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To: KailuaBoy who wrote (19497)	2/9/2000 10:09:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 29970

Hi KB, I don't think we'll see a truly all optical environment in the purest sense of the word for some time. Most fiber implementations today merely mimic the coaxial model's electronic capabilities, although they permit greater swaths of bandwidth for users to consume, and at greater "reaches," which is what all the focus is on right now. But the modalities which are now being adopted, including the reuse of existing star/tree and branch topologies --which will be outdated at some point in time, IMO... pcta.com ...over extant fiber systems are strictly borne out of the electronic-only genre, not a photonic one. Right now it's about substitution of copper with fiber at the physical level which yields some marginal gains in capacity, and not the full exploitation of a new medium. I hope to make the distinctions between electronic mimicry and a purer form of photonic delivery clearer on the FCTF at some point with a little help from some friends. There are some compelling reasons, as it turns out, why we still need the "limiting" factors associated with the electronic. "Runaway" conditions are one of them, since purely transparent optical systems do not, at this time, have the means necessary to spigot and redirect (throttle and route) traffic during failures without the aid of protocols which are defined in electronic terms, and made possible now only through the use of electronic underpinnings. But these too will migrate to photonic, over time. That said, fiber to the curb and home are still leagues ahead of their coaxial ancestors in terms of their potential for payload carrying capacity. What has not even begun to be thought out, however, is how to rearrange the architectures of distribution systems (both telco- and cable- based) in order to more optimally leverage fiber's capacity, and perhaps equally important, transparency attributes. The changes which are required will not be unique to the local loop and central offices/headends, alone. They couldn't be. In order to begin exploiting fiber at the end points properly all modes of networking throughout the open 'net and dedicated systems alike must morph, in kind. Regards, Frank