The Brunel/Cable Corporation HomeWorker network trial

We describe HomeWorker network and the results from a pilot study that has been undertaken by Brunel University and The Cable Corporation to determine the performance of the system and its impact on working practice. The HomeWorker network is based on existing cable television infrastructure and provides a local area network over a metropolitan area. It is a CSMA/CD bus based network working at 500 kps, and we demonstrate that it is capable of providing a sustained data transfer rate of 300 kbps in practical applications. Hardware is compatible with existing IEEE802.3 networks in all respects except speed.