Metro Area Networking

Broadband in the Metro Area has proven to be telecom’s one bright spot in 2001 – all the long haul backbone capacity in the world does you no good if you can’t move your data through the Metro bottleneck. But service providers are wrestling with all manner of technology choices (SONET? DWDM? Ethernet? The coming 10Gig Ethernet?), and also face the challenge of easily and effectively accessing SANs and VPNs. Quality of service issues are crucial in recruiting and maintaining customers

Steven Shepard lays bare the tricks and traps awaiting service providers in the metro area space, detailing the technological challenges and opportunities in his trademark lucid, humorous prose.

Contents            

     Acknowledgments
     Introduction
   PART 1: A LESSON IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY
    The Evolution of Modern Networks
    Further Diversification
    Core Versus Edge: A Few Words
    The Birth of Metro
    Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
    Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS)
    The Maturing Metro Market
    Metro Market Segments
    Carrier-Class Ethernet
    MPLS/GMPLS-Enabled Networks
    DWDM
    The Next-Generation Intelligent Network
    Network Management
    An Aside: Resilient Packet Ring (RPR)
    Anatomy of the Metro Network: The Edge
    The Multiservice Metro Network
    Network Inversion
    Ciscos Central Role
    The Metro Network: Access
    Anatomy of the Metro Network: The Core
    Optical Burst Switching
    Freespace Optics
    synchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
    Metro Topologies
    Point-to-Point Architectures
    Ring Architectures
    Summary
   PART 2: THE METRO NETWORK
    What is a Metro Network?
    Metro Touch Points
    Long-Haul Networks
    Access Networks
    The Metro Area Itself
    The Evolving Metro Network
    Metro Demographics
    Regulatory Impacts
    Likely Regulatory Solutions
    Summary
   PART 3: ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
    Introduction
    Overview and Terminology
    Ethernet Services
    Ethernet: A Brief History
    Phase Two: Xerox and DEC
    The Arrival of Fast Ethernet
    Full-Duplex Ethernet
    Up the Stack: The Ethernet Physical Layer
    The Arrival of Fast Ethernet (100BaseT)
    One Step Up: Gigabit Ethernet (1000BaseT)
    10-Gigabit Ethernet
    Ethernet Summary
    Service Providers
    Alternative Premises Schemes
    Access Technologies
    Marketplace Realities
    ISDN
    Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
    Cable-Based Access Technologies
    Wireless Access Technologies
    Transport Technologies
    Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
    Optical Networking
    Putting It All Together
    Fiber Nonlinearities
    Intermodulation Effects
    Optical Amplification
    Optical Receivers
    Dense Wavelength: Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
    Course Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM)
    Optical Switching and Routing
    Switching Versus Routing: Whats the Difference?
    Switching in the Optical Domain
    Multipoint Circuit Support
    Nonintrusive Monitoring
    New Services
    Transporting Subrate Payloads: Virtual Tributaries
    SDH Nomenclature
    Metro Networking: SONET and Ethernet
    Summary
   PART 4: METRO APPLICATIONS
    Corporate Evolution
    The Importance of Corporate Knowledge
    The ERP Process
    Data Mining
    Knowledge Management
    Obstacles to Effective Knowledge Management
 &nb