RELIABLE COMMUNICATION FOR MULTISERVICE TERMINALS.

The use of communicating multimedia workstations and teleconference terminals is putting new requirements on network performance. One parameter to be considered is how reliable communication can be obtained when the signal carried by the physical channel is no longer one but a plurality of signals their number and importance changing dynamically in time. The introduction of a layered structure on the circuit-switched part of the signal, pattered on the OSI reference model allows one to perform a general analysis of the error detection/correction requirements on the different OSI layers. Example solutions based on the use of error correcting codes are presented for the data-link, network/transport and session/presentation layers with an analysis of the respective merits.