从梦想到现实:宽带Utopia

译者序:光纤到家(FTTH)正从人类的梦想变成现实,FTTP浪潮已在日本、美国、韩国风起云涌,并波及中国、东南亚、欧洲和澳洲。本译文要介绍发生在美国犹他州的世界第一个不由个别业务提供商,而是由一批城市的地方政府联合起来建设的由政府拥有、交一个驻地网络运营商托管运营的先进的光纤接入网平台,该平台公平地向任何业务提供商开放,被称为"机场模式(Airport Model)"。当中国的IT当局正在为由谁来建设FTTP网络,并如何实现"三网融合"一筹莫展的时候,看一看人家的"机场模式(Airport Model)",分析一下是否真有道理。他山之石可以攻玉。激发思考,这就是本译文的目的。

The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency （Utopia） promises to deliver to each of its 3,000 subscribers high-speed Internet access, telephony and television programming through a fiberoptic cable at data rates that reach 30 megabits per second. Encompassing 14 cities in the northeastern Utah, the optical-fiber broadband network is expected to soon reach speeds of 50 and even 100 Mb/s. Because Utopia sends TV programming as Internet packets, it puts a huge reservoir of bandwidth at the disposal of its providers. In addition to its dedicated bandwidth connections, Utopia relies on the Ethernet standard to carry Internet protocol data packets all the way from the central office to the individual subscriber without changing the format, greatly simplifying the network.