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Technology Stocks : Frank Coluccio Technology Forum - ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1299)	3/23/2000 2:06:00 PM
From: Bernard Levy	Respond to of 1782

Hi Frank: I would like to recommend the following article on Terabeam and Last Mile companies. news.cnet.com What caught my attention is not the Terabeam discussion, but the speculation by Vincent Chan of MIT that free space lasers in space (i.e., aboard satellites) might provide a convenient way of avoiding the need for long-distance fiber. However, this still leaves the need for beaming the data outside the atmosphere and then back in. Maybe all the Cold War research on death ray beams might come in handy. Best regards, Bernard Levy

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1299)	4/7/2000 1:47:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1782

Frank and others --- I welcome your thoughts on the following white paper: netreference.com I believe the privately-held BrightLink Networks (formerly Corvia Networks) has a solution similar to what's described --- theirs is a scalable opaque optical switch. Is anyone else doing this? brightlink.com >>>> . . . . According to Scott Clavenna, principal analyst at Pioneer Consulting (Cambridge, MA), ?BrightLink has addressed the issue of scalability in opaque optical switching systems in their first release, making them a serious contender in a market Pioneer Consulting projects to exceed $15 billion by 2004.? The BrightLink Optical Network Switching System BrightLink?s intelligent optical network switching system will be introduced in May. The groundbreaking system will provide unparalleled scalability-- making it possible for carriers to provision and switch end-to-end links from OC-48 down to an STS-1-- the equivalent of a T3 (51Mbps) circuit. The BrightLink optical network switch system will also make it possible to seamlessly scale from 16 up to 1,024 OC-48 ports or from four to 256 OC-192 ports. Long-haul carriers who deploy the BrightLink optical switching system will be able to provision a circuit immediately with a few mouse clicks, using the optical switch system?s advanced GUI-based management features. This means long haul carriers will be able to offer an unprecedented level of response to their service provider customers, including true ?bandwidth-on-demand? -- delivering from T-3 up to OC-48 in minutes thus eliminating the typical 60-180 day request-to-delivery delay. ?Management of the optical backbone bandwidth is the biggest single issue facing the long-haul carriers today. ?Desperation? is not a word to use casually,? said Mark Lutkowitz, president of Trans-Formation (a Birmingham, AL-based market research firm), ?but it really fits here. IXCs are scrambling to figure out how to perform rapid provisioning. Business is being won and lost because of it. The carriers really need this capability now; in fact, they needed it yesterday.? Leveraging Advances in Optical The BrightLink solution will fully leverage, and build upon, the latest advances in optical technology including dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM.) With DWDM, multiple light wavelengths simultaneously traverse on every fiber optic cable, increasing capacity but generating tremendous traffic loads in the network core. Unfortunately corresponding technologies within the delivery network such as ring-based SONET architectures using add-drop multiplexers (ADMs), digital cross connects (DCSs) and optical cross connects (OCSs) have not been able to keep pace. They simply cannot scale to meet the carriers? needs. The BrightLink switching system will interconnect DWDM systems-- displacing traditional SONET ADMs, DCSs, and OCSs. This will increase efficiency and free precious real estate within an IXC?s network center, and provide a true end-to-end view of IXC?s transport network. Switch Fabric Architecture Key A major difference between BrightLink and the handful of other companies developing intelligent optical switching systems for the long-haul application is the switch fabric architecture. BrightLink?s switch is based on a hypertorus mesh design, rather than a standard crossbar architecture. This enables scaling capabilities that are unprecedented in a first generation product (from sixteen up to 1,024 OC-48 ports or from four to 256 OC-192 ports for switch capacity of 2.5Terabits). Future releases of the switch fabric will support capacities of 10Terabits, 40Terabits, and up to 160Terabits, allowing carriers to keep pace with bandwidth demand generated by the Internet. Switches based on standard crossbar architectures are constrained due to the sheer number of gates and pins required in their semiconductor design. With Internet traffic doubling every four to six months, crossbar architectures can no longer scale fast enough to support the bandwidth needs of most IXC?s major switching centers. ?BrightLink comes into this market with a different lineage than all our competitors,? said Harry Quackenboss, chairman and CEO of BrightLink. ?We began as a switch fabric company and focused from the bottom-up on designing a highly scalable switching architecture. Once our switch fabric design architecture was completed, we looked for the best application. I suspect our competitors came at this market from the other direction, which is why most are tied to the limitations of standard crossbar switch designs.? Carriers and Providers Stand Ready BrightLink has attracted the attention of several progressive long-haul carriers, who are anxious to test the product. One such company is Bermuda-based Global Crossing Ltd. Alan Hannan, vice president of IP network architecture & engineering for the firm explained, ?Global Crossing is building the world?s largest fiber-based IP network. As we do this, we will need to tie the IP layer more closely to the optical infrastructure. BrightLink?s product provides capabilities that will allow carriers to better marry the optical and electrical layers.? First carrier lab trials are anticipated to begin in the third quarter of 2000, with general availability planned for the fourth quarter of 2000. >>>>>>>

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1299)	4/9/2000 1:15:00 PM
From: Teddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1782

Fiber to the toilet. (sorta related to "Sewer Rats and Billionaires" by Scott Woolley.) i found this in an SEC filing: ...We have established and plan to continue to establish relationships with electric and other utility companies in our target markets to obtain rights-of-way access. We intend to use these relationships to maximize the penetration and speed of entry and reduce the cost of deploying our network in our target markets. In Paris, France, we have received approval from the city authorities to lay our fiber in the underground sewer system. This agreement enables us to lay our fiber in a cost- effective manner because it entails minimal excavation of city streets as the system's conduits connect to nearly all buildings in Paris....