A next step is offering voice-enabled data applications that take advantage of the convergence capabilities of new programmable communications platforms. There also are opportunities in offering application services to residential end-users. The ASP service model bundles network access, managed network services and network-hosted applications as one service. This model takes service bundles to the next step in the value chain. The ASP service model dictates a service delivery architecture.
Clients only perform functions to display the user interface of invoked applications.
A specific protocol is used between the client and server to carry keystrokes, mouse clicks, and screen updates across the network. The other architecture is thin client-based. The server runs a multi-user operating system. Network functional architecture Applications are hosted in server farms running in data centres. Multiple instances of these centres are dispersed over a geographic area to increase service availability and improve application response times via load balancing.