IEEE 40GE & 100GE

Wed Dec 12 20:29:53 UTC 2007

> 
> I'm on board with that as far as it goes, but has the scenario of
> adjustable launch powers so that you don't ever need attenuators plus
> the economy of scale that would come from having *one* type of
> interface for 1m-10km runs been considered?  It seems to me based on
> what I've seen of the optics market that once you make something a
> mass-produced commodity the price falls awfully far - suppose the
> price difference was $250 vs. $375, that's a big difference on a
> percentage basis but pocket change on an absolute basis.
> 

I'm inclined to agree that when we are talking about unit numbers 
between 10km >> 40km optics, the marginal price change of a few bucks 
per optic (vs the human time to go and fix/groom/find/reduce optical 
losses) is pretty minimal.

For that 1% of customers that finds their total cost significantly 
impacted (vs, say the cost of the equipment these are going into, 
etc).... would force 10% of us to have to engineer bypass cross-connect 
panels with fewer physical connections (and spliced ones at that) to get 
the job done.

Just my guess... but no one has really complained about 10km reach 
optics being so expensive after the first 5 minutes they've been on the 
market.

Personally, I wish this much cost could be cut out of the 80/120km 
optics market... but hey, no one is asking me.

Deepak