The TeraNet Mandala

Summary form only given. Network service providers are awakening to an explosive demand on their infrastructure resources-a demand that is increasingly dominated by TCP/IP traffic. Conferences abound that debate the nature and timing of voice/data convergence, the choice of alternative network architectures to meet this demand, and evolution paths that prove-in under the existing set of economics and business models. The talk, the TeraNet Mandala, while addressing this issue, explores an alternative set of imperatives-the impact that market disrupting technologies have on existing and new service providers-particularly in terms of cost structures. It explores the resulting "supply-side" engineering rules and business models that are emerging and being implemented in leading edge companies. Blueprints of "Latency-Free" networks are identified and proposed as the core of any competitive network provider going forward. Finally, insights are provided into new retail services that are enabled by and emerge from this transformation.