roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (11/30/87)
We're in the process of planning an IP link to a campus-wide
ethernet. Our first step will be to get a LADC line run from our building
to the other side of the street; initially we will run 9600 bps slip, with
plans to upgrade to an 56 kbps Ungermann-Bass etherbridge, or something
similar when we can scrape up the funds (about $15k for the two ends, I'm
told). I had an idea which might save us a lot of money, with greater
bandwidth to boot.
I figure it's about 2000 feet from here to there, as the crow
flies. Since phone lines aren't as direct as crows, I really don't know
how long it will be, but I hope under 4000 feet. You can run AppleTalk
(using Farallon PhoneNet hardware) over that much regular twisted pair
phone wire, or so they claim. It seems to me, a cheap way to get an
etherbridge going would be to get two Kinetics KFPS boxes (with appropriate
software downloaded), hook the AppleTalk sides up to the ends of the LADC
circuit, and plug into the local ethernets on each end; a 230 kbps
etherbridge for under $5000 total hardware cost (a $2000 kbox, $300 xciver,
and $50 PhoneNet connector at each end, not counting the wire). You even
have the added advantage that the AppleTalk only uses one pair of the
4-wire LADC, leaving the other pair for whatever you want to do with it.
Any chance this will work?
--
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016