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Technology Stocks : Ciena (CIEN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doug who wrote (1101)	12/15/1997 12:31:00 AM
From: Tim Bagwell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12623

Doug, I think it's fair to say that much of the proliferation of protocols is due to the many different technologies that are finally coming together. For example, ATM was largely driven from the telco's who wanted a low latency cell based structure that matched well with the nature of voice traffic. IP, on the other hand, was not optimized for voice but rather for data and, in particular, the Internet. Then you had the guys working on fiber networks who decided that SONET, a transport structure, was necessary in order to add reliability and monitoring functions. Of course, the Europeans had to be different and selected a modified SONET protocol known as SDH. Even SONET seemed like it would die on the vine for many years. No one protocol suits everyone's needs so they tend to pile up one on the other. It does appear that the market is shifting towards IP for the moment. ATM has had a long, difficult history but I find it hard to accept that IP will perform satisfactorily for voice. We have built a solid voice network that has performed reliably for years and the telco's won't give that up easily. If it were left up to the technical designers to decide I think we would have two types of networks one for voice and one for data. But that may not be cost effective. Now you can begin to see why these things take years to settle to the point where they begin to be used. It takes agreement from many people in the industry and as with all things public there is a lot of behind-the-scenes politicing that occurs.