A means for delivering data from one point to another. The data channel may be comprised of the following components: format conversion devices, encoders (compressors) and decoders (decompressors,) buffers, stream segmentation and reassembly devices, multiplexors and demultiplexors, modulators and demodulators, transmission facilities, switches, multipoint conference units, and other components necessary to achieve the desired channel characteristics. A sequence of data bits submitted to the channel input results in a similar (not necessarily identical) sequence of bits at the channel output.