Re: Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-06-02 Thread Curtis Maurand

That's how time-warner is doing it here in Maine.  However, they've 
assigned voip to its own channel while digital channels occupy another and 
hdtv signals are compressed and on another, etc.  Its a 1Ghz system. 
Everything on the system is IP including the control boxes.  They also 
have certain video and PPV on demand as well.  Very interesting system 
that serves as a model for the rest of the country.  Whatever they do they 
roll it out here first and this system totally rocks.  I regularly get 
downloads at 3Mbps.

Curtis
--
Curtis Maurand
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.maurand.com
On Sun, 30 May 2004, Christopher J. Wolff wrote:
Folks,
This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.
Regards,
Christopher


RE: [url correction] Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-06-01 Thread Christopher J. Wolff

All of these are great observations.  So what's the cable HFC Achilles heel?

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 12:58 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; ''Christopher J. Wolff''; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [url correction] Cable networks RE: best effort has economic
problems, maybe OT

Correcting a previous url error on my part. 

Narad's site is at:

 http://www.naradnetworks.com


Sorry 'bout that, folks.

Frank

On Mon, 31 May 2004 11:30 , [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:


Agree, this is a great discussion, akin to a recent Cook Report accounting
of 
best 
effort considerations. Several startups (now going into year two) have
addressed 
the cable-HF/C constraints you've mentioned. You may be interested in
perusing 
these two:

http://www.narad.com

Another, Rainmaker Technologies...

http://www.rainmakertechnologies.com

 appears to have fallen on hard times while seeking later round
funding. Not 
sure of their disposition at this time, but doing googles on their name
reveal 
some good articles on their approach to using wavelets to improve bit gain
over 
black coax/fiber systems to homes and businesses.

Metcalfe has financial backing hooks and input into Narad, and Mark E.
Laubach of 
COM21 fame (ATM over HF/C) heads up (headed up?) Rainmaker's technical
pursuits.

[[As an aside, I'm finding increased interest in corporate parks
(especially 
those 
that are boondocks-bound) where MSO fiber-based offerings are being
seriously 
considered for WAN access, both of the type discussed above and enterprise-
tailored rings coming off local head-ends.]]

Frank


On Sun, 30 May 2004 08:47 , 'Christopher J. Wolff' [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:


Folks,

This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types
of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out
across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.

Regards,
Christopher











RE: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-31 Thread Neil J. McRae


 This problem has little to do with BE vs. QoS.  It's a 
 temporary market imbalance caused by providers willing to 
 sell service for less than cost; in the absence of external 
 factors, eventually enough providers will go under for prices 
 to rise back above cost.

I've seen compelling evidence over the past two years that clearly shows
some carriers who have sold well below cost who then also went into chapter
11.
Unfortunately these zombies don't see to want to die! :-) Selling below
cost is one of many issues. Also Internet access is one area of most
organisations
communications needs.

I also then have discussions, with some of the people listed on the 
acknowledgements page of this article, that have done things because 
quote it costs too much when the reality is that its cost them nothing.

 



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-31 Thread Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr.
Neil J. McRae wrote:
I've seen compelling evidence over the past two years that clearly shows
some carriers who have sold well below cost who then also went into chapter
11.
Fascinating discovery, that.  What on earth will happen to us if _that_
word leaks out?!??!
--
Requiescas in pace o email
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio
http://members.cox.net/larrysheldon/



Re: Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-05-31 Thread frank

Agree, this is a great discussion, akin to a recent Cook Report accounting of best 
effort considerations. Several startups (now going into year two) have addressed 
the cable-HF/C constraints you've mentioned. You may be interested in perusing 
these two:

http://www.narad.com

Another, Rainmaker Technologies...

http://www.rainmakertechnologies.com

 appears to have fallen on hard times while seeking later round funding. Not 
sure of their disposition at this time, but doing googles on their name reveal 
some good articles on their approach to using wavelets to improve bit gain over 
black coax/fiber systems to homes and businesses.

Metcalfe has financial backing hooks and input into Narad, and Mark E. Laubach of 
COM21 fame (ATM over HF/C) heads up (headed up?) Rainmaker's technical pursuits.

[[As an aside, I'm finding increased interest in corporate parks (especially those 
that are boondocks-bound) where MSO fiber-based offerings are being seriously 
considered for WAN access, both of the type discussed above and enterprise-
tailored rings coming off local head-ends.]]

Frank


On Sun, 30 May 2004 08:47 , 'Christopher J. Wolff' [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:


Folks,

This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.

Regards,
Christopher







Re: [url correction] Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-05-31 Thread frank

Correcting a previous url error on my part. 

Narad's site is at:

 http://www.naradnetworks.com


Sorry 'bout that, folks.

Frank

On Mon, 31 May 2004 11:30 , [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:


Agree, this is a great discussion, akin to a recent Cook Report accounting of 
best 
effort considerations. Several startups (now going into year two) have addressed 
the cable-HF/C constraints you've mentioned. You may be interested in perusing 
these two:

http://www.narad.com

Another, Rainmaker Technologies...

http://www.rainmakertechnologies.com

 appears to have fallen on hard times while seeking later round funding. Not 
sure of their disposition at this time, but doing googles on their name reveal 
some good articles on their approach to using wavelets to improve bit gain over 
black coax/fiber systems to homes and businesses.

Metcalfe has financial backing hooks and input into Narad, and Mark E. Laubach of 
COM21 fame (ATM over HF/C) heads up (headed up?) Rainmaker's technical pursuits.

[[As an aside, I'm finding increased interest in corporate parks (especially 
those 
that are boondocks-bound) where MSO fiber-based offerings are being seriously 
considered for WAN access, both of the type discussed above and enterprise-
tailored rings coming off local head-ends.]]

Frank


On Sun, 30 May 2004 08:47 , 'Christopher J. Wolff' [EMAIL PROTECTED] sent:


Folks,

This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.

Regards,
Christopher











Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-31 Thread Simon Leinen

Mikael Abrahamsson writes:
 Tier 1 operators do not do best effort really, at least not in
 their cores (and they have the SLAs to back it up). They buy hugely
 expensive top notch gear (Cisco 12000 (and now CRS:s) and Junipers)
 to get the big packet buffers, the fast reroutes and the full
 routing table lookups for each packet to avoid the pitfalls of flow
 forwarding the cheaper platforms have.

 With the advent of 10GE WAN PHY (Force10, Foundry, Riverstone,
 Extreme Networks, Cisco 7600)

I don't think there's 10 GE WAN PHY for the Cisco 7600 yet.  It has
very cost-effective 10 GE *LAN* PHY (10.0 Gb/s, not SONET-compatible)
interfaces though, which I find even more interesting (see below).

 and full L3 lookup for each packet on their newer platforms, we'll
 see very much cheaper L2/L3 equipment being able to take advantage
 of existing OC192 infrastructure and that's where I think you'll
 start to see the real best effort networks operating at. At least
 the L2/L3 equipment will be much cheaper for the operators choosing
 this equipment, at approx 1/5 the initial investment of similar
 capacity 12400 and Juniper equipment.

We find that the L1 equipment is getting much cheaper too, especially
in the 10 GE LAN PHY space.  Think DWDM XENPAKs (or XFPs), which go
70-100 kms and which can be multiplexed and amplified with pretty
affordable optical equipment.  If you're not interested in
carrier-class boxes, traditional WDM equipment can sometimes be
replaced with active parts that mostly look like GBICs, and passive
parts that look like funny cables...

 Now, how will this translate in cost compared to DWDM equipment and
 OPEX part of the whole equation? [...]
-- 
Simon.


Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-31 Thread Mikael Abrahamsson

On Mon, 31 May 2004, Simon Leinen wrote:

 I don't think there's 10 GE WAN PHY for the Cisco 7600 yet.  It has
 very cost-effective 10 GE *LAN* PHY (10.0 Gb/s, not SONET-compatible)
 interfaces though, which I find even more interesting (see below).

Cisco won't release a WAN PHY for a long time and it'll likely be quite
expensive since it competes with their other (even more expensive) OC192 
stuff. (Yeah, there is most likely a technical reason also, they want to 
do extensive testing).

Also, Cisco is as far as I know now the only player in the market which
code SFPs and Xenpaks to avoid impacting their very nice business case of
500+ % markup on optics.

I have beta units of WAN PHY Xenpaks directly from the manufacturer, they
work nicely in Extreme equipment, unfortunately when putting them into a
7600 it wont even activate them and Cisco doesn't seem very keen on
supplying an IOS that doesn't have this limitation so I can test it at all
(they've had 8 working days now).
 
 We find that the L1 equipment is getting much cheaper too, especially
 in the 10 GE LAN PHY space.  Think DWDM XENPAKs (or XFPs), which go
 70-100 kms and which can be multiplexed and amplified with pretty
 affordable optical equipment.  If you're not interested in
 carrier-class boxes, traditional WDM equipment can sometimes be
 replaced with active parts that mostly look like GBICs, and passive
 parts that look like funny cables...

I know of DWDM GBICs, they've been around for quite some time. Just a 
matter of time until we get DWDM Xenpaks as well. I've also tried the 
CWDM OADMs which come on some patch cables. Nice if you want to do it in a 
small scale point to point.

The thing speaking against cheaper DWDM stuff is that the transmission 
people aren't very happy about letting in uncontrolled equipment 
directly into their combiners/OADMs, especially when it comes to 
controlling power levels etc.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamssonemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-05-30 Thread Christopher J. Wolff

Folks,

This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.

Regards,
Christopher



Re: Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-05-30 Thread Petri Helenius
Christopher J. Wolff wrote:
Folks,
This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types of
limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
channel bandwidth (30mhz?) , increased demand for voip, and growing demand
for IP connectivity is going to stress the cable network model as well,
forcing cable operators to convert everything to IP before going out across
the wire.  Any input is appreciated.
 

The bandwidth you quote refers to the unencoded signal bandwidth. The 
actual transmission has the same channel spacing than traditional 
television, be that NTSC or PAL or SECAM. Terrestial applications 
typically carry 20-25 megabits and cable  satellite applications 
typically 40-50 megabits per channel/transponder. HDTV channel usually 
consumes 19.8Mbps for video plus some extra for audio + multiplexing 
information. So a channel that used to carry one NTSC analog channel 
over the air can be used to carry one HDTV channel or in the case of 
cable/satellite networks, two.

I´m all for encapsulating all transmission to IP packets, because it 
would make a lot of things easier, but I would suspect some places need 
to freeze first :-)

Pete


Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-30 Thread joe mcguckin

I don't see the correlation between settlements, profitability and
level-of-service.


-joe



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-30 Thread Stephen Sprunk

Thus spake Gordon Cook [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 The point I am making in my report is NOT that the best effort
 network has technology problems but rather that it has ECONOMIC
 PROBLEMS.  That it might support 2 or 3 players not 2 or 3 HUNDRED.
 That until companies begin to go chapter seven and vanish, the best
 effort net will be a black hole that burns up capital because, for
 many players, the OPERATIONAL expense is more than they get for
 bandwidth never mind cap-ex.

 best effort won't go away.  many best effort players will.

 for the time being, best effort bandwidth prices as an absolute
 commodity cannot sustain networks over the long haul.  A network that
 can deliver QoS the report hypothesizes may be able to attract enough
 revenue to become profitable.  How to to this my group is still
 discussing.  We don't pretend that QoS is easy or any kind of mature
 collection of technologies, but increasingly it looks as though the
 industry, if it is ever going to be self sustaining, really needs to
 look at QoS services and solutions.

This problem has little to do with BE vs. QoS.  It's a temporary market
imbalance caused by providers willing to sell service for less than cost; in
the absence of external factors, eventually enough providers will go under
for prices to rise back above cost.

Possible external factors mainly consist of providers finding other add-on
services sufficiently profitable to offset losses from basic transport.  QoS
is one possible add-on, but I haven't seen any convincing evidence customers
would buy it today if it were available.  There are many other services that
providers could offer on top of the basic transport that could have the same
effect without the substantial technical and economic challenges that QoS
presents.

This adds up to a market where it's possible for IP transport (BE or
otherwise) to be unprofitable yet exist indefinitely.

S

Stephen SprunkStupid people surround themselves with smart
CCIE #3723   people.  Smart people surround themselves with
K5SSS smart people who disagree with them.  --Aaron Sorkin



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-30 Thread Mikael Abrahamsson

On Sun, 30 May 2004, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

 This problem has little to do with BE vs. QoS.  It's a temporary market
 imbalance caused by providers willing to sell service for less than cost; in
 the absence of external factors, eventually enough providers will go under
 for prices to rise back above cost.

I am actually not sure that someone actually have to go under. When the 
spare capacity sold under cost is all used up, it doesn't make sense to 
build out to sell, so nobody will want to sell at these under cost prices 
any more. Either demand will make the prices go up and then people will 
start building again, or companies will start to cancel contracts that 
gives them the smalles amount of money, and sell that at a slightly higher 
price.

Or... technology will catch up and the cost of producing the capacity 
needed will match the current prices.

What will happen is probably a combination of all the above.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamssonemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: Cable networks RE: best effort has economic problems, maybe OT

2004-05-30 Thread Stephen Sprunk

Thus spake Christopher J. Wolff [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 This is a great discussion.  I'm interested in understanding these types
of
 limitations in the context of HFC cable networks.  In my opinion, HDTV
 channel bandwidth (30mhz?) ,

Broadcast ATSC (aka HDTV) uses the same bandwidth as broadcast NTSC: 6MHz.
The problem is that many (if not all) cable operators use high compression
ratios to squeeze multiple channels into a single 6MHz slot.  While this
doesn't degrade quality noticeably with SDTV, it ruins HDTV, and many cable
operators actually downconvert HDTV programming to SDTV to maintain constant
quality (lowest common denominator).

 increased demand for voip, and growing demand for IP connectivity is going
to
 stress the cable network model as well, forcing cable operators to convert
 everything to IP before going out across the wire.

Well, there's technical challenges with DOCSIS, but the bigger question is
whether broadcast content delivery is going to remain viable...

Consumers are getting used to time-shifting thanks to TiVo et al, and IP PPV
is a reality in some places.  Verizon is already talking about delivering
cable TV over IP once their FTTH is rolled out, and you can expect other
telcos to pick up the idea as broadband penetration increases.  Broadband
VoIP is already here; while Vonage leads the way, I doubt the telcos are
going to cede marketshare now that VoIP appears profitable (and inevitable).

There's an old saying: I'd rather get my cable service from the phone
company than my phone service from the cable company.  We're rapidly
approaching a day consumers can get both from their broadband company.  We
may even see competition from third parties iff inter-provider reliability
and capacity is improved.

S

PS- This dovetails nicely with my recent post on how unprofitable basic
transport can be sustained through subsidies from add-on services.  Thanks
Christopher!

Stephen SprunkStupid people surround themselves with smart
CCIE #3723   people.  Smart people surround themselves with
K5SSS smart people who disagree with them.  --Aaron Sorkin



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Gordon Cook
may  I make just a passing observation?
From a technology  point of view the best effort internet certainly 
works.  Not surprisingly the comments here are primarily debating 
the finer points of the technology.

The point I am making in my report is NOT that the best effort 
network has technology problems but rather that it has ECONOMIC 
PROBLEMS.  That it might support 2 or 3 players not 2 or 3 HUNDRED. 
That until companies begin to go chapter seven and vanish, the best 
effort net will be a black hole that burns up capital because, for 
many players, the OPERATIONAL expense is more than they get for 
bandwidth never mind cap-ex.

best effort won't go away.  many best effort players will.
for the time being, best effort bandwidth prices as an absolute 
commodity cannot sustain networks over the long haul.  A network that 
can deliver QoS the report hypothesizes may be able to attract enough 
revenue to become profitable.  How to to this my group is still 
discussing.  We don't pretend that QoS is easy or any kind of mature 
collection of technologies, but increasingly it looks as though the 
industry, if it is ever going to be self sustaining, really needs to 
look at QoS services and solutions.


On Sat, 29 May 2004, Edward B. Dreger wrote:
 Nitpicking:  Latency isn't that important with unidirectional
 communication.  However, VoIP users seem reasonably happy with
 current latency and jitter -- and the Internet still is _largely_
 xxTP, anyway... particularly if one ignores peer-to-peer file-
 swapping programs.
Latency is fine for VOIP as long as you dont interact with the PSTN
network, if you want to interact with PSTN then you need echo
cancellation if you have high latency on the IP part.
Most VOIP applications can handle 40ms jitter, so that's normally no
problem unless your local access is full. Packet loss is normally no
problem for VOIP if you use a proper (non-telco developed) codec.
VOIP is actually better off with high packet loss and low jitter than the
other way around (throwing off the old truth that core equipment should
have lots of buffers).
--
Mikael Abrahamssonemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

--
=
The COOK Report on Internet Protocol, 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 USA
 609 882-2572 (PSTN) 703 738-6031 (Vonage) Subscription info  prices 
at http://cookreport.com/subscriptions.shtml Report on economic black 
hole of best
effort networks at: http://cookreport.com/13.04.shtml  E-mail 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
=



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Mikael Abrahamsson

On Sat, 29 May 2004, Gordon Cook wrote:

 discussing.  We don't pretend that QoS is easy or any kind of mature 
 collection of technologies, but increasingly it looks as though the 

Tier 1 operators do not do best effort really, at least not in their
cores (and they have the SLAs to back it up). They buy hugely expensive
top notch gear (Cisco 12000 (and now CRS:s) and Junipers) to get the big
packet buffers, the fast reroutes and the full routing table lookups for
each packet to avoid the pitfalls of flow forwarding the cheaper platforms
have.

With the advent of 10GE WAN PHY (Force10, Foundry, Riverstone, Extreme
Networks, Cisco 7600) and full L3 lookup for each packet on their newer
platforms, we'll see very much cheaper L2/L3 equipment being able to take
advantage of existing OC192 infrastructure and that's where I think you'll
start to see the real best effort networks operating at. At least the
L2/L3 equipment will be much cheaper for the operators choosing this
equipment, at approx 1/5 the initial investment of similar capacity 12400
and Juniper equipment.

Now, how will this translate in cost compared to DWDM equipment and OPEX
part of the whole equation? Well, the bubble effect is still doing fine,
so I think we wont see any stability for yet another 2-3 years, I'll
definately give you that in your analysis. As long as there is equipment 
and unused installed capacity left from 2000-2001 out there, the price 
equation will be skewed compared to what it actually costs to replentish 
the capacity when you've sold it.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamssonemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Eric Kuhnke

Tier 1 operators do not do best effort really, at least not in their
cores (and they have the SLAs to back it up). They buy hugely expensive
top notch gear (Cisco 12000 (and now CRS:s) and Junipers) to get the big
packet buffers, the fast reroutes and the full routing table lookups for
each packet to avoid the pitfalls of flow forwarding the cheaper platforms
have.
When 12016s are on ebay for $12,000, even a low budget tier 3 can 
afford proper routing gear...  It's not as if the Internet is still 
powered by 7507s!  (Well, a large part still is.  :-)

Now, how will this translate in cost compared to DWDM equipment and OPEX
part of the whole equation? 
I am starting to see some interesting long-distance 2.5Gbps CWDM gear 
offered by European manufacturers, with 70km and 100km distance ratings. 
 This stuff sells for a fraction of the price of equivalent 
Nortel/Ciena/Cisco ONS gear.  Lots of optics companies are making 70km 
rated SFPs in 8 or 16 wavelengths now.  So far it only runs at OC-48 
speeds, but 10Gbps will be coming soon.




Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Edward B. Dreger

GC Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 16:53:17 -0400
GC From: Gordon Cook


GC The point I am making in my report is NOT that the best
GC effort network has technology problems but rather that it has
GC ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.  That it might support 2 or 3 players not
GC 2 or 3 HUNDRED.

Best effort is cheaper to provide.  Cheaper sells.  Is there
enough of a market to sustain premium services?  IP-based VPNs
haven't replaced FR and PtP WAN links, but FR and PtP haven't
thwarted IP-based VPNs.


GC That until companies begin to go chapter seven and vanish,
GC the best effort net will be a black hole that burns up
GC capital because, for many players, the OPERATIONAL expense is
GC more than they get for bandwidth never mind cap-ex.

Definitely true about opex and capex... but I'm not convinced
that QoS is the magic bullet that will make the marketplace big
enough and profitable enough.  I don't see service offerings
fixing the woes of screwball pricing.


GC best effort won't go away.  many best effort players will.

If all best effort players provided QoS/guaranteed services,
would the survival rate be significantly higher as a result?


GC for the time being, best effort bandwidth prices as an
GC absolute commodity cannot sustain networks over the long
GC haul.  A network that can deliver QoS the report hypothesizes
GC may be able to attract enough revenue to become profitable.

That's where I'm not convinced.  Current IP delineates the lower
reliability boundary and a benchmark price point.  Premium
services won't have a lower cost than best-effort, so they must
sell for more.  Would the incremental service improvements be
high enough to draw customers away from cheap BE _and_ support
sufficient margins?

First class hasn't stopped the cycle of airline bankruptcies and
government bailouts.  I don't see first class data as much
different.


GC How to to this my group is still discussing.  We don't
GC pretend that QoS is easy or any kind of mature collection of
GC technologies, but increasingly it looks as though the
GC industry, if it is ever going to be self sustaining, really
GC needs to look at QoS services and solutions.

Perhaps, but only if the price is right.  DSL sells better than
Internet T1 lines, which sell better than end-to-end private
lines and packet clouds.  There's a reason for that.


Eddy
--
EverQuick Internet - http://www.everquick.net/
A division of Brotsman  Dreger, Inc. - http://www.brotsman.com/
Bandwidth, consulting, e-commerce, hosting, and network building
Phone: +1 785 865 5885 Lawrence and [inter]national
Phone: +1 316 794 8922 Wichita
_
  DO NOT send mail to the following addresses :
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sending mail to spambait addresses is a great way to get blocked.



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Vicky Rode
interesting reading
http://mail.internet2.edu:8080/guest/archives/qbone-arch-dt/log200205/msg0.html
regards,
/vicky
Edward B. Dreger wrote:
GC Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 16:53:17 -0400
GC From: Gordon Cook
GC The point I am making in my report is NOT that the best
GC effort network has technology problems but rather that it has
GC ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.  That it might support 2 or 3 players not
GC 2 or 3 HUNDRED.
Best effort is cheaper to provide.  Cheaper sells.  Is there
enough of a market to sustain premium services?  IP-based VPNs
haven't replaced FR and PtP WAN links, but FR and PtP haven't
thwarted IP-based VPNs.
GC That until companies begin to go chapter seven and vanish,
GC the best effort net will be a black hole that burns up
GC capital because, for many players, the OPERATIONAL expense is
GC more than they get for bandwidth never mind cap-ex.
Definitely true about opex and capex... but I'm not convinced
that QoS is the magic bullet that will make the marketplace big
enough and profitable enough.  I don't see service offerings
fixing the woes of screwball pricing.
GC best effort won't go away.  many best effort players will.
If all best effort players provided QoS/guaranteed services,
would the survival rate be significantly higher as a result?
GC for the time being, best effort bandwidth prices as an
GC absolute commodity cannot sustain networks over the long
GC haul.  A network that can deliver QoS the report hypothesizes
GC may be able to attract enough revenue to become profitable.
That's where I'm not convinced.  Current IP delineates the lower
reliability boundary and a benchmark price point.  Premium
services won't have a lower cost than best-effort, so they must
sell for more.  Would the incremental service improvements be
high enough to draw customers away from cheap BE _and_ support
sufficient margins?
First class hasn't stopped the cycle of airline bankruptcies and
government bailouts.  I don't see first class data as much
different.
GC How to to this my group is still discussing.  We don't
GC pretend that QoS is easy or any kind of mature collection of
GC technologies, but increasingly it looks as though the
GC industry, if it is ever going to be self sustaining, really
GC needs to look at QoS services and solutions.
Perhaps, but only if the price is right.  DSL sells better than
Internet T1 lines, which sell better than end-to-end private
lines and packet clouds.  There's a reason for that.
Eddy
--
EverQuick Internet - http://www.everquick.net/
A division of Brotsman  Dreger, Inc. - http://www.brotsman.com/
Bandwidth, consulting, e-commerce, hosting, and network building
Phone: +1 785 865 5885 Lawrence and [inter]national
Phone: +1 316 794 8922 Wichita
_
  DO NOT send mail to the following addresses :
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sending mail to spambait addresses is a great way to get blocked.



Re: best effort has economic problems

2004-05-29 Thread Mikael Abrahamsson

On Sat, 29 May 2004, Eric Kuhnke wrote:

 When 12016s are on ebay for $12,000, even a low budget tier 3 can 
 afford proper routing gear...  It's not as if the Internet is still 
 powered by 7507s!  (Well, a large part still is.  :-)

12016 will only do OC48 speeds and the OC48 cards that used to be had at 
$3500-$5000 on eBay now is $10k+ and quickly drying up. Then there is the 
whole legal and support issue, if you need Cisco support and want to be 
legal, you can effectively double the above prices.
 
 I am starting to see some interesting long-distance 2.5Gbps CWDM gear
 offered by European manufacturers, with 70km and 100km distance ratings.
   This stuff sells for a fraction of the price of equivalent 
 Nortel/Ciena/Cisco ONS gear.  Lots of optics companies are making 70km 
 rated SFPs in 8 or 16 wavelengths now.  So far it only runs at OC-48 
 speeds, but 10Gbps will be coming soon.

At least in Sweden there is still plenty of unlit dark fiber than can be
had cheaply. It's not the fiber that'll cost you, it's the rent of
floorspace and power in the amplifier stations, plus the manpower OPEX of
keeping it running.

Still, at prices of $25-40 per meg per month, it's hard to produce 
new bandwidth even by buying gear on ebay and doing everything the cheap 
way. Let's say you average 1 gig of paying traffic per month on your OC48 
links, that'll only give you let's say $40k revenue per month. Not much to 
build an operation on.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamssonemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]