OK. Here we go. Lets learn something and have some fun too.
Let's open this to all the MRVC threads. Anyone can ask a question and anyone can post an answer on their respective threads. I will scan the threads for related posts and repost them on SI. At the end, I will create a consolidated post of links to all the posts, so they can be bookmarked.
Remember the intent here is to discuss this topic first GENERALLY, then later get into specific product discussions later. Most of this information is from the Pluris Whitepapers - that doesn't make it true, so it should be challenged a bit. I will break up the topics into multiple, easy to read posts.
First some background from Whitepaper #1
Escalating Demands on Backbone Networks
During the past two decades, the basic communications infrastructure throughout the world has experienced both unprecedented growth and sweeping change. This has engendered a dramatic shift in the roles of many traditional communications service providers as well as the rise of a whole new category of service.
Over the past 20 years, overall Internet traffic has steadily increased at an average monthly rate of 10%, and is currently projected to double every three to six months. Much of this Internet data explosion is now being fueled by the combined impetus of millions of new users, far richer content (e.g. multimedia), and the migration of corporate traffic onto the Internet. In addition to the Internet, other data traffic is also predicted to increase rapidly over the next few years, while traditional voice-only traffic is predicted to grow at a much more modest rate.
The growth of Internet data traffic is expected to actually surpass the level of traffic on the existing Public Switched Telephone network in the year 2001, at a daily level of well over 12 terabits. If, as projected, this growth continues unabated, the daily levels of overall Internet traffic will reach 1000 terabits- per-day by the end of 2005, representing more than 100 times the comparable daily traffic on the telephone network.
This fundamental shift toward data traffic, combined with the overwhelming rise in Internet IP-based communications, has led many traditional "telephone" companies to embrace the new opportunities and to re-invent themselves as IP-oriented datacom service companies. In addition, the Internet's popularity among both consumers and businesses has led to the evolution of a multi-tiered network of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ranging from Tier 3 retail providers
up through Tier 2 regional ISPs and Tier 1 ISPs, who provide high-bandwidth backbone connections. |
