Connections for the Digital Age: Multimedia Communications for Mobile, Nomadic and Fixed Devices

Explores and analyzes past and current technologies and trendsin multimedia communication Digital natives—those persons born in the digitalage—have an ever-widening range of wireless-enabled devicesat their disposal. They are the drivers of multimediacommunications, continually seeking out the technologies anddistribution channels that best match their needs. This bookoutlines the changes in telecommunications that are occurring tomeet these needs. It addresses the continually increasingrequirement to provide connections that make the electronicencounter as natural and convenient as possible, exploring the vastassortment of devices that exist as part of everyday living fordigital natives.Featuring precise diagrams and tables to illustrate the evolvingenvironment, the book begins by describing the competitiveinteractions of telephone, cable TV, and cellular mobile companiesin providing services and content. It outlines the creation ofdigital multimedia streams and how they are transported, explainswhat multimedia connections are available, and summarizes theactivities of competitors while providing an overview of theirmarkets and customer statistics.This book uniquely covers wireline, optical fiber, cable, andwireless access methods, explaining the coding required to createdigital streams. It combines ethernet with provider bridging andmulti-protocol label switching and highlights the necessity toserve legacy streams. In addition, the book addresses controversialissue: will incumbent communications providers ever overtakeInternet as the chief source of digital feeds and popularcontents?Featuring extensive references and a glossary of multimediaterms, Connections for the Digital Age is written fordigital natives and other persons with an interest in multimediacommunications; industrial, commercial, and financial managers;engineers; software professionals and Internet specialists; andstudents at technical schools and universities.