IP: excellent write-up of the recent CANARIE Advanced Networks Workshop

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 22:37:00 +0900
>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>From: Adam Peake <ajp@glocom.ac.jp>
>
>
>
> >Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 09:44:25 -0500 (EST)
> >From: CAnet-3-NEWS@canarie.ca
> >Subject: CANARIE Sings Lovely Song
> >
> >For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3 Optical
> >Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net
> >-------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >CANARIE SINGS LOVELY SONG
> >by David S. Isenberg for Metamarkets.com
> >
> >The recent CANARIE Advanced Networks Workshop (Toronto, Nov. 29-30, 1999),
> >an annual event, drew participants from all over Canada plus networking
> >experts from around the world, notably Sweden, the Netherlands, and Korea,
> >with a smattering from a less developed southern country -- the United
> >States.
> >
> >CANARIE stands for the Canadian Advanced Network for Research, Industry,
> >and Education. CANARIE is similar to Internet2 in the US, but industry
> >takes more active role.  And the Canadians have some apparently great
> >companies like Newbridge, JDS Uniphase, PMC Sierra, Teleglobe (I *think*
> >it's great; certainly it has huge connectivity on the great circle between
> >Europe and Asia), and even Nortel.
> >
> >Also, unlike any other nethead meeting I've ever been to, school networks,
> >especially nets for the Kindergarten-12 grades, were significantly
> >represented.
> >
> >The biggest impression I took away was this: It sure looks like Gigabit
> >Ethernet (GigE) over glass (and even 10 Gigabit Ethernet, though still in
> >the labs) is coming on like gangbusters.  GigE is following the classic
> >Clayton Christensen disruptive trajectory, rapidly improving in capability,
> >moving up-market from LAN to WAN to displace ATM and SONET, to become the
> >network architecture of choice.  The move to GigE seems to be coming first
> >in entirely new Internet-created companies, then it reaches newly networked
> >market segments (especially public institutions), then it slowly penetrates
> >older, already-networked sectors like telcos, banks, etc.
> >
> >Since there are many more LANs than WANs, GigE, due to its Ethernet LAN
> >heritage, has huge economies of scale.  (Every flavor of Ethernet that has
> >hit the marketplace has slid down a 30% per year price reduction curve.)
> >GigE's use in both LAN and WAN gives greater scale yet.  Plus by erasing
> >the LAN/WAN boundary, GigE decreases the complexity of the network, making
> >it even stupider, easier to manage and easier to innovate upon.  So it
> >looks like the Stupid Network will be built of GigE over glass, and it
> >looks like CANARIE's CA*Net3 will be its first pure nationwide
> >instantiation.
> >
> >Referring to the disappearance of the LAN/WAN distinction, Bjorn Roos, who
> >is building a 190 node, GigE "from core to closet" optical Internet for
> >Stockholm schools (using the Stokab municipal dark fiber infrastructure)
> >quipped, "I am sad to say I had to change my title. I used to be a WAN
> >manager but now I am a LAN manager again!"
> >
> >But it looks like the big Canadian innovations are more regulatory than
> >technical, notwithstanding the huge progress in Internet over GigE over
> >glass. The CRTC (the Canadian FCC), in sharp contrast to the US FCC, has
> >ruled that Canadian Cable TV operators are common carriers, and ordered
> >them to open their head-ends to any ISP.  Then, when the cable guys didn't
> >do it, last September the CRTC slapped them with an order to re-sell
> >head-end access to all ISPs at a 25% discount!  That'll goose up Canadian
> >Internet competition!
> >
> >In contrast, in the US, some industry advocates, including FCC Chairman
> >Bill Kennard, make dire predictions that open access to cable networks
> >(especially AT&T's) would chill investment in broadband infrastructure.
> >Poor AT&T needs its $120 Billion investment protected.  (I want the US
> >Government to protect my OpenFund investment, too -- it'd be in the public
> >interest, dontcha think? -- but I can't seem to hire enough lobbyists to
> >make my case.)
> >
> >In Canada, open access is not discouraging investment in broadband nets,
> >not at all! The Canadians seem to understand the centrality of a broadband
> >communications infrastructure to their economy.  They are pushing towards
> >fiber everywhere with a national will.
> >
> >Where there's a will, there's right of way.  Any Canadian public
> >institution -- schools, hospitals, cities, universities, churches, etc. --
> >can hang their own cables on telephone poles.  Lots of them are doing it.
> >As a result, there is already much fiber in Canada's neighborhoods, close
> >enough to where people live that fiber to the home will soon be common.
> >
> >I should point out that there is significant neighborhood fiber activity in
> >the United States, but it is more spotty and isolated.  It does not have
> >the support of the telecom industry or the regulatory establishment, but it
> >is going on!  Spokane WA and Palo Alto CA are two good examples of the 47
> >US communities with municipal fiber and a civic understanding of how
> >broadband connectivity makes their economy vital.  Ken Poulton (Palo Alto
> >Fiber Network) and Dennis Schweikhardt (Spokane Public School District 81)
> >reported strong progress.
> >
> >Telecom whistleblower Bruce Kushnick (who was not there, but is a good
> >friend of mine) says, "AT&T is Mother Theresa compared to the RBOCs." Lon
> >Berquist, of the University of Texas Telecommunications & Information
> >Policy Institute, reported that there are 6 US states that prohibit or
> >restrict municipal telecom.  These RBOC lap-dog states include Arkansas,
> >Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Texas and Virginia.  Shame, shame, shame, shame,
> >shame, shame.  If a city wants to run a sewer system, it can.  If a city
> >wants to manage its own streets, it can.  If a city wants to provide water,
> >power, garbage collection, etc., there is nothing that prevents it from
> >pursuing its own economic interests and defining the standards of municipal
> >service that its citizens should expect.
> >
> >Please don't label me a Commie Symp for this opinion.  (I gave up when the
> >wall went down.)  I'm all for private enterprise where it creates open
> >markets and real competition.  Metromedia Fiber Networks is doing great
> >work to bring abundant dark fiber to US cities, but until we have a dozen
> >such companies, if small and mid-tier cities want their citizens to have
> >beef, they will have to rope and tie their own calf.
> >
> >As we move into the age of networks, countries with good infrastructures
> >upon which they can build a vibrant, competitive networked marketplace,
> >like Canada and Sweden, will prosper.  The future will appear in these
> >places first.  Conference keynoter Peter Lothberg described the goal of
> >Sweden's national fiber initiative.  He said, "We never want to run into a
> >scenario where we'll be bandwidth limited again."
> >
> >David I -- http://isen.com
> >-------
> >
> >*--------------------isen.com----------------------*
> >David S. Isenberg              isen@isen.com
> >isen.com, inc.         888-isen-com (inside US)
> >http://isen.com/               908-654-0772 (from abroad)
> >*--------------------isen.com----------------------*
> >     -- The brains behind The Stupid Network --
> >*--------------------isen.com----------------------*
> >
> >
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> >
> >-------------------------------------
> >
> >Bill St. Arnaud
> >Senior Director Network Projects
> >CANARIE
> >bill.st.arnaud@canarie.ca
> >+1 613 785-0426
> >
>