Telecom Services

From LANs ...... To WANs

Voice&Data Bureau

01 Apr 1998 07:20 IST

New Update

"Bigger pipes and lower prices."
That is the new law of the LAN. And all this is being fed by the
need for more users on the LAN, increase in internetworked LANs,
and by the growth of LAN applications. E-mail and Internet are
the key drivers.

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Corporate networkers are using 100 mbps
links to the server. Then, there are autosensing switches, which
can dramatically boost the performance for about two times the
cost of the hub. And new this year are gigabit Ethernet server
connections. This means more capacity for the entire network,
without expensive alternations to end-user desktops.

The boom time to continue for Switched Ethernet ... Switched Ethernet revenues will continue to grow through the end of the decade, with gigabit Ethernet revenues touching the $1 billion mark by the year 2000.	width="283" height="209">
width="283" height="218">	... And cost of transmission is falling. The US multimode fibre market is projected to grow from $700 million in 1996 to over $1.45 billion by 2001. The average price of fibre is expected to stabilize at $0.20 per meter through 2001.
Even in the space where LANs and WANs meet, switches are making waves ... The action for internetworking is at layer 2 and 3. Revenues from these switches should continue to grow through the end of the decade. But high-end router revenues will hold steady, thanks to the growing ISP market.	width="283" height="218">
width="283" height="217">	... And even though the internetworking focus is on Frames, ATM vendors are busy working on new waves for next year color="#0B3A8A"> Strong growth is forecast for ATM and Frame Relay markets.