Since the development of optical fiber, fiber-optic telecommunications, the personal computer (PC) and the Internet, our lives have been dominated by bandwidth consumption. Although many of us do not realize it, daily activities that are now considered trivial consume a significant amount of bandwidth. The most demanding of these applications is the use of video, especially high-definition television (HDTV), followed by standard-definition television (SDTV). The table below gives an overview of how much bandwidth is required for some of today’s most common applications.