New Report Examines the Future of ATM
Business Wire - February 09, 1998 07:16
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 1998--Despite the apparent demand for high-bandwidth services among businesses and consumers, a new research report from the International Engineering Consortium finds that there are some significant impediments to the deployment of a public high-bandwidth facility at reasonable cost and availability for the end user.
The report finds that most U.S. local and long-distance carriers only feel compelled to upgrade their backbone networks to the extent that they perceive bandwidth demands from individual customers and growth requirements for geographic communities. This leads, at best, to piecemeal deployment of new technology and backbone modernization.
Although high-bandwidth deployment is rapidly moving forward in situations where corporate operations are clustered either in large buildings or on a campus, the report finds that the picture for regional, national, and global high-bandwidth connectivity through the year 2010 is less certain.
"The costs of frame relay, ATM networks, T-1 and DS-3 connections remain high, even though there has been considerable decline in the underlying cost over the past decade as fiber and SONET have been introduced," says Frank Groom, professor at Ball State University and principal investigator of the report. "Moreover, the current availability and future potential for 155 Mbps to gigabit connection over a wide-area network are limited at best. These optical connections will only be affordable for special situations, such as Chrysler's automotive design facilities."
If the current movement towards multimedia deployment and the associated use of video, image, sound, document, text and desktop conferencing does not provide efficiency and revenue value significantly beyond cost, then high-bandwidth network deployment will significantly slow down locally, the report finds. However, the authors anticipate that such benefits will become the norm for business operation by the year 2010. If these benefits are delayed, however, there is a risk that this might lead to a delay in enterprise high-bandwidth network deployment.
"Should this occur," Groom says, "a technology-driven U.S. economy could easily stagnate, leading to another episode of the mid-70s stagflation economy in the early years of the twenty-first century."
Designed to help public carriers and enterprise network designers gain a clear understanding of trends in ATM and broadband networks through 2010, the report provides strategies for successfully deploying broadband networks in various scenarios. As such, it provides a forecast of the future as well as tactics for achieving network goals in both the short and long timeframes.
Entitled "The Future of ATM and Broadband Networking: 2000 to 2010," the report is based on a Delphi study including extensive interviews and a survey of industry professionals, companies who participated in the research for this report include 3Com, Acuity Research Group, ADC Telecommunications, AG Communication Systems, Ameritech, Andrew Corp., Applied Digital Access, Applied Innovation, AT&T, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bellcore, BroadBand Technologies, CableLabs, CSC Consulting & Systems Integration, Degas Communications Group, DSC Communications, Electronic Data Systems, Genesis Teleserv Corp., Global Broadcasting Corp., GTE, Hewlett-Packard, Houston Lighting & Power Co., Hughes Network Systems, IBM, InfiNet Network Services, Integrated Network Corp., Integration Technologies, Intel, ISR Global Telecom, JSE Consulting, KnowledgeLink, Lucent Technologies, Mercer Management Consulting, Millenium Marketing, Motorola, NEC America, Newbridge Networks, Nortel, Planned Innovation, PrimeCo Personal Communications, Pulsecom, Rockwell, Sequel Systems, SoftCom, SourceComm, Southern New England Telephone, Southern Development & Investment Group, Southwestern Bell, Sprint, Stentor, Resource Centre, Storage Technology, Subscriber Computing, TE Consulting, Telematics, The Management Network Group, TIS TPC Consulting, United International Holdings, Westell Technologies, Winstar Communications and WorldCom.
For more information about "The Future of ATM and Broadband Networking: 2000 to 2010," contact the International Engineering Consortium Publications Department at 312/559-3730 (phone), 312/559-4111 (fax), or at publications@iec.org. The IEC's Web site is at www.iec.org.
The International Engineering Consortium is a non-profit organization that provides research and continuing education programs for the information industry.
CONTACT: International Engineering Consortium
Publications Department, 312/559-3730
Fax - 312/559-4111, or publications@iec.org
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