Communication applications

The starting point for network planning is the communication applications which are to be conducted via the networks. Each application has its specific requirements concerning transmission properties of the network:

• transmission rate
• traffic relation (source-drain)
• redundancy coordinates between application system and network
• quality parameters (class of service, quality of service)
• security

For planning purposes, applications with similar requirements can be summarised as generic application types:

• file transfer
• E-mail
• web
• voice
• video conference
• video streaming

Due to the development towards unified messaging, the underlying IP data networks will gain more and more significance in future.