Monday, February 19, 2007

Access, Not WAN, is Bandwidth Issue

As always, the bandwidth choke point remains the access network. Local area network bandwidth is easy to upgrade. Long haul bandwidth also is not much of an issue, on most routes. The issue, for any service provider except a cable company or satellite company, is that replacments for linear TV will have to be delivered over the IP pipe, not a special purpose video delivery network. Multicast or broadcast networks are the best way to deliver linear TV. IP networks are a better way to deliver any sort of symmetrical service, but grossly inefficient for streaming content on a unicast basis. Access remains the choke point.

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