We can already foresee the network environment of the late 1990's. Corporate networks of international scope will abound. Networks will not be built from facilities wholly owned by a single organization; multiple administrative domains will be encountered. The network will not be clearly separable for the users it serves, as communications and computing continue to blur. Heterogeneity will enter all parts of the network, in such forms as multiple vendor equipment, various protocols, mixes of public and private transmission facilities, coexistence of packet and circuit switching, expansion of local-area networks into metropolitan networks, and a multitude of regulations and legislation unique to specific countries. Network end points will move as people travel around the world yet still expect to be accessible. These factors foretell a mammoth increase in complexity. This article explores these issues and suggests how a network manager might begin to prepare today for the decade ahead.
