RE: PMD discussion
Brad,
Your customer's view is understandable considering the present installed
fiber situation. But don't make the mistake of fixating only on the existing
cable, as was done by supporters of 100BASE-T4 and T2. Cabling
infrastructure composition is dynamic and is ever advancing to more capable
and refined products, just like equipment end points evolve. By the time the
standard is complete new MMF will be an installed base fiber. The 802.3
experience with 100BASE-T should be our guide. The fact that 3 copper PMDs
existed neither retarded the market or caused unmanageable complications for
equipment providers. And new Cat 5 UTP became the installed base in less
than two years, going into horizontals which are much more difficult to
upgrade than building backbones and equipment rooms.
Regards,
Paul Kolesar
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From: Booth, Bradley [SMTP:bradley.booth@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 12:06 PM
To: '802.3ae'
Subject: RE: PMD discussion
I agree with Bruce that the shorter the list, the better for market
growth.
As a system vendor, the division I work for builds adapters for the
server
market. One of the things that one of my largest customers will be
looking
for is a minimum set of adapters that will cover the broadest range
of
applications they will operate in. They would like one SKU. We
should be
able to convince them to have two (one for LAN, and one for WAN).
We won't
be able to convince them to carry more than two.
If they come to me for a recommendation, I cannot in good conscience
tell
them to choose the 850nm Serial because it will limit their
customers
ability to use installed fiber. My customer prefers to limit the
number of
customer support calls, so we have to give them the broadest range
of fiber
use. They will ask us for a recommendation. We're left to choose
between
850nm WDM and 1310nm WDM. For their target market and cost points,
that
would limit it to 850nm WDM.
Cheers,
Brad
Brad Booth
Intel LAN Access Division, Austin Design Center
bradley.booth@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:bradley.booth@xxxxxxxxx>
(512) 407-2135 office
(512) 589-4438 cellular
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Tolley [mailto:btolley@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 10:29 AM
To: Edward Chang; Cornejo, Edward (Edward);
jay.hoge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: '802.3ae'; 'Jack Jewell'
Subject: RE: PMD discussion
Ed:
Multiple options confuse the market when they
overlap and
the set of 5
options contains substantial overlap.
It is legitimate for informed people to disagree on
complex
issues and for
us to have difficulty converging on the short list
of PMDs.
But everyone should be absolutely clear that the
shorter the
list is the
better both for market growth and for ease of
completing the
specification.
Bruce