Americans.
References
[1] Thompson, Jack. 1995. "The DTMF-TV
Telecomputer Model Offers the Most Economical Approach to
Interactive TV," GNOSTECH Inc., Annandale, Va.
[2] Thompson, "The DTMF-TV Telecomputer
Model," 1995.
[3] "The Awakening 2.0," the comments of
GNOSTECH Incorporated to the FCC's Proposed Rulemaking on Video
Dialtone (Common Carrier Docket No. 87-266), 1991.
[4] United States Patent No. 5,236,199,
"Interactive Media System and Telecomputing Method Using Telephone
Keypad Signaling."
Representative terms from entire chapter:
public network
