Design considerations for picture archiving and communication systems are reviewed with special emphasis on those issues that differ from conventional network architectures. Design equations for three layers of a picture network are developed and discussed in the context of preliminary estimates of the flow of digital images between a multiplicity of picture sources, picture archives and picture viewing stations. Discussions of differences from conventional networks focuses on the local nature of the net, the availability of a wide-band transmission media with low error rates, the relative costliness of network equipment capable of taking advantage of the wide-band transmission media and the preponderance of large blocks of image data in the network traffic. The locality of network traffic flows associated with the generation, storage and display of images is a characteristic of the radiology application that can probably be used to advantage
