The design and analysis of a corporate data network supporting a real-time clinical data application

In this study a design is proposed for a corporate, data network supporting real-time data applications. The proposed network incorporates both Local Area Network and Wide Area Network technologies to form a system capable of supporting a variety of applications. Multimedia software, like desktop video conferencing, IP telephony, and video streaming are becoming more pervasive. Since multimedia applications depend on active human involvement and perception, they are commonly referred to as real-time. The content of real-time applications relies on the timely and consistent delivery of information. If real-time applications experience any variation in information delivery, usually referred to as jitter, the result is unacceptable application performance. However, real-time applications are not solely limited to traditional multimedia. Interactive client-server based data applications also fall into this category. This project will specifically focus on the performance of a real-time clinical application, which has become predominant in the healthcare industry. To support the implementation of the proposed network, empirical data was gathered from system testing. Testing involved comparing the performance of a real-time application on the proposed design, against the current architecture. The result found that the proposed data network design reduced transport latency, allowing the real-time application to perform more efficiently.