Barbara,
Consider the TCP/IP protocol, or just plain old IP as it is now being called, a language which is different from those which have been used in the past to transmit voice, data, video.
QWST and LVLT, along with most of the other emerging carriers, want to use this same language to provide services that heretofore were delivered by other tongues. They plan, in other words, to use the same underlying technologies [IP] that VoIP will use, basically, to achieve the things you cited.
Prior to fiber optic technologies such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), and today's terabit routers, video and many forms of real-time audio were not practical over TCP/IP. The new paradigm being opened up by the fiber techs, however, are eliminating those barriers, and the Fiber Barons are planning to exploit those new potentials for services which were previously banned to all media forms, except for the established norms of yesterday.
Intranets and the Public Internet, likewise, use TCP/IP for all forms of media and information transmissions today. These, along with extranets (closed user community networks, primarily used for E-Commerce and other association matters) also fit into this pattern. The distinguishing characteristics of them are the boundaries that exist and the access permissions required to gain access to them.
The Public Internet is opened to the world at large.
Intranets are usually contained to an enterprise, often [but not always] with fire-walled gateways to the Public Internet and elsewhere.
Extranets are defined by business functions and relationships, and other criteria for creating groups, like WALMART's, which uses an extranet to transact business with its suppliers, a la Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI.
Hope this helped, Frank C. |
