Talk:Bitstream

Yeah... But What Is It?

I see there are a lot of contributors, but you've all missed the main point of the article.... What on Earth is Bitstream? Especially in the various contexts. Obviously its a stream of bits, but without explaining what the relevance of this is, this article has no real context and could arguably be an AfD. Cheers, Jonomacdrones _(talk)

You're welcome to improve the article. There are plenty of external articles to use as reference. It is a simple term, but some people worry it is more complicated than it is, unless it is spelled out. Daniel.Cardenas 03:40, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Trust me, if I fully knew what it was, I'd add to it. I came here trying to get a good explanation for myself. Cheers, Jonomacdrones _(talk) 03:53, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Exactly, what is it?

I came to this article after seeing the term "Area Bitstream" used in Tiscali ADSL document [1] linked from http://abbonati.tiscali.it/tariffe_telefoniche/. Although I can guess what it might mean, (but it's not in my textbook "ATM networks, the Internet, and the Telephone Network"), here is a list of where I've seen it used, hopefully an expert can explain its meanings in these contexts:

• Servizi di fonia VoIP che consentono il distacco da Telecom Italia (copertura diretta):
  • Tiscali Tutto Incluso : "Tiscali Tutto Incluso (Shared Access)"
  • Tiscali Unica Light : "Tiscali Unica Light (POTS)"
• Servizi di fonia VoIP che consentono il distacco da Telecom Italia (copertura indiretta):
  • Tiscali Tutto Incluso : "Tutto Incluso (Area Bitstream)"
• Servizi di fonia tradizionale che consentono il distacco da Telecom Italia:
  • Tutto Incluso : "Tutto Incluso (POTS)"
• Servizi di fonia che non consentono il distacco da Telecom Italia:
  • Tiscali Tutto Incluso : "Tutto Incluso WS" "7 Mega Wholesale."
  • Tiscali Tandem 640 : "Tandem 640 kbps"

"copertura diretta" means "direct coverage", "copertura indiretta" means "indirect coverage" and "fonia tradizionale" means traditional telephony.

• Telecom Wholesale - Basic Unbundled Bitstream Access : "Basic Unbundled Bitstream Access (UBA)"
• [2] uses "bitstream" in these contexts:
  • Telecom's unbundled bitstream access service
  • UBA means Unbundled Bitstream Access.
  • UBS means the Unbundled Bitstream Service supplied by Telecom ...
  • “Telecom’s unbundled bitstream access backhaul”
  • is an internet grade service, delivering a point-to-point protocol (PPP) bitstream to the End User
• Unbundling and Bitstream Report in France at 30th June 2009 - published at 31th August 2009 has:
  • Bitstream (ATM + regional IP)
  • Naked ADSL pro bitstream (DSLE)
  • Bitstream: refers to wholesale offers which enable alternative operators to rent broadband connections that have been activated by France Telecom. To do so, they must first have connected one or more connection points in the France Telecom network. They are then in a position to market retail broadband services in areas where they are not present through unbundling.
  • two types of wholesale bitstream offer:
  • "classic bitstream" if the customer keeps a subscription to a classic telephone service;
  • "naked ADSL bitstream" if the customer no longer has a subscription to a classic telephone service;
  • The national bitstream offer, ...

-84user (talk) 13:21, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Merge Byte stream

Byte stream is a special case of bit stream. We don't need two articles on the same basic topic. -—Kvng 18:47, 10 October 2012 (UTC)

Oppose. They may be equivalent mathematically but they are far from the same in applications, even if one ignores issues of endianness. —David Eppstein (talk) 03:12, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Can you tell us what distinguishes the two. The articles don't make this clear and neither article has any references. -—Kvng 15:30, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

The article says byte stream is a specific case of a bit stream. There was no response from User:David Eppstein. I did the merge. ~KvnG 16:22, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Congratulations. You have replaced two shorter incoherent and badly sourced articles, one on unbounded sequences of 0's and 1's as used in mathematics and some computer contexts, another on unbounded sequences of quantities that may take on any of 256 distinct values, as used primarily in computer networking, with a single longer and even more incoherent article on unbounded sequences whose number of distinct values is either 2 or 256 (but not 3, 4, or the other numbers in between). This is progress? —David Eppstein (talk) 18:02, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

I think it is an improvement. It's a computing and telecommunications article so is focused on the kinds of sequences actually used in that field. Sequence covers the mathematical angle. I agree that the article is rough but IME a single article with wider scope has a better chance of being improved than two articles with each narrower scope. I think the merged article is marginally better than either of the originals so I would only see the merge as step backwards if I prefered quantity of articles over quality of articles. ~KvnG 20:33, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

A detailed description of "bytestreams" should be in a separate section, not described in the first paragraph (256 values, etc etc). Being in the same article is OK but the current merge confuses the two. Kegon (talk) 13:35, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Any possibility you might give it a shot? I'll try if you like but I don't think I clearly understand the complaint. ~KvnG 14:11, 11 August 2014 (UTC)