 tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:5
 ·Fairpoint Commun..
 ·Hollis Hosting
| Technology vs Business This sort of discussion is always interesting because is tends to conflate technology with business.
Both DOCSIS and DSL are clever adaptations of legacy networks allowing incumbents to offer data services. As such both have strengths and some very serious weaknesses.
DSL offers relatively low speed compared to cable and limited distance. Marketing DSL is a problem because speed is a function of distance and line characteristics. Regardless what some Telcos say I can't see DSL every supporting triple play TV/Data/Phone service because it just does not have enough capacity. DSL is not shared between DSLAM and customer. The cost of reducing oversubscription is much lower for DSL then Cable. Which is why you don’t see the Telco complaining about “data hogs”
Cable offer higher speed but that capability is shared among a large number of customers making it vulnerable to heavy use. The Achilles heel of Cable is very constrained upload speed. Cable CATV HFC infrastructure will be severely tested with widespread adoption of HDTV. CATV requires active electronics in the field making it vulnerable to power outages.
Both DSL and DOCSIS allowed incumbents to quickly leverage existing cable plant, designed for another purpose, for data service. Neither is an ideal long-term first-mile technology.
As to the quote it makes sense to deploy fiber in densely populated areas. Often copper plant is old and at capacity and there are lots of customers per mile. Once the low hanging fruit is served I have no doubt fiber will be deployed to less attractive locations. Fiber is not just a residential offering. Business is hungry for higher capacity lower cost data service.
Arguing legacy technologies are fast enough to support needs years into the future is a circular argument. Applications are optimized for first-mile capabilities. I don’t know at what point we will reach “fast enough” but I assume it will be at least a couple or orders of magnitude faster then what is available today, probably in the 100-1000 Mbps range but not over subscribed allowing 24/7 video/audio streaming.
Fiber is the only long-term solution on the horizon for anything other then rural areas. New RF technologies look very attractive to deliver cost effective services in low-density areas or where untethered access is desirable. Something often overlooked about fiber is lower operating cost, helping offset high initial capital cost. Over time fiber pay for itself with lower operating cost (OpEx). Fiber is the only technology capable of delivering megabits per second on a sustained 24/7/365 basis at reasonable cost.
/Tom
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 r3vldPremium
join:2005-05-19
Austell, GA | Re: Technology vs Business you also forgot that cable is hackable. | |
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 | Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
| Re: Technology vs Business how hackable is cable?
The only people i hear that from is the Telco's or an ISP trying to sell DSL because the Cable company won't let them resell.
I can download a program on my computer and scan my cable node for open computers the same as with DSL. You can view files and stuff. Its not hacking its just using a program. Too bad Downloads.com doesnt have it up anymore because i'd post the link. | |
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| | | | Re: Technology vs Business I havew never heard of anyone being able to scan for other computers within a DSL system. You absolutely certain of that? | |
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| | | | | Re: Technology vs Business Yep! | |
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| | | | | | Re: Technology vs Business I'm looking for concrete evidence of it but so far this is coming up like the "uncap your DSL claims". | |
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| | | tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:5 Reviews:
·Fairpoint Commun..
·Hollis Hosting
| said by bogey780:I havew never heard of anyone being able to scan for other computers within a DSL system. Both Cable and DSL residential service is bridged. That means without special precautions one customer is able to see another because they are all members of the same LAN. This was an early issue but now edge routers deal with this issue. I'm not aware of it being a problem now a days. Each customer is in effect on their own VLAN so customers cannot see one another.
Uncapping is a different issue, involving paying for a particular service and illegally modifying it. DSL speed is managed by the DSLAM and ATM back-haul. There is nothing that can be done via the customer's modem to change speed. So unless one is able to access the DSLAM/ATM configuration network I don't see how that is possible. One would either need backdoor access to the configuration network or use social engineering to get an employee to reconfigure equipment.
The HFC network is a shared First-Mile network so theoretically DOCSIS modems are hackable. CableLabs took that into consideration when they developed DOCSIS. I have no direct experience of this being done recently.
/Tom | |
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