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 : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (2617)	8/1/1998 6:43:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Is ADSL Headed For Black Eye? By Carol Wilson, Inter@ctiveweek, 7/27/98 Telephone companies around the country are finally beginning to offer Internet service providers the chance to deliver faster access over standard phone lines using the technology known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. But just as this technology leaks into a broader market, Michael Malaga says it's headed for trouble. Malaga has something of a vested interest - as president and chief executive officer of NorthPoint Communications Inc., he sells faster Internet access to Internet service providers (ISPS) in competition with local phone companies. NorthPoint is selling Symmetric DSL (SDSL) service in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the company has national expansion plans. Malaga says he believes, however, that if ISPs don't consider Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) as the underlying technology for a service offering and pay attention to other details of that service, they could see market enthusiasm for this new technology quickly ebb. "There is tons of misinformation and tons of hype and expectation setting that is causing there to be some problems in the marketplace" says Malaga, a former executive at MFS Communications Co. Inc. "The fundamental thing that is a problem - [X]DSL is being trotted out as a technology solution. People are not focusing on the service instead of the bandwidth nirvana" An ISP that wants to offer customers what ADSL can deliver - a 1.5-megabit-per-second downstream signal with an upstream signal of 64 kilobits or higher must consider the impact on the backbone network. But the ISP that pays to upgrade that backbone so it can guarantee 1.5-Mbps throughput to its customers is going to want to charge more for the ADSL offering to cover costs, Malaga says. "The first place where expectations may not be met is in regard to pricing," he says. "UUnet [Technologies Inc.] charges $2,000 for a T-1 link to the high-speed backbone. An ISP isn't going to turn around and sell 1.5-Mbps service for $80 and guarantee that throughput." More typically, smaller ISPs buy a connection to high-speed networks and oversell that link, counting on technical methods such as statistical multiplexing to get customers' traffic through and hoping that not everyone is trying to get very high-speed access at exactly the same moment. At the same time, however, the company providing the ADSL transport - a telephone company or competitive carrier - also has to oversell the backbone network, Malaga says. "Say DS-3s [45-Mbps lines] go for about $2,000. If I guarantee that bandwidth, I can only put 24 to 28 customers on that DS-3, and that's not economic" he said. So the telephone company also uses statistic multiplexing, which combines packet streams onto a backbone network, and oversells the DS-3. If the oversubscription is too high, everyone's traffic is delayed, prompting error messages and latency that is too high for services such as voice-over-Internet Protocol. "The customer thinks they are going to get 1.5 Mbps to the Internet,and that's not going to happen," Malaga says."The ISP is oversubscribing and the [local phone company is oversubscribing because they are managing their network as well.As more and more users start using this kind of network, the throughput for everyone drops. And the ADSL technology gets a black eye."

To: ahhaha who wrote (2617)	8/6/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: Hiram Walker	Respond to of 29970

ahahha, I just wanted to clarify TCOMA's MetroDWDM system,which is carrying ATHM,and how it will interconnect with T. americasnetwork.com Multipoint WDM networks will not be deployable unless they are segmented into subsystems that terminate on non-proprietary signal interfaces. In fact, transparent WDM long-haul networks embody no such interfaces. The fundamental transmission-performance knowledge that would be required to specify such interfaces is not within reach. Opaque networks, however, are fundamentally segmented into open interfaces by the 1300 nm cross-office ports on their transponders. Because open interfaces arise at the boundary between each WDM transport system and the optical cross-connects on which its endpoints terminate, multivendor interoperability is achievable. this is from AmericasNetwork, you see,when you send 1550 nm transmitions down the backbone, they are terminated in the node. At the node they are optically cross connected,by opaque Add/drop multiplexors. They are thus cleaned and retransmitted at 1310 nm narrowcast to the home over QAM channels. With this regenerated system,you have total interoperability between vendors,and no problems with linearity or distortion. It does not matter whether the signals sent are ATM,IP,or Sonet,they are cleaned and retransmitted. HLIT has the killer system which is totally interoperable with all optoelectronic components from anyone in the world. This MetroDWDM system for TCOMA will run from the fiber optic backbone of T,to the end users of TCOMA and carry ATHM's signal,where it will be cached at the node over invisible hubs.Wow, is this going to be a kick ass system of what!! Hiram