Performance tests of a satellite-based asymmetric communication network for the 'hyper hospital'.
The Hyper Hospital is a prototype networked telemedicine system which uses virtual reality. We measured the performance of a novel multimedia network based on satellite communications. The network was a hybrid system consisting of a satellite channel in one direction and a terrestrial channel in the other. Each user was equipped with a standard satellite communication receiver and a telephone connection. Requests from the users were sent by modern and telephone line and responses were received by satellite. The user requests were initiated by clicking buttons on a World Wide Web browser screen. The transmission rates of satellite and normal telephone-line communications were compared for standardized text data. Satellite communication was three to five times faster. The transmission rate was also measured for standardized graphical data (GIF format). With a file size of about 400 kByte, satellite-mediated communication was 10 times faster than telephone lines. The effect of simultaneous access on performance was also explored. For simultaneous access of nine users to a single graphics file, 78% of the transmission speed was obtained in comparison with that of a single user. The satellite-based system showed excellent high-speed communication performance, particularly for multimedia data.
Yamaguchi
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Department of Bio-Medical Engineering, School of High-Technology for Human Welfare, Tokai University, Japan. takami@fh.u-tokai.ac.jp
D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017215:Satellite Communications; D017216:Telemedicine; D013686:Telemetry; D014584:User-Computer Interface