IP: Qwest

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

I was at a briefing last week by the CEO of Qwest. They are the folk who
have (are) putting in a national fiber network using railroad right of way.
A few details of their configuration are illuminating.


They are installing a conduit with 96 threads of non-zero dispersion
shifted fiber of which they will retain 48 and lease/sell 48 and have room
for a lot more. hey are designing for 60 miles between repeaters and an
error rate of 10 ^ -15 or better.


Initially they will run 8 waves per fiber at 10 gigabits per wave and
expect to move to 16 waves at 40 gigabit per wave. They configure the
system into 10 gigabit symmetrical SONET rings


They will initially provide IP legacy support.


I was very impressed with their competence


One interesting question is with capabilities such as this entering
commercial service this year, why is the NGI research horizons stuck at a
small number of gigabits per second rather than the much more challenging
but still non frontier rates of 10 gps. 


Looking for insight.


Dave


ps stock was at 21 at IPO and is now in the 60 s








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"Photons have neither morals nor visas"  --  Dave Farber 1994
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