ATM is joining FDDI and Ethernet as dominant LAN technologies. Switched networks are making inroads where routers were prevalent. Multimedia and telepresence are blurring the distinction between television, telephony, and computing.
Telecommuting is a reality.
Each time the networking infrastructure changes, the appropriateness of the networking protocols is called again into question. TCP's success, however, has never stopped researchers from critical examination of how TCP provides transport services, and what services TCP fails to provide. Separation of paradigm and policy. At the core of XTP is a set of mechanisms whose functionality is orthogonal. Further, flow and rate control as well as error control can be tailored to the communication at hand.