Re: TECH: wireless gets real

From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Thu Jul 05 2001 - 08:09:24 MDT


>From: Brian Atkins <brian@posthuman.com>

>Actually for the kind of money Brian is talking about ($2500 to
>wire your house for fiber), he must be talking about PONs (passive
>optical networks) where there is no active equipment between the
>CO and the homes... it's sorta like a super-cable-modem where each
>house only gets one wavelength from a shared piece of fiber that
>runs down the neighborhood street. If you actually wanted a "few
>TBps" to your house the equipment required to send and receive all
>those wavelengths is much much more expensive, not to mention that
>simply wiring each house with a totally unique fiber path would
>cost a lot more in fiber-laying expense.

Bingo! Yes SBC is currently/about to run a WDM/PONs trial in a
subdivision near San Francisco. (Mission Hills?)in conjunction with
equipment from Paceon.

One of ethernet's problems is the distance limitation.

This is a proof of concept run, unfortunately unless there is a
drastic change in telecom regulation it is unlikely this technology
will ever be deployed :( .

>moral of story: people often overlook costs of actually lighting
>up the fiber.

Yes, fiber is relatively inexpensive, but laying it is expensive
and lighting it is very expensive.

Brian

Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W



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