INTERNET ACCESS VIA CABLE TV: HIGH SPEED ACCESS TO THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY Lynn Jones Digital Equipment Corporation Abstract countries around the world. In early 1994, it was estimated that on the average, a new Internet access has become a feeding frenzy. computer was added to the Internet every 30 Dial-up access to the World Wide Web just seconds.ii The growth of the Internet contin­ isn't fast enough. Your subscribers know ues to be exponential. that cable TV can give them access to hyper­ text at the speed of a bullet train, and they The cable TV industry has the capability want it. Now what do you do? to provide subscribers with Internet access at speeds unmatched in price/performance by How do you separate the hype from the hy­ any other medium. Using the ubiquitous, ex­ pertext? For that matter, what is hypertext? isting Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) infrastructure This paper will answer these questions and in place in the US, Canada, and many coun­ more, providing a framework within which tries around the world today, the cable indus­ to plan and implement Internet access on try can give customers high speed access at a your system. It will give you a crash course much lower cost - a key criteria for Internet on the Internet and show how the informa­ users. tion highway is being created today with the Internet and cable TV. Rapid access to and provision of pic­ tures, sound, video, audio, and integrated text and graphics are all made possible by access­ INTRODUCTION ing Internet sites on the World Wide Web, using a Web browser program from a personal "Internet over cable TV will receive more computer connected to the Internet via cable general press (Information Superhighway) television. By using standard channels, one attention than any other carrier-based activity forward and one reverse, on an existing enter­ in 1995 and become the most important tool tainment cable system, cable operators can for work-at-home since the advent of the PC, offer businesses, telecommuters, doctors, modem and facsimile terminal" teachers, students, and consumers access the state-of-the-art capabilities available on in­ Dr. Jerome Lucas formation highway today. TeleStrategies Insight Newsletter January 1995 This paper discusses creating such net­ works using an Ethernet to cable TV bridge, The commercialization of the Internet has brouter, or personal modem at each business, opened the door for access to the largest in­ hospital, school, or home, coupled with a formation network in the world. The Internet translator in the Cable TV headend and a connects an estimated 39K networks, 4.9M backbone router to the Internet at one location hostsi, and over 30M users in more than 127 on the network. Each user on the network has 1995 NCTA Technical Papers -398- access to the Internet, as well a shared 10 In the mid-1970's, the Defense Advanced Mbps access to each other. The value of the Research Project Agency (DARPA) funded cable connection to the customer is increased research to develop a set of networking stan­ by orders of magnitude. dards or protocols, that specify how comput­ ers would communicate over an internet, as The key is the ability of cable to provide well as a series of conventions for intercon­ a fully distributed network, rather than cus­ necting networks and routing traffic. The re­ tomers using expensive point-to-point leased sult was TCPIIP (Transmission Control Pro­ lines for direct connection to the Internet, or tocol/Internet Protocol). During the late slow dial-up lines for indirect connection 1970's, DARPA also funded research into through online services. packet switched networking and implemented a network called the ARP Anet. The goals of this paper are to explain the network technology, components, and archi­ TCPIIP became the only effective way to tecture, and the methodology which will pro­ communicate between computers from differ­ vide the cable operator with a foundation on ent manufacturers. It appealed to schools, in­ which to plan and build such a network. Case stitutions, and businesses, who did not want to studies of actual networks are used to illus­ be tied to one vendor's equipment, and who trate possible configurations. wanted to protect their investment in existing equipment. The convergence of the cable and data communications industries provides enor­ In the early 1980's Ethernet local area mous opportunities, but carries with it the networks (LANs) proliferated. Ethernet, de­ challenges of learning about each others' veloped by Metcalfe and Boggs in 1976, used technologies. This paper is intended to serve a coaxial cable network, in which all stations as a starting point, assuming little or no monitor the cable (the ether) during their own knowledge of data communications or the In­ transmission, terminating transmission im­ ternet. mediately if a collision is detected. This cre­ ated a new demand: rather than connecting to A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET a single large timesharing computer per site, organizations wanted to connect the ARP Anet The evolution of cable TV data networks to their entire local network. This would al­ can be seen to parallel the development and low all the computers on that LAN to access growth of the Internet. Both have the roots of ARPANET facilities. their technology growing largely out of mili­ tary applications with initial use and promo­ In 1986, the National Science Foundation tion of the technology by the education and founded NSFNET to connect its networks research community, followed by adoption in centered around its 6 supercomputers into a the commercial marketplace, and finally network backbone that ties into the ARPA­ reaching widespread use in the home. NET. A brief history of the Internet helps to This network arrangement was enor­ understand why it is organized the way it is, mously successful, and the Internet was born. and how cable networks connect to it. With success came the need to upgrade com­ pute resources and leased line speeds, which continues today. 1995 NCTA Technical Papers -399- are not only possible, but possible on an in­ ternational level. Internet marketing and ad­ vertising will change the way products are MANAGEMENT OF THE INTERNET promoted. The Internet has evolved from a loose The commercialization of the Internet federation of networks, to a network with a will forever change the future of both small character all its own. There is no central business and worldwide commerce. It will management, but rather a group of organiza­ also forever change what the Internet is. tions who steer its activities. These groups include the Internet Architecture Board (lAB), WHO ARE THE USERS? the Internet Society (ISOC), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Users of the Internet include companies, universities, colleges, K-12 schools, research Another unique aspect of the Internet is groups, and individual users. that, as it is not owned by any one party, it is also not paid for or funded by any one organi­ The majority of universities and research zation. NSF, which subsidized its develop­ facilities have Internet access. Many compa­ ment is phasing out its $11.5M subsidy. Pri­ nies also have access. There is now a major vatization of the Internet remains a hot topic. initiative to connect K-12 schools. Individual Many third party Internet access providers users are largely an untapped market, as until have sprung up to offer Internet access to recently, acquiring Internet access required businesses and individuals. specialized knowledge of UNIX and TCP/IP. THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE The popular press is rife with articles on INTERNET the wealth of information available on the In­ ternet, as well as on the need for a national, as Those who stand to gain most from the well as global, Information Highway. This commercialization of the Internet are small has sparked a feeding frenzy of interest in businesses, K-12 schools, home workers, and connecting up to the Internet. To people to­ recreational users. Corporations, research day, the Internet is the Information Highway. institutions, and universities have been using the Internet for many years. Big business has WHAT ARE THE APPLICATIONS? also been using private wide area networks (WANs) for years as well. (W ANs being es­ Applications on the Internet started out sentially company-owned internets.) with simple text-based applications, such as electronic mail. Today' s applications are Prior to the commercialization of the In­ highly visual - containing color pictures, ternet, small businesses, schools, and indi­ sound, graphics, video, and other data­ viduals could not afford the high price of pri­ intensive information formats. It is the in­ vate W ANs, and were not allowed access to crease in such applications that drives the the Internet. Commercialization opens the need for the "big pipes" that cable TV can door for access to resources previously only provide. available to large organizations. It also opens up a whole new range of possibilities. Virtual corporations and electronic shopping malls 1995 NCTA Technical Papers -400- Electronic Mail Multimedia, client-server based applica­ tions like the Web are the future of the Inter­ The most commonly used application on net, and fuel the need for cable TV speeds. It the Internet is electronic mail, or e-mail. is becoming commonplace for small business, Each user has a unique address and can be schools, and municipalities to have their own reached by anyone else with email access to Web servers. This trend necessitates high­ the Internet. speed symmetrical access, meaning that ac­ cess speed is the same in either direction, Electronic mail is a low-bandwidth, text­ which cable TV is in a unique position to based application.