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The preeminent interactive information access device in the business world today is clearly the personal computer. Via the PC, individuals access the exploding array of information sources both within their businesses and throughout the Internet. PCs are rapidly penetrating the consumer environment as well, and we strongly believe that the PC will become the center for national information infrastructure (NII) access for the residential consumer. The intelligence encoded in PC applications and their improving human interfaces will make PCs the tool of choice for ubiquitous consumer information access. However, to achieve their great potential in this role, residential consumer PCs must have access to adequate communication bandwidth. This bandwidth must be priced to be attractive to the residential consumer. The consumer must be free to access all information services using this bandwidth.
High-bandwidth access to information services must get the same level of attention with respect to public policy as providing competitive television and telephone delivery systems. This attention is needed to ensure that the bandwidth, access, and consumer choices are made available in ways that promote the growth of consumer NII use.
This paper develops these themes by examining the forces that are driving corporate PC network access to the NII and the various network topologies being discussed for the residential environment (HFC, FTTC, etc.), as well as possible future service directions. We then develop what we feel are the critical requirements for bandwidth availability for residential PCs.
The personal computer has become a ubiquitous networked communications platform within the business environment. In addition to traditional communications applications such as electronic mail, it is now becoming the base for all sorts of information access and personal communications tools. These tools enable a new level of business activity that includes everything from World Wide Web access for general information acquisition to various levels of electronic commerce and personal conferencing. Key to this development of widespread, cost-effective information and communications applications have been a number of important technologies. First among these has been the deployment of high-bandwidth network connections in both the local and wide areas, utilizing high-volume components, based upon open standards. Free and open access to this bandwidth has permitted any software or hardware developer or information service provider to easily enter these businesses. For example, there are numerous suppliers of network connection hardware and software, a growing number of competing conferencing products, and the beginning deployment of multiple on-line news services from traditional and nontraditional information publishers utilizing the World Wide Web. The resultant competition and interactions are leading to rapid development of the business use of the developing NII.
The same dynamics must be allowed to operate within the critical residential environment to support the development of individual utilization of the NII. While there has been a lot of focus on the larger infrastructure developing to support the NII, particularly in the context of the Internet, there has been less focus on the data access issues of the ''last mile" or access network to the residence. What discussion has occurred seems to revolve largely around video-on-demand entertainment services and telephony. We are concerned that while public policy may operate to guarantee competitive entertainment services and telephony over cable or telephony infrastructures, it might not guarantee the deployment of the reasonable levels of openly available, discretionary
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Residential PC Access: Issues with Bandwidth
Kevin C. Kahn, Intel Corporation
The preeminent interactive information access device in the
business world today is clearly the personal computer. Via the PC,
individuals access the exploding array of information sources both
within their businesses and throughout the Internet. PCs are
rapidly penetrating the consumer environment as well, and we
strongly believe that the PC will become the center for national
information infrastructure (NII) access for the residential
consumer. The intelligence encoded in PC applications and their
improving human interfaces will make PCs the tool of choice for
ubiquitous consumer information access. However, to achieve their
great potential in this role, residential consumer PCs must have
access to adequate communication bandwidth. This bandwidth must be
priced to be attractive to the residential consumer. The consumer
must be free to access all information services using this
High-bandwidth access to information services must get the same
level of attention with respect to public policy as providing
competitive television and telephone delivery systems. This
attention is needed to ensure that the bandwidth, access, and
consumer choices are made available in ways that promote the growth
of consumer NII use.
This paper develops these themes by examining the forces that
are driving corporate PC network access to the NII and the various
network topologies being discussed for the residential environment
(HFC, FTTC, etc.), as well as possible future service directions.
We then develop what we feel are the critical requirements for
bandwidth availability for residential PCs.
Statement of Problem
The personal computer has become a ubiquitous networked
communications platform within the business environment. In
addition to traditional communications applications such as
electronic mail, it is now becoming the base for all sorts of
information access and personal communications tools. These tools
enable a new level of business activity that includes everything
from World Wide Web access for general information acquisition to
various levels of electronic commerce and personal conferencing.
Key to this development of widespread, cost-effective information
and communications applications have been a number of important
technologies. First among these has been the deployment of
high-bandwidth network connections in both the local and wide
areas, utilizing high-volume components, based upon open standards.
Free and open access to this bandwidth has permitted any software
or hardware developer or information service provider to easily
enter these businesses. For example, there are numerous suppliers
of network connection hardware and software, a growing number of
competing conferencing products, and the beginning deployment of
multiple on-line news services from traditional and nontraditional
information publishers utilizing the World Wide Web. The resultant
competition and interactions are leading to rapid development of
the business use of the developing NII.
The same dynamics must be allowed to operate within the critical
residential environment to support the development of individual
utilization of the NII. While there has been a lot of focus on the
larger infrastructure developing to support the NII, particularly
in the context of the Internet, there has been less focus on the
data access issues of the ''last mile" or access network to the
residence. What discussion has occurred seems to revolve largely
around video-on-demand entertainment services and telephony. We are
concerned that while public policy may operate to guarantee
competitive entertainment services and telephony over cable or
telephony infrastructures, it might not guarantee the deployment of
the reasonable levels of openly available, discretionary
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bandwidth required to energize an affordable and comprehensive
personal computer-based information infrastructure.
The deployment of bandwidth that can be utilized in an open
manner to access NII services from the home needs to be encouraged.
For data, this access should be via general packet protocols (based
on the Internet standards of TCP/IP) that permit users direct
interaction with any service they desire. Specifically, data
services from the home should come to be viewed like existing
telephony services that allow consumers to access any services
anywhere in the nation. It may be that for other multimedia
services, such access would be better provided via circuit-oriented
services such as switched ATM virtual circuits (although promising
work is ongoing on utilizing packet protocols for this as well),
but in any case the same principles of openness and full
connectivity must apply. We also believe that the development of
industry-driven standards or implementation agreements for
attaching to and utilizing this open bandwidth will be critical to
the creation of a competitive environment for consumer information
applications. The government role should be to encourage rapid
industry convergence on such de facto standards or implementation
agreements that can later be the basis of more formal de jure ones.
This paper attempts to lay out some requirements for the
development of consumer PC information services broadly within the
The Business Environment as an
Illustrative Example
As a point of reference let us first consider the typical
business access being deployed to allow PCs to utilize the
developing NII. The typical networked PC in the office is attached
to a 10-Mbps Ethernet or similar performing Token Ring network.
(International Data Corporation estimates that in 1994, 73 percent
of the business PCs in the United States were attached to local
area networks.) While this bandwidth is shared with the other users
of the network in most cases, switched networks are beginning to be
deployed that replace the shared access with dedicated access. In
addition, technologies such as 100-Mbps Ethernet are appearing that
will also greatly improve the bandwidth available to the individual
user. Beyond the local environment, most large corporations are
deploying reasonable bandwidth into the Internet at large. This
combination makes available relatively high-speed access to
information and services whether local to the business desktop or
In addition to the bandwidth that is available, another key
aspect of the business desktop is the development of standards.
Industry-driven network connection standards have driven down the
cost of connecting to the network from the PC. For example,
Ethernet controller cards for PCs now typically sell for less than
$100, operating systems increasingly come with protocol software
built in, and a growing number of applications comprehend
networking capabilities. Platform software standards have made it
possible for creative developers to build software independent of
the nature of the specific network. For example, the Winsock de
facto standard for accessing network services on the Microsoft
Windows Operating System is allowing application developers to
focus their efforts on enhancing function in their products rather
than on adapting those applications to a variety of different,
incompatible, network services.
Network protocol standards have allowed end-to-end services to
operate over a wide variety of network implementations. In
particular, general packet networks have allowed a wide variety of
data services as well as new applications such as video
conferencing to begin to operate without special provisions from
the providers of the networks. An entrepreneurial developer need
not make deals with a variety of platform and network providers to
begin to deploy an application in this environment. Neither is an
interested business consumer restricted from beginning to take
advantage of such new services by the choices offered him by
various network suppliers.
Key aspects of the business environment are that it has been
almost entirely industry driven and motivated by competition. De
facto standards or implementation agreements have been rapidly
developed and only later evolved into de jure standards. Throughout
the evolution of the business and the associated standards, the
intellectual property of the participants has been respected by the
processes. It is interesting to note that the more ponderous de
jure first approach to standards represented by the International
Telecommunications Union (the official international body for
defining standards within the telecommunications industry) has been
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less successful in affecting the U.S. environment than have the
more chaotic and rapid moving processes of private company
consortia or the Internet Engineering Task Force (the de facto
group that defines Internet standards).
A couple of other interesting aspects of packet networks are
typical in the business data environment. End systems are always
available to be connected tothat is, they are always
"online." It is thus reasonable to build applications that initiate
connection to a user's system from a service at any time. This is
different from an environment where, unless the user has initiated
a connection to the network, information cannot find its way to the
user's end system. Related to this is the fact that packet networks
inherently support multiple simultaneous connections. That is, an
end system can have an unlimited number of distinct applications
running at the same time, each of which is using some of the
physical bandwidth to connect to another distinct end system. There
is no notion of the line being busy. Again, this flexibility opens
up many possibilities for applications that operate in parallel
with each other over the same physical connection. It allows
service-initiated contact with an end system even while the user is
doing other things over his connection.
The Current Residential
We can compare this business situation to that seen in the
residential environment, first by looking narrowly at what is
really available today, and then more importantly at what is being
tested and deployed for the near future. Today's electronic service
to the home consists of a number of options.
First among these is the existing plain old telephone service
(POTS). This is universally available and provides a completely
open but relatively low bandwidth access to data services for the
consumer. Using 14.4-kbps and more recently 28.8-kbps modems, the
consumer can connect to any information service or network.
Traditional choices have been the private information services such
as CompuServe, Prodigy, or America Online. However, there are a
growing number of general Internet access providers available via
this route as well. These provide general packet access into the
Internet and thus to any information service in the developing
An improvement over POTS in terms of available bandwidth is an
integrated services digital network (ISDN) line, which potentially
provides up to 128-kbps access over a single wire. Fewer
information service or Internet access providers have thus far
deployed ISDN access, and the availability and practicality of
utilizing this level of service varies considerably around the
country. Like POTS, this is a circuit-oriented service that must be
initiated by the consumer. That is, unlike the typical business
connection, an information service usually cannot autonomously
contact a consumer's PC to provide information or service. Also,
while more flexible in some respects than POTS, ISDN is for the
most part not useable by multiple separate applications
simultaneously, thus further limiting the range of applications
that can utilize it. ISDN can be used effectively to connect an end
system to a general purpose router that provides a point of
presence for the Internet or other general purpose network. Used in
this manner, ISDN may provide our best short-term hope for general
purpose residential access. Also, since ISDN can provide fast
connections to another end system when compared with POTS, it can
approximate the speed of being always connected for certain types
of applications. While in principle POTS can also be used in this
manner, the combination of increased bandwidth and connection speed
makes ISDN much more practical in such a configuration.
In contrast to these point-to-point telephony based services,
the cable industry has focused on high-bandwidth broadcast services
for video. The cable infrastructure is typically highly asymmetric
in its bandwidth with much higher speed available into the home
than out. Currently, in fact, most cable systems have no return
path available. Also, cable is unlike the telephone where a
consumer can call anyone or access any service on any other
existing telephone system. The services provided today via the
cable infrastructure are generally chosen by the cable system
operator or according to the "must carry" rules. Cable systems are
generally closed systems that encompass everything from the content
source to the set-top box, which provides a conventional television
signal to the appliance.
There are beginning to be trials of data services over the cable
infrastructure. However, in the spirit of the existing industry,
these may tend to be for services driven and chosen by the service
provider rather than the consumer. In the case of cable TV
programming, the limited number of available channels means that
the MSO
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must select which channels to broadcast. For data services,
however, open packet access means that beyond the provision of the
data bandwidth, there is no need to limit access to content in this
manner. On the positive side, the cable infrastructure brings the
promise of relatively near-term residential broadband service.
Cable could certainly offer the advantages of high-bandwidth,
multisession, always-on data delivery. In particular, by offering
high-quality Internet access, cable could provide much of the
flexibility we desire. It is important that PC access to broadband
information services follow the telephone model rather than the
broadcast TV model of access.
Analysis, Directions in the
Residential Environment, and Forecasts
Access Network Technologies
Two major groups of companies are vying to provide digital
services to the residential environment: the existing local
exchange carriers and the cable entertainment companies. The former
are building on their expertise in operating a highly reliable
telephony network by offering higher-bandwidth services through
ISDN and through cable overlay systems that are capable of
supplying broadband residential service. The latter are leveraging
their existing investment in a physical plant oriented to deliver
many analog television channels so that they can begin to offer
digital entertainment channels and various levels of broadband data
communications to the home. As a part of this enhancement of
services they frequently wish to offer telephony services via this
network as well. This competition should be a positive force for
consumers in the long term, provided that it offers real
competitive choices to the consumer as well as to service
A number of physical architectures have emerged for deployment
by these companies. The most popular of these include the
Hybrid fiber coas (HFC): In this scheme,
optical fiber is used to bring signals from a head end to
neighborhood nodes. At these nodes, the signals are placed on a
coax system for distribution to the residences. The cable industry
target for residences served by a single coax segment is 125,
although in early deployments the number is larger. Since the coax
is a shared medium, the homes on a single coax segment share the
available bandwidth. For most current deployments, the amount of
bandwidth available from the home (either on the cable or via a
separate POTS path) is much smaller than that available to the
home. HFC is particularly attractive as an upgrade path from
existing analog cable systems.
Fiber to the curb (FTTC): In this scheme,
optical fiber is used to bring signals from a head end to a
pedestal on the street that is within a relatively short distance
of a collection of served homes. At the pedestal, signals are
placed on coax or twisted pair lines to the home. While the optical
fiber bandwidth is shared (as in HFC), the drop to the individual
home is not.
Fiber to the home (FTTH): In this scheme,
optical fiber is deployed all the way to the home, where it is
converted as appropriate to provide digital services. At this
point, this scheme is not being pursued to our knowledge in the
United States, although it has been proposed at times in other
national markets.
Asynchronous digital subscriber line
(ADSL): For areas where the length of the lines from the last
point of electronics to the served homes is bounded, ADSL provides
a technique for utilizing existing telephony infrastructure to
carry higher data rates. It uses more complex signaling electronics
over existing copper to provide data rates capable of supplying
digital video.
Beyond these wired topologies, experiments are also beginning
that use wireless technologies. For example, direct PC utilizing
direct broadcast satellite technology provides an asymmetric
bandwidth connection similar to using cable combined with POTS for
a return path.
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Bandwidth and Parallelism
A common theme among all of these approaches is that the
allocation of bandwidth into the home is different from the
allocation of bandwidth out of the home. From a purely
architectural perspective this is unfortunate, since it is an
asymmetry that makes an artificial distinction between providers
(who need high outbound bandwidth) and consumers (who can get by
without high outbound bandwidth). In the full NII where
telecommuting will be common, video telephony will be widespread,
and a true cottage information industry will become an important
part of the national economy, this asymmetry will become a barrier.
However, as a practical matter for the short-to midterm, the key
will be reasonably high bandwidth into the home and moderate
bandwidth out. This arrangement will cater to information retrieval
applications where the bulk of the data flow is inbound with much
smaller flows out to make queries. Provided that the outbound
bandwidth is high enough, it can also support limited video
telephony and telecommuting applications. We and others have
demonstrated the practicality of such application at ISDN speeds
(128 kbps) via products like ProShare™ videoconferencing and
RemoteExpress™ remote LAN access. Nevertheless, higher rates
would greatly improve performance as well as support more parallel
For the long term it is critical that residential services
support a full range of simultaneous activities within the home. It
should be possible for children to be involved in remote education
activities while one parent is actively telecommuting, the other is
accessing entertainment or shopping services, and power or security
monitoring is operating in the background. Solutions that force
artificial limits on conducting such parallel activities will make
it impractical to depend upon network access as an integral part of
the home. Furthermore, each of these individual activities may
require simultaneous sessions. A child may be connected both to
school and to a library system; a telecommuter may be accessing
corporate databases while also checking travel arrangements with an
airline. A shopper may be doing comparisons on products offered by
competing providers. From a technical perspective, the solution to
these multiple access issues is either the provision of multiple
virtual circuits or a general packet network interface (or more
likely some combination of these technologies).
Openness of Access
A key to allowing these applications, even in the face of the
sorts of bandwidth available in the near-term deployments, is to
put the use of the bandwidth completely under the control of the
consumer. Consider two approaches to providing access to
information services. In the first, a cable system contracts to
make available one of the online service providers (say,
CompuServe) using some of its digital bandwidth to the home. From
the consumer's point of view a bundled package is offered that
allows direct connection to the service for some fee. The service
being provided by the cable operator is CompuServe and not generic
online access. If consumers wish to subscribe to a different
service, they cannot use the cable bandwidth to do it. Furthermore,
if a new provider wishes to enter the business and have good access
to customers, it may need to arrange business deals with many
different network service providers. The comparable situation in
the telephony industry would be that the range of people consumers
could call from home would be affected by their choice of local or
long distance carrier.
The alternate approach is typified by the existing low-bandwidth
telephony access system and the growing Internet service providers.
Here, the customer gets access to the general packet switched
network and uses that to provide common carriage of data to various
information service providers. ISDN can be used in this
configuration to provide moderate rate connection to a router from
which general Internet connectivity can be provided. Note that the
owner of the access network is not involved in the selection of the
available services. That selection is between the consumer and the
ultimate provider. Today, this access is the norm for
telephony-class access. As we move toward higher-speed access
networks, it is important that the model exist for broadband as
well. Again the comparable situation in the telephone industry is
that anyone can establish a business phone number and then
advertise directly to potential consumers for business without
further involvement of the network providers. Where cable companies
choose to provide Internet access on the cable, this fits this
model as well.
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The argument here is not that cable operators should be
precluded from offering packaged services. They should certainly be
allowed to offer them as well as local content, provided that they
also provide consumer-controlled access to competitive offerings.
Openness should exist in both directions. That is, providers should
be able to attach to access networks to offer their services to
consumers (similar to requirements for allowing video service
providers to access "video dialtones"). At the same time, consumers
should be able to attach via their access networks to providers who
have not chosen to directly connect to that access network.
Openness of Content and the
Development of New Services
We do not need to wait for the implementation of all digital
networks and the general NII to see examples of why we are
concerned with the issue of open bandwidth access. We can find
today in analog distribution systems an interesting example of how
fragile the relationship between openness of network capabilities,
content provider innovation, and application creativity can be.
This example appears in the use and distribution of material in the
vertical blanking interval (VBI) of broadcast video signals. Note
that the issues in this example are more complex than open access
to bandwidth since they deal with bandwidth ownership and contracts
between MSOs and content providers. However, the example does serve
to illustrate how subtle issues in the nature of the distribution
networks can affect the creation and deployment of new
Standard U.S. television signals must provide a period of time
in each frame to allow the electron beam that paints the screen to
move from the end of the screen back to the top in preparation for
painting the next set of lines. This period is the VBI and can be
seen as a black bar if the vertical hold of a television is
misaligned. Since this part of the signal is not used for carrying
the picture, it can be used to carry other sorts of data without
disturbing the video broadcast. The most common example of this is
closed captioning, which is carried in a part of the VBI.
As broadcasters begin to think creatively about their content
and work with application developers, other possible uses of the
VBI to enhance the broadcast material can emerge. Examples include
digital forms of the stock ticker seen on some news networks,
digital references to sources of additional information to augment
the content of a show, digital indexing information to assist in
selective viewing of the material, and undoubtedly many more.
However, any such program-enhancing use of the VBI must reach the
end consumer to be useful. While the 1992 Communications Act
required that program-related material in the VBI should be carried
by local cable operators, exactly what constitutes program related
is debatable. As a result, there is no guarantee that a content
provider who finds a creative use of the VBI to provide, in
conjunction with an application developer, an enhanced service will
actually be able to deliver that service to the consumer.
This issue can be viewed as an example of the difficulty of
defining what openness in access means, even within the existing
rather limited sorts of broadband distribution that exist today. A
service may no longer be a two-party transaction between the
provider and the end customer. It may now involve at least three
parties and become dependent upon the cooperation of the access
network provider. This substantially raises the hurdle to entering
the business with a new service, particularly one that may be of
interest to only a small percentage of consumers. Even though a
broadcast channel is already carried by the vast majority of access
network providers, it may be necessary to reengage all such network
providers to even begin to offer a service. This certainly provides
a barrier to innovation that need not be present. It is exactly
this sort of barrier that we are concerned not be erected as
digital services begin to be deployed. It must be possible for
innovation to be between the provider and the consumer over an open
digital highway. Conversely, it must also be possible for the
network service provider to benefit from the expanded use of the
Openness of Equipment
Another key difference between the current directions in the
cable access networks and the existing telephony networks is
important to the rest of this discussion. This is the issue of open
equipment connectivity and ownership of customer premises equipment
(CPE). Today, the consumer owns the telephone, the TV, the PC,
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and the modem for the PC. However, it is generally the case that
the cable access provider owns and provides the set-top box.
Furthermore, the lack of standards for the physical network may
make it more difficult to find an alternative supplier of CPE. This
is quite different from the telephony world, where the access
network provider terminates his network at a demarcation point,
providing a standard form of connection to which customer-selected
and customer-owned CPE can be attached. The combination of the
ownership and the standards aspects of this arrangement have
together spawned a vigorous industry in CPE suppliers. For
telephony, the connectivity standard is the RJ-11 connector and the
set of electrical and tone signaling standards supported over it.
As a result, PC access to networks via modems can be achieved with
the same equipment, anywhere in the country.
The importance of the openness of CPE is beginning to be
understood. For example, a press release from Congressmen Bliley
and Markey issued on March 16, 1995, states,
Restricting consumers' ability to purchase and
own cable "set-top boxes"and other communicationsinterface
equipment is like putting a straight-jacket on
technologicaldevelopment.… There's noincentive for
improvement because there's no competition.… Today'sadvanced
phones only happenedbecause of a healthy, competitive retail
marketand so did therevolution in computer modems and
faxmachines that followed.
However, there is more to energizing the broadband CPE industry
than just allowing retail purchase of the set-top box. Consumers
must see an advantage in purchasing the equipment, and vendors must
see a large market to be served in order to invest in developing
products that will attract consumers. Neither of these will happen
very quickly without the development of standards for the point of
attachment of the equipment.
Consider how likely consumers would be to purchase feature-laden
phones if they could not expect those phones to work after they
moved homes. Likewise, consider how likely a company would be to
develop an innovative new phone product knowing that it could be
sold only to that set of consumers who were served by some specific
phone companies, and that the company would also have to deal with
unhappy consumers who discovered that the product ceased to work
after they changed providers. Our concern is that consumers be able
to buy PC equipment and applications that will effectively attach
anywhere in the United States to the NII, and that they be able to
freely move such equipment and applications with them.
Industry-driven discussions are under way in various industry
groups (e.g., the ATM Forum) toward the establishment of such de
facto standards or implementation agreements.
A considerable concern exists about the affordability of an open
consumer broadband data service. Clearly, the bandwidth must be
priced at a level that will allow reasonable access to a broad
spectrum of users. True open competition should cause this to
occur, as can be seen by looking at how other uses of the bandwidth
in the access network might be priced. For example, consider a
higher-level service that has been proposed, namely video on demand
(VOD). This service promises to deliver to the consumer an online
replacement for videotapes (and eventually probably much more
interactive sorts of experiences). Assuming that one uses MPEG2 to
compress a 2-hour movie, then this service must deliver on the
order or 4 to 6 Mbps for 2 hours to the consumer at a price
competitive with what she can rent the movie for today (on the
order of $3.00). VOD is an individual service delivered to a single
consumer at a time. Thus it is reasonable to expect that
competition will drive the cost of similar downstream bandwidth of
an unrestricted sort to be similar. (Actually, the resources to
deliver the unrestricted bandwidth are less since no server is
involved.) Clearly, this accounts only for the access network
provider part of the unrestricted service, but it at least provides
a starting point. It is harder to estimate what a consumer should
be paying for upstream bandwidth, but a similar sort of analysis
for a bundled service that makes more upstream demands (perhaps
shopping or interactive gaming) should provide an estimate there as
well. We are not trying to suggest any particular price structure
for consumer-controlled bandwidth, nor are we suggesting price
regulation. Rather, we are trying to suggest that competitive
forces should cause it to be priced in a somewhat similar manner to
similar levels of bandwidth utilized for services bundled by the
local access network provider.
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An Architecture for a Long-Term
Residential NII
The actual deployment of broadband services to the residential
NII will be evolutionary from today's physical networks. Economic
and practical considerations preclude any revolutionary replacement
of access networks with some uniform and full-service digital
infrastructure. As a result of this evolutionary reality many of
the requirements we have for a long-term infrastructure cannot be
fully met in the short term. Indeed, some of the standards that we
believe will be critical to providing the full potential of the NII
are still in embryonic stages. Nevertheless, it is important to
develop a vision of where we would ideally like to wind up if we
are to generate public policies that encourage development to
proceed toward an end-point architecture that can realize all the
potentials of the NII.
We believe that the architecture should be broken into three
parts: core networks, access networks, and home networks (Figure
1). Core networks are those networks that provide generalized
connectivity both locally and across wide geographical areas. They
correspond in today's telephony infrastructure to the long-distance
carriers plus that part of the local exchange carriers'
infrastructure that carries traffic between the central offices
that serve customers. Access networks are those networks that
connect the core networks to residences. For example, the HFC
networks that are being considered for deployment to connect
regional hub systems to homes are access networks. Finally, home
networks are those that operate within the residence.
Figure 1
Elements of an architecture for realizing the full potential of a
national information infrastructure. ATM,
asynchronous transfer mode; HFC, hybrid fiber coaxial; FTTC, fiber
to the curb; FTTH, fiber to the home;
and ADSL, asynchronous digital subscriber line.
Note that any of these networks can be nonexistent in a specific
deployment. In an existing cable system using HFC to deliver only
broadcast-type services to dedicated set-top boxes in a home,
neither a core network nor a home network may exist. Likewise, one
could view the current telephony infrastructure as often not having
an access or home network, since for practical purposes it
generally appears that the CPE connects directly to the core
We expect that core networks will typically be those with
symmetric bandwidth. Considering today's trends, these are likely
to be ATM-based networks. We also believe that it is in the
interest of the carriers that provide core networks to encourage
use of bandwidth by consumers. There is today competition among
core network providers in the telephony long-distance business, and
we would encourage such competition to continue into the broadband
world. Given this competition, the easy access by the consumer to
multiple core network providers, and the desire of those providers
to sell their bandwidth, we believe that the requirement of
sufficient, affordable, consumer-directed bandwidth will be met in
these networks. Furthermore, there is already much momentum in the
standards associated with communications over these networks
(ranging from TCP/IP to ATM) so that effective consumer utilization
of this bandwidth seems possible.
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Home networks are not yet at all well defined. However, as one
sees more digital information appliances deployed within the home,
the desire to interconnect them will increase, and this will give
rise to various sorts of home networks. Displaying images from
security cameras on a TV or PC, driving an interactive program on a
TV from a PC, or operating a multiplayer game across multiple TVs
or PCs in one or multiple homes are all examples of applications
that will involve a home network. Home networks are likely to be
fairly symmetric, if for no other reason than that there will
likely not be a single special "source" to drive any asymmetry.
Access networks may well remain asymmetric regarding bandwidth
due to the economics of some of the popular access network
topologies. For example, HFC will likely continue to supply much
more downstream bandwidth than upstream bandwidth for the
foreseeable future. We are most concerned about the evolution of
the access networks since they are the critical bridge between the
consumer and the core networks. While the consumer can choose what
to deploy at home, and there is already a path to active
competition in the core networks, the access networks may have much
less natural competition.
Once one understands these three related networks, it becomes
clear that the critical issue for them is to define stable
interfaces that can allow them to evolve independently while still
delivering to the consumer a high level of service. The connection
standards between the access networks and the core networks are
already getting some amount of attention via the discussion of open
video service providers. That is, this interface is the one that a
service provider will be concerned about, whether the service is a
local video store or a general long-distance carrier service. The
connection standards between the access network and the home
network have received less attention. This is the interface
discussed above in the section titled "Openness of Equipment." We
believe that it will be critical to elevate the discussion of this
interface and build policy that actively separates the home network
from the access network via appropriate standards for the reasons
discussed above. In addition to the standards, this is also the
interface across which we believe we must guarantee reasonable
consumer-directed bandwidth.
If we define effective standards at each of these points, then
it should be possible for an information industry to develop that
supplies consumers with equipment and applications that allow wide
exploitation of the NII. In our vision, consumer hardware has a
common socket for attaching to the NII. It uses common protocols
for interacting with NII services. These protocols operate in the
packetized Internet world and in the home to allow easy access to
the educational and information resources of the Internet. The
typical home has access to sufficient bandwidth to make access to
these network resources a pleasant experience. The choices of what
network services are available to the residential consumer are
essentially unbounded. The local access network provider may choose
to package and sell some services, thus making them easier to use,
but there are no roadblocks to open consumer access to the NII at
The key to all of this is the existence of the interface
agreements that allow development on either side of the interface
to progress independently and that do not overly constrain the
sorts of implementations permissible between the interfaces.
Without such industry-driven standards or implementation agreements
we will be in danger of one of two extremes. On the one hand, their
lack will cause the coupling of what should be distinct parts of
the NII, thus slowing development of what should be independent
parts. On the other hand, their overspecification will stifle
creativity by admitting only a single family of products that can
operate within the NII.
With open bandwidth and protocols, intelligence can exist at the
periphery of the network as well as inside it. An innovator with a
good idea can create an information service as an end point on the
network and sell to the consumer an access tool that resides at the
consumer's system. In doing so there will not be any impediments
due to a need to negotiate business deals with various network
providers. This openness will lead to an opportunity for much
greater innovation than that possible with an architecture that
gives preference to the provision of service intelligence only
inside the networks.
RecommendationsRequirements for
Widespread PC Access
Provide reasonable levels of bandwidth to and from
the home at consumer costs. Data bandwidth into the home should
probably at least mirror what is available today for the corporate
user accessing the Internet. This argues for a minimum of T1 (1.5
Mbps)-level rates to each home, and more likely, for peak levels of
at least Ethernet (10-Mbps) speeds. Obviously more is better, but
the key issue is that the consumer must be able to
OCR for page 304
Page 313
access rich multimedia content at speeds that make
the operation a pleasant one. Initially, it is acceptable that the
bandwidth from the home be less than that into it. However,
extremely low outbound bandwidth will limit the efficiency of any
interaction. Furthermore, there are certainly interesting
applications that will be enabled only by relatively high outbound
bandwidth as well (for example, work at home or video security).
Ultimately, the access network should not overly constrain who can
be the providers of services and who can be only consumers. With
the right bandwidth levels, the NII can truly energize a
grassroots, distributed economy. The first step in this direction
can come from the rapid, ubiquitous deployment of ISDN to the
residential environment. While it does not meet the full
requirements, it can quickly get us moving toward the long term and
can allow interesting applications to begin to be deployed as it is
embraced by existing service providers.
Permit consumer control over the use of this
bandwidth to conduct simultaneous digital interactions with
multiple services via open packet protocols. It must be possible
for intelligence in the user's system to efficiently access
multiple services in the NII to generate value at the end system by
the combination of services. The openness of the protocols and of
the connectivity they provide is absolutely key to enabling the
development of new services and to competition among service
providers. Consumers should be able to access any service in the
NII, just as today they can access any telephone from their
residential telephones. The choice of local access provider should
not preclude this accessibility.
It must be reasonable for multiple PCs and other
information appliances within a residence to be simultaneously
accessing the Internet or other broadband services. The fact that a
child is conducting an educational interaction with some service on
a PC should not preclude a parent from conducting a financial
transaction at the same time. It is desirable, in fact, that all
home information appliances be viewed as equals to that there is at
least logical symmetry between originating information inside or
outside the home for consumption inside or outside the home.
Encourage sufficient standards to facilitate a
commodity consumer business on at least the national level for PC
connectivity. Competition drives costs down and service levels up.
However, meaningful competition cannot take place unless a large
marketplace becomes available to the potential suppliers. Consider
the differences in corporate networking costs today versus 15 years
ago. Standards such as Ethernet have energized an entire industry,
with the result that the cost of connectivity for an end system has
approached $100. In the consumer market segment, the standards in
place for telephone connectivity have done the same thing for
products that attach to an RJ-11 socket. This benefit will not
accrue to NII connectivity if every regional or metropolitan market
segment requires different consumer equipment for connectivity. For
example, the consumer is not served well by the multiplicity of
ISDN "standards" across the country. A resident of the United
States should be able to move NII equipment anywhere in the country
and use it effectively, just as can be done today with other
appliances. It is important to note, however, that the most
effective standards in the business world are those that have been
initially industry-driven, de facto ones that only later were
codified into a de jure form. (For example, the nearly ubiquitous
Ethernet and TCP/IP came about in this manner, while the OSI
protocols represented an attempt to drive standards from the de
jure side first.) The role of the government should not be to
impose standards but rather to create policy that facilitates the
rapid development of appropriate industrial ones.
Permit consumer ownership of the periphery of the
network in terms of what kind of equipment is connected. (Of
course, this should not preclude an access network provider from
leasing equipment to the consumer as an alternative.) Similar to
the previous point, we can see an entire industry that has
innovated based on the ability of companies to develop products to
address consumer needs, without needing the permission, or worse,
the active participation of intermediaries to become successful.
Look at the innovation that has occurred since the
Carterfone decision opened up access and ownership of end
equipment for the telephone network. The evolution of capabilities
offered by the personal computer is another example of
market-driven innovation. Locking access networks into an
environment where only provider-owned or provider-sanctioned
interfaces are permitted to be attached to them recreates the old
phone network and its constrained equipment competitive
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Page 314
It is not clear to us at this point that the natural and policy
forces at work in the emerging NII will achieve all the important
results outlined above. There is, unfortunately, something of a
chicken-and-egg problem concerning open residential use of the NII.
The emergence of innovative NII applications utilizing residential
broadband capabilities depends on the existence of those
capabilities, while justification for the deployment of those
capabilities requires hypothesizing the existence of those
applications. As a result, we have a situation where to some extent
policy choices may need to precede market development. We do not
suggest a move toward a highly regulated environment, since
ultimately that is completely counterproductive to the development
of a new industry. However, we do suggest that policymakers need to
find ways to encourage the development of an eventual architecture
that supports the full potential of the NII.
To some extent this notion is already present in the types of
trade-offs being made to balance the cable industry's and telephony
industry's developing competition in each other's businesses. We
are simply encouraging policymakers to take a broader view of this
set of problems that looks beyond this level of competition to
include the rest of the infrastructure that the consumer will need
to become a full citizen on the NII. Policymakers should see that
more is involved than allowing content providers open access to
consumers or considering what the competitive trade-offs should be
between allowing cable systems to offer dialtone and telephone
companies to offer video. They also need to look at the provision
of general data services from the perspective of the consumer. We
believe that more attention should be given to the provision of
open, standardized, commodity-priced network access to the NII at
large. We believe that only with this capability can we tap the
PC's full potential to become the consumer's interactive access
point to NII services and bring to the residential consumer the
dynamics that have so dramatically benefited the corporate PC


text:
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Google Maps is starting to look radically different. The new design that the search giant revealed last May—and has been testing with 20% of its users since then—is finally being rolled out to the rest of the world.
In his newly released e-book, 'On the Road for 17,527 Miles,' student Gregor Weichbrodt virtually retraced Jack Kerouac's cross-country journeys in 'On the Road' by plugging all the landmarks into Google Maps.
Apple said it is bringing its mobile operating system to automobiles this year with a new CarPlay system that links its iPhone with the vehicle's in-dash display to allow drivers to access the phone's maps, music and messages.
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The AM Roundup: Law Blog rounds up the morning's news.
Mount Sinabung volcano, on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, has displaced nearly 30,000 people from their homes since eruptions began in September. See aerial images, maps of Sinabung and the fault lines of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
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Geologists unveiled new maps of active earthquake faults in a handful of Southern California cities that could alter development—most notably in Hollywood.
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When Apple started receiving complaints about its buggy mapping service last year, the company recommended unhappy users try one of the other available options instead, such as Nokia's maps. Now, iPhone users are losing one of their Nokia options.
Nokia says iOS 7 harms the Here experience.
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A big talent leaves Microsoft.
The contradiction may seem insuperable—that the main point of an exhibition about ancient maps is that there weren't any. Still, you will see maps as part of "Measuring and Mapping Space."
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Step out of the main train station in downtown Sochi and most of the people you'll see are volunteers handing out maps. Cross the street and you might also come across three middle-aged Americans handing out religious literature and speaking out against homosexuality.
Oil executives have been happily busy dusting down Persian geological maps and checking out the Tehran office-space market since the interim deal between Iran and the six Western powers appeared to herald a new dawn in relations and, importantly, opportunities.
Bostonians produced the first printed map, city map, battle plan and map engraved on copper—all of which provided crucial information in the pre-Revolutionary era. Now these efforts are on display as part of "Made in Boston," at the Boston Public Library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
Titanfall is a fun and challenging game--but will it make Xbox One consoles fly off the shelves the way Microsoft hopes it will.
Can you guess which city each map shows based on the way its population moves? Take a quiz.
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Maps allow the armchair traveler to roam the world, the diplomat to argue his points, the ruler to administer his country. Henrik Bering reviews Jerry Brotton's "A History of the World in 12 Maps."
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Google and Warner Bros. Pictures have collaborated on a "Chrome Experiment" that maps out author J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world in advance of the Dec. 13 release of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."
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Russia's top search engine Yandex NV has its plans to stay ahead of rival Google Inc. in its core ex-Soviet markets all mapped out.
Content engaging our readers now, with additional prominence accorded if the story is rapidly gaining attention. Our WSJ algorithm comprises 30% page views, 20% Facebook, 20% Twitter, 20% email shares and 10% comments.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
My husband and I have decided to do this as well. I ended up sleeping on the couch last night because it's near our window a/c. Tonight we're going to blow up the air mattress and sleep in the living room together. It sounds like you're having the same weather we are? Are you in the NW too? I live in Portland..
We are melting...


text:
Member since: Dec 18th, 2009
demi-fiend's Latest Comments
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Joystiq | 21 Comments |
Joystiq Nintendo | 4 Comments |
Joystiq Xbox | 4 Comments |
Joyswag: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition codes
May 17th 2011 10:10AM (Joystiq)I'm going with trees. They've gotten off easy in video games for far too long!
Joyswag: Grasshopper Manufacture prize pack -- with NMH2 Hopper's Edition, OST & erotic comic
Dec 8th 2010 1:37PM (Joystiq)I've yet to meet a cat that would listen to commands, much less exercise when I wanted it to. But I'm a huge fan of Suda and GHM, so yeah.
Joyswag: BioShock Infinite swag bag, 'murder of crows' drink, posters
Aug 13th 2010 11:32AM (Joystiq)Mountain Dew Throwback, drink of the year all years
Joyswag: Get stuck in Limbo [update: giveaway closed]
Jul 21st 2010 12:12PM (Joystiq)I saw a creepy shadow in the hallway once when I was a kid, kinda freaked me out. I think it was just my dad walking through, though.
Joyswag: Win a trip for two to PAX, courtesy of HotHead Games and DeathSpank
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My preferred platform would be 360, but I have a PS3 as well. I'm not picky, I'll take it free on either one.
My preferred platform would be 360, but I have a PS3 as well. I'm not picky, I'll take it free on either one.
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Mar 3rd 2010 8:07PM (Joystiq)It'd be nice if Ada did. I mean seriously, RE4 builds her up to be this central character that's working with Wesker, then RE5 rolls around and there's no mention of her and Leon gets one or two lines in random documents.
I'm not exactly holding my breath, but it would've been nice to have her in the main story.
I'm not exactly holding my breath, but it would've been nice to have her in the main story.
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text:
PA Horse World Expo: February 27-March 2
Come see our clinics and demonstrations at the PA Horse World Expo in Harrisburg. Shake off the winter blues and come to the expo for fun and learning opportunities!
Find us at booth #628 – we'll have some special deals for you and as always would LOVE to talk with you about your horses!
Check the show website for a complete schedule of clinics and demos at www.horseworldexpo.com
Equine Masters Challenge 2014: TBA
Sign up now to compete for cash and prizes in a test of horsemanship challenges and freestyle performances.
Showcase what you and your horse can do in a fun and friendly format – and take a chance to win BIG!
Click here to sign up and learn more about the event.


text:
Thursday, March 22nd to Sunday, April 1st
Stuck in the United States and dreaming of Mexico, a homesick old woman doesn't get any help from her distracted family, so she turns to Pedro Infante, the great Mexican crooner of the 1950s. That's the basis for the raucous comedy Pedro Infante y la suegra Triunfante, presented in Spanish with English supertitles. In this comedy of old-fashioned manners and renewed family connections, Pedro helps grandma move and shake her way out of the doldrums and into a happy life, discovering what matters most along the way.
WHERE: Bilingual Foundation of the Arts 421 N Ave 19 Los Angeles, CA 90031 www.bfatheatre.org/ HOOD: Lincoln Heights |


text:
London Restaurants
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Fodor's London 2014
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Tayyabs Review
Unloved City bankers and doctors from the nearby Royal London Hospital swamp this neon-lit, high-turnover Pakistani curry specialist (set in the eastern part of Whitechapel part of The City). Expect queues after dark, and bear in mind it's BYO, jam-packed, noisy, and often maddeningly chaotic. Nonetheless, prices are keen and you can OD and gorge handsomely for under £20 on a mixed char-grill extravaganza, which might include fiery Tandoori chicken and fish tikka. Other best bets include Karachi okra, slow-cooked "dry meat," minced meat seekh kebabs, Karahi prawns, hot steaming naan breads, and Tayyab's famous spicy char-grilled Karahi lamb chops (cooked to a secret receipe).
- Address: 83 Fieldgate St., The City, London, E1 1JU | Map It
- Phone: 020/7247–9543
- Website: www.tayyabs.co.uk
- Tube: Aldgate East.
- Location: The City
Contact Information
- Reservations not accepted.
- Credit cards accepted.
Restaurant Details
- 80 Degrees: Fodor's Helps You Find Your Best Beach Vacation Spots
- Fodor's Go List 2014: Where we are going in 2014
- World Cup Fever: Start planning your trip to Brazil!
- Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards: Check out the winners of 2013
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- Great American Vacation: Find Your Next U.S. Trip with Fodor's
First … thank you so much to all who helped with suggestions. Read more
We saw London, we saw France and lots more.
Day 1 (9/18) Amsterdam
Well I have put off this trip report long enough so here goes. I am writing this to pay forward the help and advice which I received from Read more
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The new Rosewood London is London's latest luxury property, touting a hip twist on Edwardian style, complete ... Read more
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News, Hotels
The beacons of hotel-cool are at it again, this time across the pond.... Read more


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NEWSLETTERS Free Newsletters Archive My Subscriptions NEWS News by Subject News by Disease News by Date PLoS Search News Post Your News JoVE CAREER NETWORK Job Seeker Login Most Recent Jobs Browse Biotech Jobs Search Jobs Post Resume Career Fairs Career Resources For Employers HOTBEDS Regional News US & Canada Biotech Bay Biotech Beach Genetown Pharm Country BioCapital BioMidwest Bio NC BioForest Southern Pharm BioCanada East US Device Europe Asia DIVERSITY INVESTOR Market Summary News IPOs PROFILES Company Profiles START UPS Companies Events INTELLIGENCE Research Store INDUSTRY EVENTS Biotech Events Post an Event RESOURCES Real Estate Business Opportunities
by Yaoyao Sun, Wenzhen Yu, Lvzhen Huang, Jing Hou, Peihua Gong, Yi Zheng, Mingwei Zhao, Peng Zhou, Xiaoxin Li
Age-related degeneration(AMD) and asthma are both diseases that are related to the activation of the complement system. The association between AMD and asthma has been debated in previous studies. The authors investigated the relationship between AMD and asthma systemically.
The epidemiological study showed that asthma was related to choroidal neovascularization(CNV) subtype(OR?=?1.721, P?=?0.023). However, the meta-analysis showed there was no association between AMD and asthma. In an animal model, we found more fluoresce in leakage of CNV lesions by FA analysis and more angiogenesis by histological analysis in rats with asthma. Western blot demonstrated an elevated level of C3a-chain, C3a'-chain and VEGF. After compstatin was intravitreally injected, CNV leakage decreased according to FA analysis, with the level of C3 and VEGF protein decreasing at the same time.
This study first investigated the relationship between AMD and asthma systematically, and it was found that asthma could be a risk factor for the development of AMD. The study may provide a better understanding of the disease, which may advance the potential for screening asthma patients in clinical practice.


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To say Waikiki is touristy is an understatement. The whole eight or ten square blocks of high rises between Ala Wai Canal and Waikiki Beach was fabricated for tourists, largely after World War II. But the famous destination is not phony, but rather one big pineapple slice of real Hawaii, heavy on the sunshine and poofed with aloha.
And you can do it on the relative cheap. Airline fares to Oahu don't include the interisland flight (duh) and you don't need a rental car. Discerning visitors can find bargain priced rooms. There's great walking, not only around WKK, but also to adjacent Kapiolani Park (in the shadow of Diamond Head) and to Ala Moana Beach Park. A short bus ride gets you to historic Honolulu, with its museums and Chinatown. Shuttle busses also can deliver you to Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Or not. On a quick getaway, the smart thing to do may be to just stake out some sand and soak in the Waikiki vibe.


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Key Info |
The villa is located on the beach. It is a split level and has 3 double bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom in Pink Portugese marble. No expense was spared in the restoration . Fully fitted kitchen. Separate lounge room. Toddler friendly.
Back garden with BBQ. There is a clay walkway between the villa and beach. The Oasis Club is very exclusive and comprises about 22 villas on the Golden Mile located between Marbella and Puerto Banus , both within walking distance. Also only 10 minutes to the famous Marbella Club.
Size | Sleeps up to 6, 3 bedrooms |
Nearest beach | On the beach |
Will consider | Corporate bookings, Long term lets (over 1 month), Short breaks (1-4 days) |
Access | Car not necessary |
Nearest Amenities | 1 km |
Nearest travel links | Nearest airport: Malaga 45 km, Nearest railway: Marbella 3 km |
Family friendly | Great for children of all ages, Suitable for people with restricted mobility |
Notes | Pets welcome, No smoking at this property |
Luxuries | Log fire, Internet access, DVD player, Sea view |
General | Central heating, Air conditioning, TV, Video player, CD player, Telephone, Fax machine, Safe, Satellite TV, Wi-Fi available |
Standard | Kettle, Toaster, Iron, Hair dryer |
Utilities | Clothes dryer, Dishwasher, Cooker, Microwave, Fridge, Freezer, Washing machine |
Rooms | 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms of which 3 En suites |
Furniture | Single beds (2), Double beds (2), Cots (1), Dining seats for 7, Lounge seats for 6 |
Other | High chair |
Outdoors | Balcony or terrace, Private garden, BBQ |
Access | Parking |
Further details indoors | Everything is supplied except large beach towels. This villa is very well appointed and maintained. Ideal for children as they can be seen on the beach and can come indoors when it gets too hot . |
Further details outdoors | The garden overlooks the beach and has panoramic sea views. It is also very sunny and quiet.... the only sound is the waves. The garden can also be closed off to stop toddlers wandering off. The beach is sandy and never crowded. There are 10 restaurants within a 10 minute walk including 2 wonderful beach restaurants. |
Further details | Payment and deposit can be by credit card. Changeover day is Saturday but can be flexible in the off periods. Owner also has 4 bed villa next door so both can be rented for a group. |
The villa is located on the Golden Mile which is the best part of the Costa Del Sol. Since it is ON THE BEACH there is nothing between the villa and the sea except the clay walkway. Visit Orange Square in Marbella (Very old) or the port in Puerto Banus..... very lively nightlife. A shopping mall is a 4 minute drive to Puerto Banus. Taxis are very good value and frequent. Weather is warm in winter and hot in Summer. However, because the villa is on the beach, the temperature inside the villa remains at 25 deg. C in Summer.
Golf.... 12 golf courses within a 20 minute drive. All watersports are available within a 10 min walk...... canoeing, kitesurfing, etc. The beach is very safe for children to swim as there are no adverse tides and is generally calm. Marbella is a 20 minute walk on the walkway or 5 minute drive. Gibraltar is a 90 minute drive .


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OCR for page 5
INTRODUCTION 2000. Because of these changes, it was estimated that new
applicants were being added to the registration rolls at half
To determine the state of the practice of effective and efficient the rate they would have been under the previous process,
paratransit service, the initial task was the literature review. and the agency is estimated to have saved $1.5 million in trip
The search included a comprehensive study of information reductions in 2002. In 2003, Metro conducted a comprehen-
published through the Transportation Research Information sive evaluation of the effectiveness of all aspects of the pro-
Service (TRIS), conference proceedings, and consultant and gram, which is the core of this paper.
agency publications. Several relevant documents were identi-
fied. Of these, 12 publications were selected for review. Highlights of the eligibility program evaluation include:
effectiveness of a unique pre-application process; phone inter-
views with 100% of the applicants; use of a team of eligibility
analysts with varying degrees of expertise in the field; pro-
Eligibility Policies vision of a costly but very effective travel training program
(and how referrals to the program occur); and effective col-
Thatcher, R.H., Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lection of information to allow implementation of trip-by-trip
Paratransit Eligibility Manual, Federal Transit Adminis- eligibility screening.
tration, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1993.
Since this study took place, King County Metro has con-
This manual provides guidance to transit providers in the devel- tinued to refine its eligibility determination process. Chap-
opment and implementation of ADA paratransit eligibility ter 5 discusses its current policies and procedures for applying
determination processes. It starts with the basics of the regu- conditional and trip-by-trip eligibility determinations to daily
latory definitions of the three categories of eligibility. It dis- operations.
cusses all the elements of the determination process, including
the application form, review of applications, making the deter-
minations, appeal process, and relevant timelines for each step. Operating Policies and Practices
The manual also provides sample application forms and dis-
cusses optional elements of the determination process. Multisystems, Inc., Innovative Practices in Paratransit
Services, Easter Seals Project ACTION, Washington, D.C.,
Since the publication of this manual, the paratransit com- 2002, 50 pp.
munity has many more tools available to make eligibility
determinations. However, the manual's clear explanation of This report is organized into four main sections representing
the requirements and suggestions for good policies continue elements deemed critical to the successful operation of para-
to make this document the single best source for understand- transit systems including:
ing and carrying out the eligibility determination process for
ADA paratransit. 1. Paratransit Service Operations--techniques and strate-
gies for achieving greater efficiency in day-to-day
Weiner, R., N. Poultney, and B. Perrone, "King County operations.
Keeps Moving: Evaluating Best Practices in ADA Para- 2. Paratransit Service Management--methods for deter-
transit Eligibility," Proceedings of the American Public mining quality and performance standards and mea-
Transit Association Bus & Paratransit Conference, Den- suring all aspects of daily operations.
ver, Colo., May 26, 2004, 7 pp. 3. Paratransit System Design--structures for organization
and management, types of services provided by para-
King County Metro in Seattle, Washington, has been seen as transit systems, procurement options and strategies and
a leader in the evolution of paratransit practices and proce- a quick-reference troubleshooting guide for maximiz-
dures. Faced with dramatic projected increases in paratransit ing service quality and productivity.
demand and costs, the agency implemented significant refine- 4. Supplementary and Associated Programs--programs
ments to their paratransit eligibility procedures in November that can be developed and implemented in existing
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systems and community resources to provide trans- paper topics was a study of the potential impact the ADA reg-
portation to entire communities. ulations on non-disabled seniors; the paper concluded that a
portion of senior transportation services would be eliminated
Follow-on work, including the development of a national because of the need to fund ADA-complementary paratransit
paratransit database, is described featuring the input of 28 sur- service.
vey participants representing the large urban, small urban, and
rural transit systems.
Taxis and Other Flexible Capacity
This document offers many simple, practical tips for
paratransit operations and management--whether ADA Dalton, D. and K. Wolf-Branigan, Moving Forward
service or more general paratransit service. It would be very Together: A Workbook for Initiating and Increasing Acces-
helpful for an operations manager as well as paratransit staff sible Taxi Services in Your Community, Easter Seals Proj-
such as dispatchers, schedulers, and street supervisors. ect ACTION, Washington, D.C., 2005.
"Solving ADA Paratransit Problems; How to Cope With In this document, Easter Seal Project ACTION acquired as
Reality," Proceedings of a Transportation Research Board much information as possible from practicing taxi systems
Conference, Committee on Paratransit and Committee on about their real experiences and arrangements in a variety of
Specialized Transportation, Phoenix, Ariz., May 2729, communities. This workbook is "a compilation of the gath-
1993, 162 pp. ered information presented in a form useful to communities
pursuing improving and/or expanding the provision of acces-
This conference focused directly on the range of operational sible taxi service to people with disabilities." The workbook
problems and opportunities created by the complementary is organized into nine sections as follows:
paratransit requirements of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). The conference was designed to identify the best 1. Public Policy provides information on the ADA sec-
practices and state-of-the-art solutions to some of the most
tions that pertain to taxi services. Information on several
pressing problems facing communities struggling to provide
local taxi industry regulations is also included.
complementary paratransit services. In particular, the con-
2. Motivation and Market Demand offers ideas for assess-
ference focused on the following themes:
ing the potential of accessible taxis in your community
and encouraging a common drive to improving services.
· Establishing appropriate eligibility criteria--and sticking
3. Vehicle Design and Costs discusses the various design
to them;
options and financial implications that should be con-
· Ensuring community participation and avoiding
litigation; sidered when determining vehicles for use in providing
· Organizing cost-effective and equitable certification accessible taxi services.
methods; 4. Incentives provides assistance with developing strate-
· Developing practical ways to achieve the "no-refusal" gies that can make accessible taxi services profitable
standard; and sustainable and therefore more appealing.
· Dealing with client displacement; 5. Contracts and Operating Agreements presents ideas for
· Establishing and monitoring service standards; developing arrangements that may meet human service
· Using the private sector to increase cost-effectiveness; transportation needs more efficiently and provide the
· Finding new and creative financing mechanisms; taxi industry with potential financial resources to expand
· Achieving meaningful coordination--with the human accessible services.
service sector, other public agencies, and other jurisdic- 6. Successful Partnerships provides ideas for identifying
tions; and stakeholders, building relationships, and developing col-
· Shifting demand from paratransit to fixed-route service. laborative strategies to improve accessible taxi services.
7. Training offers guidance for identifying, developing,
The proceedings contain a conference overview, work- and implementing training programs to support imple-
shop reports, papers presented at the conference, the confer- mentation of accessible taxi services.
ence program, and a list of participants. 8. Information Sharing provides help with educating your
community about the benefits of accessible taxi ser-
This conference took place during the early stage of the vices, marketing services to the public, and informing
establishment of ADA-complementary paratransit service other community leaders and organizations about your
across the country. There was an emphasis in the presenta- efforts to improve accessible taxi services.
tions on attracting persons with disabilities to fixed-route ser- 9. Licensing, Voluntary Standards, Evaluation, and Recog-
vice (eight papers) and "raising revenue and reducing costs" nition offers assistance regarding options that customers,
(five papers). Overall, the conference focused on policy and taxi companies, drivers, and government personnel can
administrative issues over operations. One of the interesting consider.
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The primary audience for this document is leaders who The report cautions that for coordination to increase in use-
want to introduce accessible taxis in their communities. It fulness as a management strategy for transportation services in
provides examples of cities that have accessible taxi service local communities, more attention will need to be paid to how
(Chicago, Austin, Las Vegas, Raleigh, Phoenix, and Berke- federal, state, and local governments can influence incentives
ley). It is formatted so that a reader could use it as a working for and hindrances to coordination, particularly in terms of
notebook as he or she is following all the steps to establish how funds are distributed.
accessible taxi service.
The difference in emphasis between this report and TCRP
Koffman, D., TCRP Synthesis of Transit Practice 53: Report 105 (the following reference), as implied by the title,
Operational Experiences with Flexible Transit Services, is quantifying the economic benefits. One of the case studies
Transportation Research Board, National Research Coun- in this report is the use of school buses for paratransit by the
cil, Washington, D.C., 2003, 57 pp. Mason County (Washington) Transit Authority. Chapter 5
provides an updated discussion of Mason Transit.
This synthesis was prepared for transit agency staff respon-
sible for vehicle operations and planning and to those who TranSystems Corporation, Center for Urban Transporta-
work with them in this regard. It documents and summarizes tion Research, Institute for Transportation Research and
transit agency experiences with "flexible transit services," Education, and Planners Collaborative, TCRP Report 105:
including all types of hybrid services that are not pure demand- Strategies to Increase Coordination for Transportation
responsive (including dial-a-ride and ADA paratransit) or Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged, Trans-
fixed-route services, but that fall somewhere in between those portation Research Board, National Research Council,
traditional service models. The report documents six types of Washington, D.C., 2004, 76 pp.
flexible transit service: request stops, flexible route segments,
route deviation, point deviation, zone routes, and demand- The goal of this research was to identify strategies for initiat-
responsive connector service. ing or improving coordination of publicly funded transporta-
tion services for transportation-disadvantaged individuals--
The first conclusion of the synthesis is "each flexible ser- older adults, people with disabilities, human services agency
vice is unique. There is as yet little standard practice that oper- clients, and others--that could be implemented on the regional
ators can turn to in designing flexible services." That is why or local level. The Resource Guide is intended for public and
this synthesis is useful, documenting the range of services and private transportation and human services organizations that
placing them into the six categories. The synthesis has three fund, operate, purchase, or use transportation services for the
conclusions directly related to paratransit: coordination with transportation disadvantaged and are interested in improving
paratransit is an important feature of most flexible services; coordination with other providers. Based on case studies of
flexible service as a complete substitute for fixed-route service public and private organizations that have recently undertaken
removes the requirement for ADA-complementary paratransit coordination activities, the Resource Guide describes current
service in that service area; and trip sharing between flexible trends in the coordination of transportation services for the
service and paratransit has the potential to reduce dependence transportation disadvantaged and identifies several ongoing
on paratransit. challenges that coordination partners have faced.
One of the challenges in preparing this report was identi-
Coordination fying recent innovative strategies and practices, and then
determining the reasons for success and the potential for other
Burkhardt, J.E., D. Koffman, and G. Murray, TCRP organizations to adopt these strategies and policies. Most of
Report 91: Economic Benefits of Coordinating Human the Resource Guide is contained on an accompanying CD,
Service Transportation and Transit Service, Transporta- which allows for the presentation of much detailed material
tion Research Board, National Research Council, Wash- with numerous case studies covering political and adminis-
ington, D.C., 2003, 172 pp. trative issues, funding, operations, and technology.
This report demonstrates that the potential economic bene- Multisystems, Inc., Transit Plus, K. Martin, T. Tull, and
fits of coordination are substantial (estimated at more than IBI Group, TCRP Report 56: Integrating School Bus and
$700 million annually in 2003). The most cited economic Public Transportation Services in Non-Urban Communi-
benefits include the availability of additional funding, ties, Transportation Research Board, National Research
increased productivity, and increased efficiency. Coordina- Council, Washington, D.C., 1999.
tion improves mobility, which has both indirect and direct
economic impacts. Other benefits include improved service This report explores the coordination of student transporta-
quality, increased transportation options, larger service areas, tion and public transportation services in non-urban areas.
centralized oversight and management, and better reporting The study included a research component and a survey to
opportunities. determine the scope and breadth of this type of coordination
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across the country. Case studies were also conducted to obtain There are many low-cost solutions included in the report,
information about communities that have successfully coor- most continuing to be valuable. Perhaps the most cited idea
dinated or integrated some aspect of student and public trans- in the report is from MiamiDade Transit. Its Metrorail
portation. Although this phenomenon is not widespread, those system has a number of stations with center platforms.
communities that are coordinating services are doing so using "MDTA has a subtle yet clear way to let waiting passengers
a number of different strategies. know the direction of the incoming train: MDTA uses a
male voice to announce the southbound trains that are arriv-
In some non-urban communities, school districts are trans- ing at the station, and a female voice to announce the north-
porting students--particularly in high school--by means of bound train."
public transit. In other areas, the public is being transported on
school buses when the buses are not in use for student trans-
Incentives to Use Fixed-Route Service
portation. In addition, in a few communities, students and the
public are riding on school buses at the same time. Balog, J., TCRP Report 24: Guidebook for Attracting
Paratransit Patrons to Fixed-Route Services, Transporta-
Although there are success stories in the United States, tion Research Board, National Research Council, Wash-
there are many barriers to accomplishing coordinated ser- ington, D.C., 1997.
vices. These include legislative and institutional barriers,
restrictive funding requirements, turf battles, attitudes (espe- Research was undertaken to identify the characteristics of
cially with respect to safety concerns), and operational issues. paratransit riders with and without disabilities who could be
TRB sponsored follow-up research to this study, which at this attracted to ride fixed-route service, the features they value in
writing was still in progress [TCRP Project A-19A(2), fixed-route services, and the physical and institutional barri-
"Vehicle Guide for Integrating Non-Urban School and ers that hinder such efforts. The research is based on con-
Public Transportation Services"]. According to the TCRP sumer surveys of people with disabilities who do not use
website, the objectives of this new "research are to develop fixed-route services, as well as those who do. Survey results
a selection guide for specifying requirements and features indicate that the top four features that can make fixed-route
for vehicles for public and school transportation uses in transit attractive to paratransit users are (1) low fares, (2) easy
non-urbanized areas, and to assess the effects of multiple- access (i.e., no big roads to cross) to the bus stop, (3) drivers
use vehicles on policies, operations, maintenance, and who announce all stops, and (4) no transfers.
funding of participating riders and providers."
To aid implementation, case studies were conducted of suc-
cessful projects, thereby providing information on good oper-
Improvements to Fixed-Route Service ational practices. Route design, bus stop location, budgeting,
advertising, partnerships, public involvement, and market
Chia, D. and H.N. Ketola, Assessment of ADA Research research are all discussed in detail. A chapter of the Guidebook
and Development Needs, Federal Transit Administration, is devoted to driver training. Many transit riders--especially
Washington, D.C., 1997. passengers with disabilities--rely on the driver. The third
highest factor for making passengers with disabilities com-
FTA sponsored this study of technology and techniques used fortable on fixed-route buses is announcing of stops. Another
by fixed-route operators to comply with the ADA. It is full of chapter is devoted to travel training for passengers. Knowl-
ideas collected from 32 transit agencies (29 site visits and edge is essential to making passengers with disabilities com-
3 telephone interviews) seeking to understand how transit agen- fortable on fixed-route transit.
cies met the requirements, given the unique operating envi-
ronments, ridership, and facilities. The ideas are organized by A demand forecasting methodology was developed using
the activities a traveler would take to make a trip on transit the survey data and peer systems. Systems with transit service
(plan, find the vehicle, enter the vehicle, ride on the vehicle, were grouped by geographic location, population density, cli-
alight the vehicle, leave the station/stop). In providing these mate, and topography to create peer systems. Procedures to
practical ideas, the transit agencies answered these questions: estimate the volume of riders who might switch from para-
transit to fixed-route service are provided for the peer systems.
· What was working prior to the ADA? This methodology has been supplanted by recent TRB
· What are the sources for the new solutions? research (TCRP Project B-28, "Improving ADA Complemen-
· What determines the balance between the use of tech- tary Paratransit Demand Estimation"). Although this report
nology and labor in creating the solution? covers a wide range of important issues for attracting riders to
· What are the costs to install and maintain the solution? fixed-route service, it includes only a small amount of docu-
· Is the change taking place on a systemwide or as-needed mentation of success achieved from using the techniques.
· What problems have proved unexpectedly difficult to Kachmar, B., "Travel Training in Indiana," Proceed-
resolve? ings of the American Public Transit Association Bus &
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Paratransit Conference, Columbus, Ohio, May 1518, include people with disabilities, older adults, youth, students,
2005, 3 pp. persons with low income, and those who do not drive auto-
mobiles. An Indiana Community Transportation Initiative is
This paper summarizes examples of customized travel train- discussed, as are the programs of Bloomington, Muncie,
ing curriculum materials that were developed by Indiana Indianapolis, Johnson County, Lafayette, and Fort Wayne.
transit agencies for various target audiences. An evaluation The program, which includes a train-the-trainer element,
of the benefits and effectiveness of these efforts is described. leads to cost savings by reducing the demand for paratransit
The goal of travel training is to teach people to use public and reserving resources for those with the greatest need for
transportation safely and independently. Target populations paratransit assistance.


text:
Exploring Our Matrix
The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis
Follow PatheosProgressive Christian:
Is this the direction church is headed?
HT Jim West
I asked a similar question a few weeks ago about Twitter.
already there, in substance if not in form! :-s


text:
LG GSA E60N Reviews
Product Type: LG Electronics DVD Burner
Description:Model ID GSA-E60N / LG GSA E60N Super-Multi - Disk drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - 20x/20x/12x - Hi-Speed USB - external - black / ... more
20x DVD±R Write Speed
Compatible with all DVD/CD formats
LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling Support (GSA-H55L)
SecurDisc technology
Password protection
Digital signature
Data Integrity Check
Data Reliability
Copy protection (Supports PDF file only)
Newest Review: ... being a thin silver strip running around the edge. Front loading, it has a single open/close button on its face and an LED to ... more
Price Comparison for LG GSA E60N
DVD Brenner extern LG GSA-E60N schwarz Technical DataStorage Removable / TypeNoneTechnical DataOptical S ... Last Update 13.03.2014 17:28
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Customer LG GSA E60N Reviews (1)
by - written on 08/04/08 (Very useful, 781 readings)
LG Super Multi DVD Rewriter GSA-E60N These days most new PCs come supplied with a built-in DVD writer, indeed the last PC I bought more than a year ago provided one in the standard price. So with a perfectly good writer already in my tower case why do I need this rather blocky external one taking up space on my desk? Well this writer comes with the nifty bonus of being a LightScribe drive, a permanent disc labelling system that provides a high quality finishing touch to my home made DVDs, but more of that later. Why do you need a DVD writer? Storing data is the obvious answer. And with 4.7GB available on standard DVDs (8.5GB on dual layer) you ... Read the complete review
Technical Details for LG GSA E60N
Product Description | LG GSA E60N Super-Multi - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Hi-Speed USB |
Device Type | DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive |
Enclosure Type | External |
Enclosure Colour | Black |
Interface | Hi-Speed USB |
Dimensions (WxDxH) | 16 cm x 23 cm x 5 cm |
Weight | 1.5 kg |
Optical Storage | DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM |
Read Speed | 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD) |
Write Speed | 48x (CD) / 20x (DVD±R) / 10x (DVD±R DL) |
CD / DVD Rewrite Speed | 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x (DVD-RAM) |
Buffer Underrun Protection | Yes |
OS Required | Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional / XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Microsoft Windows Vista |
Microsoft Certification | Works with Windows Vista |


text:
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text:
Swimming Pools
This Department regulates all public pools and bathing places as defined in Chapter 64E-9 of the Florida Administrative Code. This
regulation is considered a significant factor in the prevention of disease, sanitary nuisances, and accidents.
All proposed new constructions and modifications to existing pools require approval from the Department. Annual
Permits issued by the Department are valid from July 1 through June 30. These permits must be applied for and renewed
Contact Information
Program Supervisor: Anthony Dennis
All questions regarding the Pool program can be addressed by calling the main Environmental Health phone number: 352-334-7930.
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Pool and Bathing Places greater than 25,000 gallons |
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Exempted Condominiums with over 32 units |
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Non-Routine Inspection |
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Florida Department of Health Swimming Pool page


text:
Staten Island, NY, and National Politics
Election results, political news, & local talk
Date Range: February 29, 2012 - February 1, 2012
Ignizio staffer may have inside track to South Shore Assembly seat
February 17, 2012, 7:35PM
Joseph Borelli has several key borough allies in his corner Full story »
Congress OK's extension of payroll tax cut, jobless benefits, sends bill to Obama
February 17, 2012, 12:25PM
By ALAN FRAM WASHINGTON -- Congress has passed legislation renewing a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more, backing the main items on President Barack Obama's jobs agenda in a rare burst of Washington bipartisanship. The Senate approved the $143 billion measure by a bipartisan 60-36 vote. That tally came minutes after the... Full story »
Congress sends payroll tax cut bill to President Obama
February 17, 2012, 12:21PM
Under the measure, workers would continue to receive a 2 percentage point increase in their paychecks Full story »
City aims to improve business climate
February 17, 2012, 11:19AM
Information gathered from retail survey will be used to shape government policy Full story »
A Priests For Life director is arrested during protest at White House
February 17, 2012, 7:23AM
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Rev. Denis Wilde, OSA, associate director of the New Dorp-based Priests for Life, was among six people arrested yesterday during a peaceful protest outside the White House. Father Wilde was representing Priests for Life at an organized protest of the Health and Human Services contraception mandate. Priests for Life on Wednesday filed a lawsuit... Full story »
Staten Island's Rep. Grimm: 'I'm not going to lie down and take it'
February 16, 2012, 4:14PM
Congressman defends his business dealings that the New York Times describes as 'checkered' Full story »
Assemblyman Lou Tobacco won't seek re-election
February 16, 2012, 1:47PM
He's vacating his South Shore seat, which has been in GOP hands for decades Full story »
Guy Molinari bumps Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm as a New York GOP presidential delegate
February 16, 2012, 8:48AM
Congressman downplays move, says it has nothing to do with fundraising allegations against him Full story »
Governor Cuomo seeks next generation of leaders
February 15, 2012, 2:22PM
He's looking for students and talented young professionals to energize state government Full story »
U.S., Europe weigh risky punishment for Iran
February 15, 2012, 9:41AM
Move could pinch Iranian economic lifeline, but at what cost to West? Full story »
NYC Mayor Bloomberg firm on worship ban in schools as church advocates head to court
February 14, 2012, 9:00AM
NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg has again strongly defended New York City's ban on worship services in public schools. The ban went in effect on Sunday. Asked on Monday whether he'd consider a compromise, Bloomberg told The New York Times that the Constitution is clear on the issue. He says one of the greatest things about America is... Full story »
Grimm fills 2 posts, following departure of district director
February 13, 2012, 5:53AM
Brooklyn office head Nick Curran is replacing William Smith and serving on the Island Full story »
Shame on the Port Authority, and on the New York and New Jersey governors who accept its shoddy ways
February 12, 2012, 8:01AM
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- So now we know why the Port Authority just had to have all that additional revenue from increased tolls on its bridges and tunnels: An audit -- incredibly, the agency's first in 31 years -- says the P.A. is a "dysfunctional" agency that has long been hemorrhaging money. The auditors found a long list of... Full story »
Grimm and the four fund-raising amigos
February 12, 2012, 5:38AM
Grimm and three House colleagues who all share a Feb. 7 birthday held a birthday fund-raiser last Tuesday at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C Full story »
U.S. embargo of Cuba, still a failed policy, turns 50
February 11, 2012, 8:01AM
White House aides suspected something big was about to happen when President John F. Kennedy sent his press secretary out to acquire as many H. Upmann Cuban cigars as he could lay his hands on. When Pierre Salinger returned with 1,200 of the smokes, JFK went ahead and ordered an economic embargo of Cuba. It took effect four days... Full story »
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