edge. It's also helpful to have experience defining appli- cations in a particular field. For example, defining Internet and telecom applications specific to the manufacture of widgets may work well in a business manufacturing fishing line, sinkers, and tackle boxes, but someone with this background would be in for significant study before successfully designing and building a net- work for a regional bagel bakery. However, if the regional bagel bakery wanted to expand to a foreign country and required a net- work, someone with experience building a network for the foreign Practical IP and Telecom for Broadcast Engineering and Operations Copyright © 2004 by Fred Huffman. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS expansion for a widget or fishing gear manufacturing enterprise would be a good candidate to undertake the work. Building global or international networks across government boundaries requires specialized knowledge of disparate regulations as well as communi- cations service provider capabilities and practices across these same boundaries and within the host countries of the enterprise sites involved. The process of defining communications applications is fairly simple if it is started with a clear understanding of the enterprise operation contemplating investment in equipment and expenditures for services. There are two basic sets of conditions. Understanding and documenting these at the start may seem trivial and useless, but spending the time to get it right up front won't take long and may prevent a business failure in the future. One set of circumstances involves a complete new, clean sheet of paper design and implementation, such as starting a new business. The other, in its simplest form, is an incremental expansion of an existing business or operation. The basic difference between the two is rooted in the fact that a start-up will have far greater one-time expenses and overhead than an incremental expansion. It's like adding 