THIRD GENERATION SWITCHED MULTI-MEGABIT DATA SERVICE INTERFACE PROPOSAL

THE SWITCHED MULTI-MEGABIT DATA SERVICE (SMDS) PROPOSED BY AMERICAN TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH (AT&T) IS A SYSTEM FOR THE ECONOMICAL COMMUNICATION OF LARGE AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION WITH THE SAME INTERCONNECT TOPOLOGY AS THE VOICE PHONE NETWORK. THIS SYSTEM WILL BE A CATALYST TECHNOLOGY TO BASIC RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES. ENGINEERING DESIGN TEAM, INC. (EDT) INTENDS TO DEVELOP A LOW-COST SMDS INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY UTILIZING A HIGHLY-INTEGRATED SINGLE BOARD INTERFACE WHICH CONNECTS DIRECTLY TO THE PHONE SERVICE AND ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT. THIS BOARD WILL BE INSTALLED IN A STANDARD COMMERCIAL COMPUTER WHICH PROVIDES THE NETWORK INTERCONNECT SERVICE. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WILL FUNCTION AT THE DSI AND DS3 LEVELS. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS LOW COST SMDS INTERFACE WILL ALLOW TRANSFER AND SHARING OF INFORMATION BETWEEN FACILITIES QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY, AND WILL RESULT IN DRAMATICALLY LOWER CONNECTION COSTS, MORE USERS AND LOWER CONNECTION TARIFFS.