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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates
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To: Thomas Mercer-Hursh who wrote (25229)5/23/2000 10:52:00 PM
From: D. Newberry  Read Replies (2) of 54805
 
The reason is simple -- photons travel through glass much more quickly than electrons travel through wire. In short, optical delivery offers far more bandwidth potential than electrical delivery.

This is technically correct, but the two statements don't follow each other. Photons do travel down fiber faster than electronics propagate through copper. But that's not the point. Fiber is utilized due to its' substantial increase in bandwidth capacity. Speed is a pleasant side effect.

I really liked the highway analogy. I am always looking for ways to bring technical concepts to earth, since I often give technical presentations to a non-technical audience. I particularly like the analogy of the clover leaf as a digital cross connect (the mirrors we have heard about?)

However, I would like to add one caveat to the analogy. With fiber optics and cross connects alone, you can't change lanes -- each lane representing a lamda (light color) within a fiber strand. If you happen to be in the correct lane (lamda) and it feeds onto the clover leaf, then you will end up on another highway (fiber cable). If you need to change lanes, however, (go from one lamda to another) a cross connect does you no good. You must go to layer 2 or 3 functionality (switching or routing) in order to change lanes. In todays technology that means you must convert to electronics.

Now, if someone can develop the equivalent of a photonic transistor, please let me know so I can invest early <g>!

Regards,

DN
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