Network World columnists and newsletter
authors share soulful opinions on some of the network topics
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Network World,
09/11/00
Optical
Let's start with convergence and optical networking. If optical networking reduces the price of bandwidth, will it obviate the need for converged voice, data and video networks?
Taylor: Obviously, optical networking is having a tremendous impact in terms of getting more and more bandwidth into the backbone. We're starting to see now yet another swing away from ATM being the ultimate backbone technology to having ATM, or maybe even direct IP, over optical as you go further back into the network.
I don't really think many enterprises in the near term are going to be running OC-48 to the enterprise and saying, 'Look here, we've got to put voice and data on this.' If we are going to see superhigh speeds, they're probably going to be primarily for data. But I think we're still going to see a lot of ATM-type access into the network, and the optical technology will be to support it on the interior parts of the network.
McClimans: But convergence comes in two components. There's convergence just for the sake of bringing together different types of traffic onto a single network. Then, especially with the enterprise, there's convergence at the application level that's going to ultimately drive a single type of traffic across the optical network. I think in that sense, direct IP over optical is a strong growth area where the applications themselves are dictating a converged form of traffic.
Kearns: Which applications are dictating converged voice and data?
McClimans: Well, look at the applications that individuals are using today or are likely to expand into. They're bringing together voice mail, e-mail, voice communications [and] video communications, coupled with data-sharing applications to view each other on the screen and communicate via text. Look at some of the chat rooms and the direction they're heading, toward becoming video rooms, for example. And the next step is to link that out into the telephone infrastructure and be able to bridge those together simultaneously. There's also the whole wave of taking data content, files, etc., and being able to discuss those, manipulate those and embed text, voice, video and data directly into them.
Gibbs: I have a big problem with the idea of convergence. The way everybody talks about it, it sounds like it's so neatly packaged - 'I'll have a pound of convergence, please.' It's not like that at all. What you have is a crazy quilt of different technologies, different needs, different environments, and people are trying different things. And if you're talking about optical networking, then you're talking about something that's on the evolutionary path toward the enterprise rather than a revolutionary path. There's far too much talk as if these things are going to be revolutionary. How long have we been theorizing about convergence? It's been years.
Do enterprise IT managers need to be looking at optical networking in the public network and re-architecting their own networks today?
Gibbs: Oh, I hope not. If they did that, they better have a powerful crystal ball, because who knows what it's going to look like when there's value to optical networking for them.
McClimans: That's a tough one. I just spent the last couple of weeks talking with a few of the large equipment manufacturers trying to gauge their deployment of optical capabilities. They're still basing their real high-end implementations on when the next dense wave products will become available, which is sometime around the end of next year. And how are they going to deploy them? They're not sure yet.
What do enterprise IT managers need to know about optical networking today? Should they keep on top of the vendor IPOs, acquisitions and carrier strategies, or should they just ignore the market for now?
Gibbs: They can play watch-the-market along with everybody else, but it won't tell them much about what their needs are going to be when the capabilities are available.
Taylor: Optical is really getting down to being an OSI Layer 1 issue - that is, faster and faster bits. Whereas what the enterprise needs to be looking at today are Layers 2, 21/2, 3 and 4 in terms of what are they going to be using. Maybe optical will mean they'll be able to skip over the ATM layer. Or maybe they'll decide they need ATM because if optical really makes bandwidth that much cheaper than the 10% sales tax really doesn't matter anymore and maybe the additional capabilities ATM gives in terms of management really are worthwhile. So I think a lot of times when folks say 'optical,' they imply IP over fiber or something like that.
And, I would be careful about recommending that enterprises do too much watching of the market. A trend I see way too much of today is people coming to seminars and reading magazines, etc., more so to manage their personal stock portfolios than to figure out what's going to affect their immediate company needs.
McClimans: Amen. I guess if they want to be concerned, they can try figuring out if they'll need more budget money three or four years down the road to upgrade equipment. But aside from that, I don't think anybody's going to pull new fiber routes.
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