Apply the relevant laws and you'll have a pretty accurate idea where microprocessor performance, PC usage, display technology, fiber optic bandwidth, wireless PDAs, games, the Web, etc. will be two, three and five years from now.
But since 1995, that simple anatomy has given way to several separate backbones -- thousands of miles of extremely-high-bandwidth fiber-optic cable owned by the likes of Sprint, GTE, IBM, and MCI WorldCom, connecting major metropolitan areas all over the country.
In lay terms, it could allow increased bandwidth for fiber optics, and since it's built on-chip, integration with existing doodads shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
Some even argue in favor of nationalizing existing infrastructure, in hopes that doing so will magically build out next generation networks with unlimited mobile bandwidth and fiber optic connections to 100% of the U.S. population, whatever the cost.
FORBES: Creating a "Politics of Abundance" to Match Technology Innovation
Nethercomm claims the system can provide twice as much bandwidth as a standard fiber-optic connection.
That's why the backbones' current proprietors are constantly upgrading, and working on ways to milk more bandwidth from their existing fiber.
Lucent botched a shift in demand to cutting-edge gear for fiber optics, failing to recognize telecom companies' hunger for bandwidth and then reacting too slowly to stop them from defecting to archrival Nortel Networks.
One company might own the fiber-optic cables, while another operates the light signals pulsing over that fiber, and a third owns (or more likely rents) the bandwidth encoded in that light.
FiOS, Verizon's fiber-optic solution, and Exede, ViaSat's high-bandwidth satellite service -- two common secondary offerings -- happen to be the two frontrunners in the FCC's latest broadband performance report, which rates companies based on actual download and upload speeds compared to advertised bandwidth, among other metrics.
Dozens of companies are laying fiber-optic cable around the world, leading some to talk of a looming bandwidth glut.
应用推荐