Service Provider Networks / Optical / View from the Edge:

The Fiberless City

Lack of optical routes holding up metro bandwidth explosion, Nortel exec says.

By Jim Duffy
The Edge, 06/22/01

The most important optical tool in breaking the metro bandwidth bottleneck is the fiber.

Once the number of fiber routes increase, so will the "agility" of metro networks, says Brian McFadden, president of metro optical networks at Nortel.

"The issue is still fiber connectivity to the edge and the richness of that connectivity," McFadden said in an interview at the recent SuperComm 2001 show in Atlanta. "Only 10% of buildings are connected to fiber, and less than 10% of databases are connected to a network. Once we get the fiber out there we can look at different models for provisioning."

What's holding up the buildout of fiber routes is the cost of the rights of way into the building, McFadden says. He adds, though, that it's cheaper to put in fiber for short routes than it is equipment, while the opposite is true in the long-haul network.

"We've got to think about fiber in cities like pipes or roads" in terms of necessity, McFadden says. "It will make the city more competitive. A bunch of communities" - private and public sector, legal, civic and public interest - "need to come together to determine how to do this."

It's difficult, McFadden notes. MFN has been at it for 5 years, he says, and still only 10% of buildings in major metropolitan areas are connected to fiber (MFN was founded in 1993).

As usual, applications will be the driver. Broadband to the desktop - in the form of videoconferencing - should be compelling enough for companies to bite the bullet and go glass. 3G wireless will also be a big bandwidth driver, McFadden says.

"We're just at the beginning," he says. "We have to figure out how to get carriers more profitable with optical networks."

But don't hold your breath. That metro bandwidth bottleneck will not be busted wide open anytime soon.

"The single biggest thing in metro optical is fiber," McFadden says. "You can't start unless you have fiber to the building. When we haven't got 10% of big buildings connected we have a lot of work to do."