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Technology Stocks : Harmonic Lightwaves (HLIT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2646)	2/23/1999 8:03:00 AM
From: Hiram Walker	Respond to of 4134

Mike,that CBS MArketWatch article is filtering around,and it is really a poorly written and misinformed piece. It is a shame that such a crap article is being used.Anyway a great article on MetroDWDM in AmericasNetwork a must read. americasnetwork.com It's metro time for DWDM Local exchange carriers that have been waiting to test drive metro DWDM can start their engines. By Annie Lindstrom Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) has made a home in the nation's long-haul fiber optic networks. There's no question it's needed there, as it would cost millions to lay new fiber to meet increased demand. But what about the metro area? Will there soon be enough data traffic waiting at the edge of the network to make it more economical to use DWDM in the metro area for data networking purposes? In 1999, competitive and incumbent local exchange carriers (CLECs and ILECs) will begin kicking the tires of ring-based metro DWDM systems. The new systems will offer optical layer protection switching, which will make them particularly suited for the optical transport of higher-than-synchronous optical network (Sonet) speed data across and within the local metropolitan area. Carriers that have been wanting to build local networks minus expensive Sonet gear now can do so. Now is a good time to try to understand the differences between long-haul DWDM systems and metro DWDM systems. Although both increase the capacity of an installed fiber by adding additional channels to it, about the only other thing they seem to have in common are the letters D-W-D-M. Going the distance A long-haul DWDM system's main purpose in life is to transport as much traffic as possible from one point to another over long distances of approximately 300 km to 1,000 km. Traffic is generally multiplexed onto long-haul systems via a Sonet multiplexer (mux) and carried their length at either OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) or OC-192 (10 Gbps) Sonet rates. Because their goal is to perform reliably and under control, the components used in the amplifiers and terminals are precisely engineered and therefore very expensive. The I/O application meets a real need, but equipment suppliers and service providers have much more in mind for metro DWDM. Both say it won't be long before CLECs and ILECs and even Internet service providers (ISPs) are using metro DWDM systems in mesh and/or ring configurations to transport high-bandwidth data traffic from business to business within a metro area. The new systems will save carriers and customers time and money when they just don't have enough of either to engineer and deploy new Sonet networks to handle unforecast traffic growth. However, even if they could build them fast enough and cheaply enough, due to their bandwidth limitations, Sonet networks will not be able to carry new types of data traffic, such as gigabit Ethernet, Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON), or D1 video at native speeds, whereas metro DWDM systems will. The price is right Because they don't have to transport traffic very far, metro DWDM systems can be manufactured at a cost compatible with or below that of laying another fiber. "Because the distances are short and distortion isn't as great, the systems don't need amplification or high-performance modulators, so the expense of the system isn't as great," says Steve Chaddick, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at Ciena (Linthicum, Md.). Most metro DWDM systems will be deployed in mesh, ring or star topologies which allow traffic to be added or dropped at multiple points within the metro area. However, optical add/drop functionality will be limited in initial products, most of which will not support dynamic wavelength routing. "Metro systems will be more advanced and provide us with a ring for drop and insert. That would be more desirable, but in some cases people are not looking for that much redundancy" Hensley says. "There are many applications where a single thread is what they've called for and want to pay for, so we accommodate that using the FireFly." GST is using the metro system to reclaim multiple fibers that it otherwise would have had to run to each customer in the buildings it serves. On a 10-building block, for example, the carrier deploys a FireFly terminal in each building and runs one fiber to each building and puts the traffic of every customer in that building onto its own wavelength on that fiber. When metro products with add/drop functionality are available, GST will be able to run a single fiber down the street and pick up traffic from each building on that same fiber by putting a DWDM ADM box in front of each building, Hensley explains. "Our primary mode of serving customers is ATM to the customer. That allows us to take one color and use it to serve several buildings, gaining more and more efficiencies," adds Kevin Wright, GST's chief technology officer. "By placing an ATM switch in the basement, I can operate it and hook up video, voice and IP service for multiple customers. I'm able to turn up their services faster and I can see into the box in their building. That cuts the cost of provisioning way down and improves the quality of service." Tim

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2646)	2/23/1999 8:43:00 AM
From: Hiram Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4134

Mike and Mark, another good article in AmericasNetwork,speaking to McFadden from NT. americasnetwork.com AN: Five years from now, how will optical networking analysts look back on 1998 and 1999? McFadden: What you'll see in the next five years is that the things you've seen in the backbone or the core network you'll start to see in access and metro types of topologies. That's why we bought Cambrian. The way that people build networks in the metro area is going to be transformed into an optical networking scenario. We'll be in the business of manipulating photons. You can call it wavelength switching, optical add/drop … but we'll be directing light in the optical domain to reduce interconnection costs and bandwidth scalability costs as we are required to by our customers. If everyone in New York City went out and bought a [Nortel] 1 Meg Modem tomorrow and hooked it up to their access networks, we'd have a big problem. So we've got to solve that. If we are going to have high-definition TV, digital radio and wireless access to the Internet, all of those bits are going to end up on fiber someplace. The fiber is going to be aggregated closer to the subscriber than it's been in the past. So you are going to have to have this cost-effective fiber connectivity technology called metro DWDM. AN: What do metro carriers need to know as they dive into DWDM? McFadden: First, they have to get comfortable with the technology. There is a lot of concern about their fiber plant's ability to accept DWDM. There aren't any big problems, just concerns: What if I have lots of mechanical splices? What if my fiber is over 10 years old? I think that all of those can be worked through. Engineers were put in this world for one reason, and that's to engineer around problems. They have to understand that optical networking is not as great a leap from Sonet networking as some would think. We have to work with them on how to get their craftspeople comfortable with deployment and comfortable with the technology and the products, just the way the [interexchange carriers] have become familiar with it over the last couple of years. Tim

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2646)	2/23/1999 3:53:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4134

Mike, I have to agree with Tim, that the article could have been more informed. It had an interesting start though, but failed to really inform investors of who's doing what. The last part of this story mentions a show that could raise visibility, (not that HLIT isn't doing all it can :) ), for fiber companies. I'm wondering if HLIT will be there. Trying to find a link. Industry events like the Optics Fiber Communication Conference in San Diego in the coming week will also likely intensify interest in photonics. Presenters will tackled such subjects as fiber-to-the-home technologies and optical networking. Analysts expect the conference to bolster investor awareness of the industry and perhaps move the stocks. Regards, Mark