Despite the lower price and mature applications that are now entering the market, most analysts are recommending a wait and see posture. They cite the lack of an industry standard as the most important consideration in purchasing a desktop video conferencing system. Two methods have been developed to cope with the problem created by the large amount of information required for video conferencing. The first is to use a communication channel with more bandwidth than a telephone line. Ethernet, ISDN and ATM are channels that can handle larger information traffic.
Ethernet is used to network computers together.
Ethernet and ISDN differ in performance and abilities. Ethernet is packet switched. Packet switched communication channels share their total bandwidth among all the users who want to access it. ISDN is a special digital phone line that replaces your analog phone line. The connection last as long as the user wishes.