White paper examines cutting the costs of optical networking

March 27, 2000

Communications Industry Researchers Inc. (CIR-Charlottesville, VA) discusses strategies for reducing the cost of optical networking close to the end user in its new white paper, "Why Optical Networking Will Cost Less in the Future: Four New Product Strategies."

Communications Industry Researchers Inc. (CIR--Charlottesville, VA) discusses strategies for reducing the cost of optical networking close to the end user in its new white paper, "Why Optical Networking Will Cost Less in the Future: Four New Product Strategies." The paper illustrates why lowering cost is crucial now, the best ways it can be done, and companies and organizations that are already making inroads.

CIR believes that bringing down the cost of optical networking is now imperative. According to the research firm, if equipment vendors and component manufacturers cannot lower the cost of optical networking, they will be unable to exploit four major opportunities that are now emerging. These are: the growing bottleneck of the metropolitan environment, the for opportunity residential fiber, fiber-to-the-building and fiber-to-the-desk for businesses, and the growing need for bandwidth-on-demand.

Although many different approaches to lowering the cost of optical networking have been suggested, CIR maintains that they all fall into the following four strategic categories:

Mass production and experience curve effects:CIR believes that manufacturing improvements will continue to be a major factor in the optical networking revolution and will help to bring optical networking closer to the customer.
Architectural improvements: Standardizing an architecture will not only impact costs through standardized components, but will support users that need high-bandwidth optical networking, as well as customers that may not require increased bandwidth yet. CIR believes that significant opportunities exist for those who can cost-effectively capture the photonics-ready user and the less advanced users through a single platform or architecture.
Using less expensive media and components: Redesign of fiber-optic products to reduce costs and the use of lower-cost/lower-performance components will lower the costs of close-in optical networking. An insistence on the most advanced technology at all times may lead to fewer optical networking opportunities, says CIR, and limit significant segments of the market.
Making low-cost components have higher performance: One way around the future-proofing problem is to make lower-cost/lower-performance components work better, and CIR expects to see a growing number of innovative pump up component performance.

The four strategies for reducing optical network cost and examples of their implementation.

To access "Why Optical Networking Will Cost Less in the Future: Four New Product Strategies," visit the white papers section of www.cir-inc.com. Fill out the registration form, then click on the desired white paper. Registered users will have immediate free access to the paper.