Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Scharf who wrote (3753)	3/18/1998 12:51:00 PM
From: PeterR1700	Respond to of 18016

Thomas - thanks (so much) for the clarification re: ATM vs ADSL. Given my low geek factor, the confusion was definitely mine. Peter

To: Thomas Scharf who wrote (3753)	3/18/1998 4:04:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18016

Thomas -- Thank you for explaining the ADSL - ATM relationship properly. After reading today's IBD, I realized I hadn't expressed it right. Here's the article. Later -- Pat <<<< The networking market finally is catching up to speedy asynchronous transfer mode technology. ATM can be the answer for telephone carriers and Internet service providers that want more bandwidth to send more data through their networks faster. Milpitas, Calif.-based Larscom Inc. helps telephone carriers and ISPs add speed to their networks by connecting fast data lines to slower ones using Larscom ATM products. Company Chief Executive Deborah Soon recently spoke with IBD about how ATM fits into today's networks. IBD: Where is the ATM market today? Soon: ATM, in some respects, has been a little bit of a disappointment. I think in terms of backbone position, it's done quite well. I think good cases in point are what's happened at Internet service providers who have had to build their infrastructure really from the ground up. They've been in such a hurry just to get capacity. They elected to go with ATM primarily because of its speed. There hasn't been any other kind of technology around that could offer the same transmission transport for them. And the fact that it was ATM was sort of an ''Oh, by the way.'' It certainly wasn't a primary or secondary reason for them choosing it. But having said that, they're not alone. Many carriers have chosen to put ATM in their backbone. IBD: If ATM networks still aren't widespread, then what kinds of traffic are ATM lines carrying? Soon: What's kind of ironic is (that) ATM infrastructures are carrying predominately (non-ATM) traffic. But it's doing so nicely. It's carrying Frame Relay traffic, video, circuit-based traffic. It's doing all of the things ATM was purported to be beneficial for - that is, transporting multimedia applications. But the one thing that it's not doing a whole lot of is transporting ATM traffic. Because ATM, as a service (for a company to use), isn't something that's taken off. It's still quite difficult to get. When you can get it in one city, you may not be able to get the connectivity in another city at the other end. IBD: What's held back demand for ATM networks? Soon: There was an initial belief that ATM was going to be not only the architecture of the backbone, but the architecture all the way down to the desktop. That hasn't happened. ATM for the customer sites and for a number of desktop applications is just too expensive, and there's quite a bit of overhead. It just still isn't there in terms of price. Not only that, but the existing networking technologies - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Token Ring - have done very well. They're economic, well-understood and manageable. So why would anybody want to change? IBD: What are the challenges of moving non-ATM traffic on ATM lines? Soon: That's the nail on the head. We believe that ATM has been looked at the wrong way. It's a perfect access technology. It's very benefit is its ability to transport all different kinds of traffic on the same transport mechanism. Given the fact that ATM as an infrastructure in the backbone is already deployed, what it allows the carriers to do is leverage an infrastructure in which they have already made a large investment. I think where the market perhaps took a misstep was looking for a killer ATM application. There isn't going to be one. The application is the sum total of all the other applications that are out there in the marketplace today needing common transport. ATM . . . can be the perfect access transport to accommodate that. That's where we believe the opportunity for ATM is going to be: not so much as an ATM service per se, but really as a mechanism to provide connectivity to all of the different kinds of legacy applications that need to be connected in the most economic and flexible way, all together across the wide area. That's beginning. IBD: What is time division multiplexing? Soon: Time division multiplexing is a kind of technology that's used predominately today in all of the carriers. It's the fundamental technology upon which all of telephony was based. IBD: How does it work with ATM? Soon: They're two different technologies. The question has always been, how do you evolve a network that is predominately TDM based, but give rise to some of the ATM applications? The way to do that is with (a product that includes both TDM and ATM technologies). Our vision is that (the network environment) will evolve. It will take a long time for one technology to become dominant over the other. It's not going to be that one day you're TDM and the next day you're ATM. They have to somehow coexist. You have to have technology today to address both. >>>>