TELECOM Digest Tue, 28 Feb 95 16:41:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 124 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NII 2000 Call for White Papers (John Godfrey) Pizza Hut Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations (Dave Sellers) Palm Size Message Recorder on a Chip (TELECOM Digest Editor) Book Review: "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications" (Rob Slade) Overseas Bandwidth Optimizers (Jim Williams) Tender For Global ISDN Project (Marcel W.J. van.Ruijven) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 500-677-1616 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. ************************************************************************ * * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 16:18:00 EST From: John Godfrey Subject: NII 2000 Call for White Papers [This document is also available through World Wide Web, at http://ntiaunix1.ntia.doc.gov:70/0/iitf/appstech/techpolwg/tpwgcall.html ] COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418 NII 2000 STEERING COMMITTEE Call for White Papers: Private Investment and Federal NII Policy The NII 2000 Steering Committee -- a group of high-level executives and distinguished academicians -- seeks white papers from academia, businesses, foundations, industry, interest groups, trade associations and other interested parties on topics relevant to NII technology deployment. The Committee is charged by the Technology Policy Working Group (TPWG) of the federal Information Infrastructure Task Force with a year-long course of activities to develop a baseline understanding regarding what technologies are to be deployed when, where, and by whom. The project is being coordinated by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and is drawing upon inputs from multiple industries, sectors, organizations, and individual experts. A list of NII 2000 Steering Committee members is attached. All white papers will be made available to federal NII decision makers and be considered for discussion at a Spring Forum in Washington, D.C., May 23-24, 1995. White paper authors will have the opportunity to revise their papers after the Spring Forum. All papers- regardless of whether they are selected for discussion at the Spring Forum-will be presented to the government and will contribute to the Steering Committee's final NII 2000 report to TPWG and the public. RESPONDING TO THE CALL: In keeping with its charge, the NII 2000 Steering Committee seeks properly documented discussions with quantitative evidence/analysis on technical, financial, and economic aspects of technology deployment issues and prospects for the next five to seven years. Issues of particular interest to the Committee include: Architecture and facilities: Bandwidth capacity available to and from: government (all levels), corporations (domestic and international), small businesses and residences; also mobile users of portable platforms; Interoperability and openness: dimensions, barriers and facilitators; Interactivity and symmetry (i.e., relative support for two-way communication); Internetworking and interconnection regarding different kinds of networks and services; Public networks, private networks, virtual private networks. Enabling technologies (e.g., end-user devices, interfaces, and protocols); Recovery of carrier costs (facilities and/or services) in an open- network environment; Middleware technologies/capabilities: e.g., mechanisms such as digital signatures, encryption or search agents that protect intellectual property, privacy, security; directory services. Applications: Expected capabilities for digital libraries, distributed collaboration, software agents, smart cards, telecommuting, video delivery (on-demand & near on-demand), multimedia services; Expected attributes and implementation of electronic kiosks/public access facilities; Technology deployment issues affecting a particular domain (e.g., education, finance, manufacturing, transportation) which may have implications for other domains (e.g., establishing standards in health care); Critical hardware and/or software interface features, requirements, and standards; Equitable access and public service obligations (relative costs and implementation rates); Research and development: i.e., critical areas for future projects in device, software, and systems research; also private sector trends and priority areas for government-funded research; FORMAT REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY: Papers should begin with a brief problem statement and concentrate on analysis and forecast (five to seven year horizon) of deployment issues and key factors, including sources of uncertainty, contingencies, barriers and facilitators. Conclusions should concisely state the business case for a given deployment effort and any implications for public policy. Submissions should be double-spaced and should not exceed 6,250 words (approx. 25 pages). All papers must be signed by a principal and accompanied by a signed NRC copyright agreement. Statistics must be referenced; cites should be formatted as endnotes. Papers should be submitted in hard copy and electronic form (diskette or e-mail to jgodfrey@nas.edu) by April 27th. About the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board: Established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916, the National Research Council (NRC) is the federal government's principal advisor on science and technology issues. NRC conducts its work primarily by convening experts (serving pro bono) on a given issue. Within the NRC, CSTB oversees technology and policy projects related to information infrastructure and similar topics. For more information, contact John Godfrey, CSTB, 202/334-2605 or e-mail to jgodfrey@nas.edu ************************************************************************ ** DETAILED CRITERIA AND FORMAT STATEMENT: White Paper Criteria and Format I. Criteria A. Substantive - To the degree relevant, each paper should: Distinctly frame a problem/issue related to NII technology deployment; Make a projection regarding that problem/issue over the next five to seven years; Provide a comprehensive baseline and status report of key developments related to that problem or issue; Assess the interaction between technical and non-technical (legal/regulatory, economic, social) factors; Identify contingencies and uncertainties related to investment and deployment of new technologies; Identify key applications, enabling technologies, capabilities; Identify classes of users to be served, noting: (a) which users may be served most easily or quickly; (b) which users are more difficult to serve (and why); and (c) market ramp-up expectations and determinants When using terms such as "interactive", "open", "scalable", provide a short definition or context for understanding how those terms are being used; Identify possible public, private, or public/private sector responses. B. Technical: Submissions should be double-spaced; Submissions may be no longer than 6,250 words (approx. 25 pages, double-spaced); All papers must be signed by a principal of the organization, group, or firm; All authors must sign a National Research Council copyright agreement; Statistics must be referenced; cites should be formatted as endnotes; Papers should be submitted in hard copy form, as well as on a diskette (ASCII or WordPerfect 5.1 format) or sent via e-mail to jgodfrey@nas.edu. C. Dates: Abstracts due March 27; Forum version papers due April 27; Edited (final) version papers due June 30. II. Format (Page lengths are provided as guidelines only): A. Statement of the Problem: Each paper should provide a one or two paragraph statement of the particular technology deployment issue. B. Background (approximatly four or five pages): This section should provide a baseline understanding of the technology, service, industry, domain, or issue in question, and define terms. A picture of the current "state-of-play" should emerge from the section. C. Analysis and Forecast (approximatly twelve to fifteen pages): This third section is the heart of the paper and as such, should look at some of the broad factors (economic, legal/regulatory, social, technical) influencing deployment decisions. In particular, authors should (to the extent relevant): (a) identify contingencies and uncertainties affecting investment decisions; (b) discuss factors used by the industry/domain in making the business case for a new technology; and (c) make projections regarding the next five to seven years. This section should also include a discussion of barriers to resolving any outstanding problems/issues. D. Recommendations (approximatly three or four pages): In this final section, authors should state whether and how the problem(s) identified can best be addressed by the private sector, the public sector, or by a cooperative effort between the two. E. Additional Resources (optional): A listing of relevant documents, analyses, forecasts is welcome. Authors may attach these source materials as appendices. For more information, contact John Godfrey, CSTB, 202/334-2605 or e-mail to jgodfrey@nas.edu ************************************************************************ ** Computer Science and Telecommunications Board National Research Council NII 2000: CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS RESPONSE FORM Complete and return to CSTB by March 22 (Circle One: Mr. Ms. Professor Dr.) NAME TITLE AFFILIATION ADDRESS PHONE ____________FAX________________E-MAIL_____________ What is the topic of your white paper? Return to: Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Attn: John Godfrey National Research Council 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room HA-560 Washington, D.C. 20418 FAX: (202) 334-2318 ************************************************************************ ** STEERING COMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT FOR A NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE Dr. Lewis Branscomb, Chair Albert Pratt Public Service Professor J.F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Ms. Cynthia Braddon Vice President, Washington Affairs McGraw-Hill Incorporated Mr. James Chiddix Senior Vice President, Engineering and Technology Time Warner Cable Dr. David Clark Senior Research Scientist, Laboratory for Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mr. Joseph Flaherty Senior Vice President, Technology CBS Incorporated Dr. Paul Green, Jr. Manager, Advanced Optical Networking Laboratory IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Mr. John Landry Senior Vice President, Development and Chief Technical Officer Lotus Development Corporation Mr. Richard Liebhaber Chief Strategy and Technology Officer MCI Communications Dr. Robert Lucky Vice President, Applied Research Bell Communications Research Dr. Lloyd N. Morrisett úÿ President John and Mary Markle Foundation Dr. Donald Simborg Chief Product Strategist Medicus Systems Corporation Mr. Leslie Vadasz Senior Vice President Intel Corporation Staff: Marjory S. Blumenthal Director, CSTB Louise A. Arnheim Sr. Program Officer John M. Godfrey Research Associate Gloria Bemah Admin. Assistant ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 16:24:50 +0500 From: sellers@on.bell.ca (Dave Sellers) Subject: Pizza Hunt Consolidated Phone Number - All Locations The following news release was issued by Bell Ontario Public Affairs to Ontario-based media on February 27, 1995. Bell rings up 310-1010 to reach 83 Pizza Hut locations TORONTO -- Eighty-three different pizza outlets from Cobourg to the Niagara Peninsula have identical phone numbers. A telecommunications nightmare, you say? A super telephone number, say Pizza Hut and Bell Canada. Throughout the 416 and 905 area codes, pizza-hungry customers can now dial the same seven-digit phone number, 310-1010, to reach any of Pizza Hut's restaurants, delivery and take-out stores. No need to look in the phone book; no area code required. Bell ServiceFinder (TM) service makes this new kind of seven-digit phone number possible. It provides a business with a series of call routing options that can be used alone or in combination to give customized routing capabilities. The service allows the business to advertise a single seven-digit local number and route incoming calls to pre-determined locations based on one or more options. "Whether you're at your home in St. Catharines, at a friend's place in Brampton or visiting your cousin's apartment in North York, you just dial 310-1010 to reach the local Pizza Hut for that area. The people who answer your call will take your order and make your pizza. It's that easy," says Doug Corbett, Pizza Hut's marketing manager. The ServiceFinder database will use the postal code associated with the calling number to identify which Pizza Hut location the call should go to. When the customer dials 310-1010, the system automatically routes the call to the nearest Pizza Hut. "No other food service company in Canada offers this level of convenience for its customers," says Corbett. "Our goal now is to make 310-1010 available across the country so no matter what city our customers are in, they dial the same number for a Pizza Hut pizza." Both the customer and the business benefit from the ServiceFinder service. "Besides making it easier for people to reach a business no matter where they happen to be, this service means the business can maintain a local look while getting greater value from its advertising," says John Strecker, national account director with Bell. In addition to the postal code option, call routing can be based on: - the telephone numbers of special customers; - the first three digits of the incoming call; - time of day; - day of the week; - a percentage of calls that each location should receive. Pizza Hut is the first Bell Canada customer to use the ServiceFinder service and is part of a technical trial. Bell Canada is awaiting approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission before expanding Pizza Hut's single number to other area codes and proceeding to market trials with other customers. That approval may come by the end of March. This is one of the first services to be offered on Bell's Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) platform. AIN is a set of software features that work in conjunction with Bell's digital switches (DMS-100: digital multiplex system of switching) equipped with CCS7 (Common Channel Signaling #7) software. CCS7, which activates Bell SmartTouch (TM) services, passes information about the calling number between the DMS-100 switch and the AIN software. Pizza Hut's 310-1010 is also in use in Calgary, Alberta, and the company intends to expand the number to the rest of the country as soon as possible. Within the 416 and 905 area codes, all Pizza Hut locations are now using the 310 number except those in Oakville, Burlington and Milton which are expected to make the change this spring. The downtown Toronto core (south of Carlton/College, between Spadina Ave. and Bayview Ave.) is using 310-1010 and will have delivery service for the first time by mid-March. Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc., is the world's largest pizza distribution system with 478 restaurants and delivery units in Canada and more than 10,750 outlets in 88 other countries. Pizza Hut is the recognized leader of the $1.7 billion Canadian pizza category. Bell Canada, the largest Canadian telecommunications operating company, markets a full range of state-of-the-art products and services to more than seven million business and residence customers in Ontario and Quebec. Bell Canada is a member of Stentor -- an alliance of Canada's major telecommunications companies. For more information: Marilyn Koen Doug Corbett Bell Canada Communications (Ontario) Pizza Hut Canada (416) 581-3258 (905) 602-2752 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 15:59:17 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Palm Size Message Recorder on a Chip I got an interesting advertisement a couple days ago I want to share with you. I make no warranties or claims; I will just tell you what they said. It cheap enough, you may want to order one or two. "Message recorder records anything without tape". This little thing fits in the palm of your hand and comes with a key chain attachment. Two buttons on the front, one marked 'rec' and the other marked 'play'. Whenever you want to remember something later on, just take this thing out of your pocket, press the record button and talk into it. It will hold ten seconds of whatever it hears, but the deluxe version will hold twenty seconds of talk. Later on when needed, you press the play button and the ten/twenty seconds of speech comes over the tiny little speaker attached. A new recording simply erases the old one. It looks to me like the sound quality won't be the greatest based on the tiny combination speaker/microphone used, but it should work for short memos. Inside this thing is a tiny little ciruit board with a chip that holds your speech. The person who showed me the one he got (and gave me the ad for reference) has done something quite interesting; something which may appeal to other Digest readers -- He opened the plastic case and took out the circuit board. Then he tossed out the plastic case, not needing it any longer. He mounted the litle circuit board in his telephone, and took the leads which had been going to the little speaker and connected them to his telephone handset instead. Two minature push button switches he mounted nicely on the side of his phone serves to cut the recorder in or out of the circuit, in record or play mode. He records his message by talking into the telephone. He uses it to give a standard answer phrase when he picks up a ringing line. Of course, you could do whatever you wanted with it. He mounted the little circuit board in a spare place inside the phone with a piece of double sided tape to hold it firm. It operates on four 1.5 volt button size batteries that come with it for free when you buy it. He thought about getting the six volts needed from the phone line itself, but said the extra bother of getting the voltage just right was not worth the hassle since the batteries last a long time (hundreds of plays). Anyway, I thought you might be interested in trying one of these. There is no kickback or commission to me, it just looked clever and I think I shall order one also. Item MR-10 the standard one is $9.95 plus 3.45 s/h = $13.40 Item MR-20 the deluxe one is $14.95 plus 3.45 s/h = $18.40 Two of the MR-20 deluxe units for $24.75 plus 3.65 s/h = $28.40 Three of the MR-20 deluxe units for $34.95 plus $4 s/h = $38.95 ($13 each) They offer a money back guarentee for thirty days after purchase, and say allow six weeks for reciept. They take checks or money orders payable to HOLST, Inc. or you can send them your Visa/MC/Amex number and expiration date with your signature. HOLST, Inc. Department DM-2265 334 W. Wackerly Street Post Office Box 1431 Midland, MI 48641-1431 No phone number was given. I can see where the twenty second version might have some interesting applications for short outgoing phone messages if you can figure out how to wire it in the phone line, which should not be too hard. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 10:57:59 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications" BKDGTDTC.RVW 950125 "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications", Dvorak/Anis, 1990, 0-07-881668- 8, U$34.95 %A John C. Dvorak %A Nick Anis %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1990 %G 0-07-881668-8 %I McGraw-Hill/Ryerson/Osborne %O U$34.95 905-430-5000 fax: 905-430-5020 lkissing@osborne.mhs.compuserve.com %T "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications" This book is *full* of surprises. Given the number of people who recommended that I review it, I had expected a more up-to-date work. This *revised* (from "Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications") version is dated 1990. Which means it's dated. Actually, even for *1990*, it's dated. The "acknowledgements" reads like a telephone book. A lot of people put a lot of info into the book. Unfortunately, a lot of them covered the same ground. Over and over. Again. From these original submissions, the book does not seem to be edited as much as concatenated. The material does not seem to have been organized into any kind of order, either. Modem installation starts in chapter two, but some of the information on COM ports waits for chapter twenty-three. The material is very uneven as to quality. Chapter twenty-four has an excellent section on what to look for in file transfer protocols. Unfortunately, it is in the second half of the chapter. The first half has already delivered the usual hackneyed opinions about specific protocols: errant ones, into the bargain. The linking and introductory material is sometimes painfully verbose, and pages go by without solid information. (The virus chapter? Ahem. Well, yes. I *do* have to say that, aside from the ridiculous definitions of "bombs" and "worms", and Richard Levin's promoting of his own program, it is not bad at all.) As usual, the preface promises to help you get started with a modem. It simply does not deliver. The reader will, by the time the book is finished, be familiar with terms and concepts, but not the practical details of how to get it to work. Well, some details, perhaps. Much time is spent describing how to put a "card" into the computer. But there is no advice on how to diagnose errors with speed, parity or word length (all fairly easy to recognize). The chapters on Macintosh, Amiga, UNIX and OS/2 are mere tokens. There is much more that is missing from this tome, as well. (The *only* mention of the Internet is as an email gateway between Compuserve and Usenet.) There are some individual goodies buried in here, but, to be honest, I can't think of any group to recommend it to, even considering some of the other poor works on the market. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKDGTDTC.RVW 950125. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: routers@halcyon.com Subject: Overseas Bandwidth Optimizers Date: 28 Feb 1995 00:43:37 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. The series 5000 LAN/WAN Optimizer is an advanced data compression device which increases the throughput of a bridge, router, front end processor or channel extender. It uses an advance hardware pipeline and multiprocessor architecture to minimize compression/decompression latency and maximize throughput. The Optimizer can either be inserted between the router and the DSU/CSU, or can be installed with an integral T-1/FT1 DSU/CSU. Wan links speeds supported: 9,600 through 2.048Mbps. Average 2:1 through 4:1 compression at all line rates. The 5101 model is a single DTE channel device. The 5201 model offers statistical multplexing of two channels to allow multiple independent data streams to be efficiently transported across the WAN. For more information please contact: Jim Williams ROUTER SOLUTIONS Tel +800-837-4180 Fax +206-222-7622 E-mail routers@halcyon.com FTP.halcyon.com /pub/local/routers ------------------------------ From: Marcel.W.J.van.Ruijven@news.xs4all.nl Subject: Tender For Global ISDN Project Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 12:22:33 PST Organization: PTT Telecom Netherlands From November 28-30, 1995 the ISDN event of the year will take place: Global 1995. It will be a world-wide event with show cases in different countries linked together via ISDN. Already 35 sponsors in Europe, Asia, Africa and America support the initative and now seek global support for a professional organisation. Three tenders are made available by the Global '95 steering committee: - For administration - For promotion and communication - for project management For more information please ask for details via: Fax : +31 70 3816581 (Attn. Mr. A. Naftali) Internet: m.w.j.vanruijven@telecom.ptt.nl Requests for information should be in before March 7, 1995. Proposals should be in no later than March 10, 1995. Marcel W.J. van Ruijven PTT Telecom BV E-mail:M.W.J.vanRuijven@telecom.ptt.nl P.O. Box 30150 not NL-2500 GD The Hague ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #124 ******************************