On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 13:43 -0600, Von Fugal wrote: > <quote name="Chris" date="Thu, 17 Apr 2008 at 02:49 -0600"> > > Yes, fiber will probably go far by today's standards. But who can > > predict what will come along in two or three decades? If you think > > you can reliably predict which as-yet-invented networking technologies > > we'll all be using ten years hence, let alone twenty or thirty, I > > submit that you are kidding yourself. :-) My own self-deluded > > prediction is that those technologies, whatever they may be, will make > > landline fiber-optics look like 9600 baud modems. And yet we'll still > > be making payments on UTOPIA bonds. > > You are absolutely right. No one can predict the future, not even you. > Maybe there will be something inconceivable in 20 years, maybe fiber's > potential is already inconceivable. The best we can do is effectively > utilize the technologies available to us NOW.
I would point out that standards are currently being drafted for 40 gigabit and 100 gigabit ethernet over fiber. That's a lot higher than the currently offered 15-45mbps on Utopia and much more than the copper offerings of cable and telcos. There is plenty of room for improvement using fiber infrastructure. Think about how much we've (ab)used the copper that was laid so many decades ago. My copper wiring is 40 years old and it supports 1.5mbps DSL. I don't think it's too much to expect 20-30 years of useful life from fiber. Corey /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
