Technological Inspiration for New Services: Optical Systems Technology

This paper is in five parts, excluding the introduction and conclusions. Section 2 examines technical status and the characteristics of fiber components. Section 3 recounts the results of an interrogation of the operators of current fiber optic systems. The intent is to tell the prospective user of the lessons learned by the experienced users. Sections 4 and 5 address the question of fiber economics, the first dealing with the forces of the learning curve phenomenon, the second giving the results of price surveys and cost trends as a function of capability. Finally, the last part alluded to is a brief glossary of terms used in this paper but probably not well understood by the typical CATV operator owner.