The Emerging Optical Network
Internet traffic is doubling every three months, and telephone networks are creaking under the strain. That's why phone companies are installing high-speed optical technology that transmits data hundreds of times faster than the old networks. Here's how optical technology is changing the way we communicate.
LONG DISTANCE
Challenge Long-distance networks have been all-optical for years. But the older generation of optical equipment doesn't have enough capacity to keep up with the tidal wave of information swamping the Net.
Solution Long-distance carriers are expected to spend $7.9 billion on the latest optical equipment in 2000, up from $3.7 billion last year. The gear will boost the capacity of networks by 80 to 160 times.
REGIONAL
Challenge In the '80s, phone companies built a set of optical rings to carry voice traffic around groups of cities. But the rings don't have enough capacity to carry all the Net traffic now flooding into them.
Solution Phone companies will spend $17 billion this year, up from $11.5 billion in 1999, on faster versions of these regional rings, which can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second, or more than 10 times faster than older gear.
METRO
Challenge The biggest bottleneck in the phone network is within cities. The vast amount of data zipping between neighborhoods is clogging the electrical switches designed to direct voice calls to their destination.
Solution Carriers are expected to spend $386 million this year, up from $62 million in 1999, to start the long process of upgrading the local phone networks. Optical switches are, in some cases, thousands of times faster than the electrical switches.
LOCAL
Challenge The connections are pokey. It takes seven hours to download The Matrix at home, even using a high-speed cable modem. It takes an hour with an Ethernet connection, used in many corporate networks.
Solution With optical connections, customers could download The Matrix in just four seconds. Carriers such as Cogent Communications will supply them to businesses--at one-tenth the price for an equivalent connection from the phone company. |
