Network design and system performance of FREDERIC - File retrieval engineering on distributed environment and interactive communication system

An extended desktop multimedia conference system named FREDERIC (File Retri eval Engineering on Distributed EnviRonment and Interactive Communication s ystem) has been developed for international cooperative work by sharing CAD and image data among multi-point users. This paper describes the basic net work design concept of utilizing the Internet as a best-effort service and ISDN as a high-speed guaranteed service. Service system requirements and de signs were developed to access common databases and collaborative work of m ultimedia information those are shared by customers with desktop computers and to allow remote offices to use a plant walk-through system. The perform ance of the prototype system especially focused on the file transmission ti me which is the kev factor in developing and constructing the system. By ap plying the image compression technology of multi-tone entropy coding, it is shown that the short time CAD data transfer to meet the requirements can h e achieved.