Page 261 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

11_200023_CH10/Bates 1/17/01 9:06 AM Page 246

246 Chapter 10

Migration Is the Solution

To solve this problem, significant investments have been made to
satisfy the demands of the network and make improvements on the
SONET equipment. Intelligence was designed for the network.
These improvements had to be backward-compatible and standards
compliant. Thus, ATM and Frame Relay switching systems were
used to provide much of the intelligence, while SONET ADMs were
merely the transport systems acting as the carriers. Optical switches
and intelligent cross connects were also created to alleviate the prob-
lems at layers 1 and 2.
What began was the movement for the industry pundits to declare
that SONET was dead and that optical switching was the heir
apparent. To give equal coverage, these same folks also told us that
ATM was dead. They are getting better at guessing. They have not
been right yet. However, they have seen a migration from older
SONET-based systems into a newer generation of services. SONET
has changed and morphed like a chameleon creating some exciting
changes. TEAMFLY
As we moved forward, with a new generation of SONET equip-
ment being complemented by the optical cross connects and
switches, the application came back into focus.The metropolitan net-
works became the new playing field, as we saw for the optical switch-
ing systems. The due diligence effort played out a new application of
moving the high-speed data and video across the metropolitan area.
However, the use of the bandwidth in the localized communities
demanded significant investments from the ILECs, CLECs, and the
data LECs (DLECs) in order to meet the growing demand.
Yet the killer application has still not emerged to justify many of
these investments in rural (and some metropolitan) communities.
What we do know is that in the past, bandwidth requirements dou-
bled every 24 to 30 months, as shown in Figure 10-9. The installed
fiber met these demands without much problem. In the 1990s,
unparalleled growth in telecommunications became the norm. Bot-
tlenecks began to occur on the existing fibers. Carriers struggled to
add more fibers to keep pace with the unending demand. Economics
also played an important role in the buildout of more fibers in the
routes because of capital intensity.

®
Team-Fly