By Paul Harr, Wegener Communications
The success of the Internet has proved it will be an important service component for cable operators. The advent of high-speed IP access has opened the door for rich multimedia content to be played out on consumer PCs. High-speed cable modems with data rates up to 5Mbps allow the savvy PC user to not only use his PC for surfing the Internet, but also for downloading streaming video and audio. Increasingly, the PC is being used to receive multi-media content while its user is also punching out a little work . However, delivery of rich media content requires high performance from high-speed IP access systems. Today, performance has not been a critical issue as high-speed Internet users believe they are receiving improved performance over analog dial-up. But, this is changing and fast. As more users come on-line, the infrastructure to access the huge amounts of content will become the bottleneck. This paper will analyze the growing problem IP Data delivery to high-speed access systems. And, will offer technical solutions that include satellite IP Data backbone to overcome the terrestrial infrastructure.