Some more musing about the BT contract:
"Under the new contract BT will be able to purchase Alliance equipment
from GPT including the MainStreetXpress 36130 ATM Services Access Multiplexer,
the MainStreetXpress 36150 Access Switch, the MainStreetXpress 36170
Multiservices Switch, the MainStreetXpress 36190 Core Services Switch, the
world's largest ATM switch, and the ACC Tigris(TM) Integrated Access Platform."
As I mentioned before, I read the MainStreetXpress white paper recently, and
one of the things I learned (probably obvious to many) was that the 36190 is the
key to this being a truly huge network. The paper partitioned the network into
three broad conceptual sections: the Access portion, the Edge portion and the
Core. The 36150 is optimized to function in their definition of the "access" network; it collects data from wireless ATM connections, remote connections, NICs, etc.
The 36170 is a larger and more generalized switch, which aggregates larger
pipes; it fits into the "edge".
But the big Kahuna is the 36190...it is like a mega backbone central office switch
that runs the really big data pipes collected from the "edge"; it makes up the
"core" of the network. This switch carries everything (voice, data, the works)
all mixed up together ATM-style. MPOA and all that I guess.
What I'm getting at is it looked to me like that switch is analagous to the giant
central office switches that the carriers traditionally buy from companies like
Lucent and Nortel. Except Newbridge's ATM switches are optimized for data AND telephony. Does this mean that Newbridge is actually eating NT's and LU's lunch, not just CSCO, ASND, etc??
I know that Nortel is big in ATM and broadband SONET stuff too, but Lucent
doesn't seem to have much of a data presence. If this is true...what the heck is
LU doing? They're huge! But are they totally missing the boat here? Maybe
some LU investors can correct me here...but it looks to me that LU had better
buy themselves an ATM business in a hurry, or upstarts like NN are going to
slaughter them! Maybe they're OEMing from Fore or somebody...but then again
I think Fore's a LAN company.
Regardless, I'm certainly going to be keeping my eyes peeled for news releases that mention 36190 in them! If NN is waltzing into the multi-multi billion
a year telephony business and grabbing it (is BT an example of this, or is it
a "second" backbone or something) then things should get mighty interesting.
As usual, this is all irresponsible speculation, and quite likely ignorant nonsense. But hey, I'm here to learn!
Andrew
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