Zbyslaw --
I believe Global One wanted to announce this service before allowing NN to release its own PR. If so, this is good news, indeed.
In other skuttle-butt, I learned several major contracts are being decided on the weight of terabit routing capabilities besides the ability to scale from legacy systems to IP. Today's IBD has an article titled, "Against These Newcomers, Cisco and Lucent Seem Slow," that mentions the start-ups in the terabit space. True to form, Michele Hostetler doesn't mention Ironbridge or Newbridge, but does sum up correctly when she quotes Avici's Panditti: "Over the next few years, we'll find out who the next Cisco will be. Now, no one knows."
Paul Johnson, Robbie Stephens' networking analyst, said the same at the conference.
While looking for something else, I came across the ATM Forum home page and found some interesting week-end reading:
atmforum.com
atmforum.com
Referenced IBD article:
>>>
Against These Newcomers, Cisco And Lucent Seem Slow
Date: 3/1/99
Author: Michele Hostetler
An emerging type of networking gear called terabit routers promises to make today's transmission speedsters resemble old jalopies.
Fast? These routers can download the entire contents of the Library of Congress in about two minutes.
Compare that with the 60 years it would take today's 56 kilobits-per- second modems to do the same task, says Ashraf Dahod, chief executive of NetCore Systems Inc. The Wilmington, Mass., start-up is among those making terabit routers.
Routers tell data where to go on networks. Terabit routers will tell data where to go at speeds equal to 1 trillion bits per second. Today's top-line routers route data as fast as 1 gigabit, a mere 1 billion bits per second.
But terabit routers must prove they can stand up to the intense pounding demanded of devices at a network's core. That's where the heavy-duty gear resides for Internet service providers, telephone carriers and other keepers of large networks.
A group of start-ups is leading the terabit router charge. TRs are the sole reason these companies exist. Established networkers, such as Cisco Systems Inc., typically will buy such new technology through an acquisition.
Terabit routers are expected to start hitting the market in the next two months. On Monday, Avici Systems Inc. in North Billerica, Mass., plans to announce it will ship its first terabit router in large quantities in the second quarter.
''Part of the challenge for the terabit router guys is proving that their equipment will do what they say it will,'' said Chris Nicoll, an analyst at Current Analysis in Sterling, Va. ''No service provider is going to pick and choose their terabit router without extensive tests.''
There's no shortage of start-ups eager to cater to ISPs and carriers. Aside from NetCore and Avici, the privately held terabit start-ups include: Littleton, Mass.-based Argon Networks Inc.; Mountain View, Calif.-based Juniper Networks Inc.; Marlborough, Mass.-based Nexabit Networks Inc.; and Cupertino, Calif.'s Pluris Inc.
And another one or two companies could emerge. ''The last terabit company hasn't been started yet,'' said Ron Jeffries of Jeffries Research in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
No one will guess how many companies the terabit router market can support.
''How many of these boxes are really going to be bought?'' said David Passmore, an analyst with Sterling, Va.-based NetReference Inc. ''I've heard everything from $250 million to $600 million over the next couple of years. That isn't a huge market.''
ISPs and carriers may need few terabit boxes, which start at $250,000 and rise to several million dollars, Jeffries says. ''You only need so many of these, at so many locations,'' he said.
Still, the successful makers of the product are likely to get attention from the big network players, analysts say. Cisco, Northern Telecom Ltd. and Lucent Technologies Inc. are the most likely suitors.
''1999 will be a major year in shaking out this industry,'' said Surya Panditi, chief executive of Avici. Nortel owns a 20% equity stake in Avici.
NetCore's Dahod says he's already received several buyout offers. ''We believe they were premature,'' he said.
The market's also premature, Nicoll says. Terabit routers will help future networks, not today's, he says.
But the buzz has started.
''By the middle of this year, the market starts to happen,'' Jeffries said. ''By the end of the year, it's a big deal.''
ISPs and carriers need this high-powered gear because bandwidth needs and usage on the Internet and other big networks are exploding, Panditi says. Consumers must be able to download video and audio from the Net easily.
Terabit routers are designed to handle fiber-optic networks. Glasslike fiber-optic lines are much faster than today's phone or cable lines. Terabit routers are better suited for optical networks than existing routers, says Mukesh Chatter, chief executive of Nexabit.
Fiber optics and dense wavelength division multiplexers, which increase the number of wavelengths in fiber-optic cable, are the new networks' plumbing. Terabit routers will be the pumping station, he says.
Terabit routers also represent a technology change for phone carriers. Terabit routers are packetbased, not circuitbased like traditional voice gear. Packets are the language of data, which dominates most networks.
The telecom industry is moving to networks based on packet technology to handle voice, data and video.
And that can only speed the terabit race.
''Over the next few years, we'll find out who the next Cisco will be,'' Panditi said. ''Now, no one knows.''
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