Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!kwe From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England)) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Ethers, Copper, Fiber, Microwaves, Etc. Message-ID: <16836@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Wed, 2-Dec-87 14:52:40 EST Article-I.D.: bu-cs.16836 Posted: Wed Dec 2 14:52:40 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Dec-87 15:54:25 EST References: <3044@phri.UUCP> <203@wright.EDU> Reply-To: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England) Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept. Lines: 44 Summary: I like fiber In article <203@wright.EDU> jsloan@wright.EDU (John Sloan) writes: > >There are now incredibly cheap (a few thousand $s) microwave systems, >with dishes that you could put in a briefcase, that could conceivably >be pushed to 10 Mb/sec over very short distances. Now this is something new to me. If you can put them in a briefcase they must be around 100GHz. That would probably limit the range to a mile or so. The problem with infrared laser technology is the atmospheric attenuation of smog, fog, and rain. Sounds like this new ultra-high freq microwave fills the gap between low freq uwave and infrared. > >Our RBOC bid a optical fiber link. Although their ethernet-to-ethernet >product (if its not vaporware) was not available by our deadline, this >too is an interesting idea, not for short distances (a solution which >has been around for a while) but for long distances, like over five >miles or more. Managing a geographically dispersed ethernet would be >challenging, but the functionality is appealing. I like fiber. I can't wait to see what happens to FDDI as it develops. Fiber optic FDDI will be robust, high speed, and simpler than broadband. I think the ring circumference is around 23 km which will cover a lot of campuses. Speed is 100/200 Mbps. Of course, Pronet-80 is here now and works much the same way FDDI will. I won't repeat the arguments regarding routers versus bridges or introduce a new argument about slow routers versus smart/fast bridges, but I definitely favor routers if we can get some new hardware architectures that will run thousands of packets per second in a multi-protocol environment. Multibus and Interlan Enet cards won't cut it with FDDI and embryonic ISO protocols. Fiber optic token ring is my preference over a fiber optic monolithic Ethernet. You should be excited about managing a geographically dispersed internet, but appalled at the thought of managing a geographically dispersed (large) Ethernet.-- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Kent W. England | Boston University Network & Systems Engineering Group | Information Technology kwe@bu-it.bu.edu internet | 111 Cummington Street itkwe@bostonu BITnet | Boston, MA 02215 harvard!bu-cs!kwe UUCP | (617) 353-2780 -------------------------------------------------------------------