To oversimplify a bit, a circuit switch opens up a dedicated line between you and that fellow you're talking with 1, 200 miles away.

FORBES: Survival technique: paranoia

To oversimplify a bit, a circuit switch opens up a dedicated line between you and that fellow you're talking with 1, 200 kilometers away.

FORBES: Survival technique: paranoia

For now, Wall Street believes in Cisco chief John Chambers, the Billy Graham of Internet Protocol, who proselytizes that the entire telecom world will make a fast conversion to IP, abandoning the "circuit switch" networks in which Lucent reigns.

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As more carriers make the full switch over to 4G service, they will need to manufacture new circuit boards.

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The new switch, dubbed EX9200, is based on a programmable Juniper ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) which provides compatibility with not only existing SDN protocols but also new ones as they develop over the next decade.

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And new innovations such as printed circuit technology and the white space radio spectrum (transmitting data over unused TV channel airwaves as we switch from analogue to digital TV) are all helping to create a world where everything can talk to everything else, and everything to us.

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