VITA Journal, December 1997 Issue © 1997 VMEbus International Trade Association

CETIA Heads European Consortium

On Development of ATM Technology
Over the past three years, CETIA has system would be installed in an environ- CETIA's ATM Solution
headed a European Consortium which ment where several end users were
was set up to develop and evaluate a real- already accustomed to using videoconfer- A gateway was created which permitted
time, high quality, multi-party desktop, encing, and would use the new ATM the new ATM system and the current
videoconferencing system using ATM videoconferencing system on a daily ISDN system to work together. All video
technology. The project, known as basis. images, as well as any pertinent data that
‘DIVINE’ (Deployment of Interpersonal The sites chosen for the next round of needed to be shared during the videocon-
Videoconferencing Systems on IBC testing included, Thomson-CSF, ALCA- ference was now broadcast to all of the
Networks) was sponsored by the TEL and Ford Europe as well as a few participants by using the multicast capa-
European Community under the aus- small European organizations, all of bility associated with ATM switching.
pices of its ACTS program (Advanced which were spread throughout Europe. Hence, the new ATM solution eliminated
Communication Technologies and All the sites already had in place 400 the need to book, in advance, a Multipoint
Services). videoconferencing terminals based on an Central Unit (MCU) which is mandatory
Earlier this year, CETIA successfully ISDN system. The employees who had in ISDN networks for managing the unin-
tested its ATM system during a three been using the ISDN system over the past terrupted flow of all the data and images
month period, which provided a link two years, were not happy with its perfor- transferred during a videoconference.
within the research community associat- mance and were looking for ways to The new ATM solution offered addi-
ed with the University of NICE. Three improve their videoconferencing technol- tional benefits with the incorporation of
independent facilities, the Ecole Superior ogy. For example, the ISDN system would multicasting. Every participant could now
Science Informatique (ESSI) and allow a participant to view only one other choose to display, on his/her screen,
Laboratory I3S, less than one mile apart participant at a time. Furthermore, the those participants and information he/she
from each other, located in the Sohia video images themselves were not view- wished to see. The project participants
Antipolis region, were linked with the able in real-time mode and were choppy were also given the ability to initiate a
University of NICE, another 13.5 miles causing their online sessions to feel less multi-party conference whenever needed
away. For this particular test project, the interactive. without having to book, in advance, the
network facility set up a EuroSud155 The participants' input was key in MCU. The audio portion of the videocon-
pilot along the French Riviera. determining the features of CETIA's ATM ference was now mixed on each individ-
solution. For example, they requested ual terminal which permitted the partici-
Project Requirements that their new system provide a high def- pants to hear all other participants at the
inition (CIF or higher) and fluent video same time. Finally, the trial participants
The technical objective, outlined by the image (a frame refreshment higher than were able to present slideshows, as well as
DIVINE consortium, was to rapidly pro- 15 fps) in order to 'conference-in' all of use a shared whiteboard to assist them
vide a large number of end-users with an the participants in a seamless real-time during their video conference sessions.
attractive multipoint teleconferencing videoconference session. Additionally,
system which drew from the benefits they wanted their new terminal packages Results
offered by both the Quality of Services to include easy access to other groupware
(QoS) and the broadband capability asso- facility products, i.e., word processing, The ATM technology proved itself as a
ciated with ATM technology. In order to spreadsheet and database capabilities, as viable solution in linking a number of
fairly test CETIA's ATM solution, the new well as desktop "regular" telephone remote groups for important meetings.
access. Pleased with the results produced during
the initial part of the DIVINE project,
Advertiser Index users from THOMSON-CSF decided to
VMETRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inside Front Cover implement the system in two additonal
SBS Bit3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 locations around the Parisian suburbs.
Concurrent Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 The ATM system used for this portion of
Phoenix International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 the test has been built around two
RGB Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 25Mbps ATM switches interconnected by
Harting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 an ATM 155Mbps multimode fiber. The
Syscomms ‘98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 test will initially start with 2 terminals at
AP Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 these two locations with an aggressive
ACT Technico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inside Back Cover plan to rapidly expand the number to 20
Systran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Back Cover terminals by 1998.
CETIA is on the Web at: www.cetia.com

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