nbastin@rbbsystems.COM (Nick Bastin) writes:
I'll concede this point. However, it's worth pointing out that megabytes of disk space can actually be 'had', while bandwidth doesn't really exist. Most of us, at least, have to pay for bandwidth by the month, while we only pay for the same piece of storage space once (and then we actually posess it). This is important because it impacts how far this cost model can be extended, and for how long.
Once upon a time you used to buy CPU seconds from the campus computer center at an exhorbitant rate. Now you just buy the whole CPU, and waste most of it running a screen saver of South Park characters making rude noises. Actually you can buy "bandwidth" much the same way. Stop thinking about buying 'bandwidth' in T1 or E3 size chunks, and instead think about buying 15,000 route miles of fiber for the flat fee of $20million. Ok, so that seems like a lot of money. Think of the difference between renting an apartment or buying a house, structure the financing correctly and the monthly payments are fairly reasonable. Throw in DWM advances in the last couple of years, and you can now sell 80 times more. Trans-oceanic fiber costs more, about $150million, and more political hurdles, but you can do much the same thing. The 'holy grail' of QOS has little to do with delivering bits, and a lot to do with pricing models. Personally I think QOS could be very successfull at the customer ingress/egress points, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense anywhere in the middle. QOS is all about letting the customer buy more or less service than they could normally afford. Like the used car salesperson, the carrier wants to find the largest easy monthly payment you are willing to pay, for the worst piece of junk he can move off his lot. But in the middle, it is almost always cheaper and more efficient for the carrier just to throw more bandwidth at the problem. Bandwidth becomes a sunk cost, with a very short shelf-life. Next week, most of the QOS folks will be meeting down in San Francisco instead of Eugene. http://www.stardust.com/qosforum/ QOS has become such a marketing term, I hesitate to use it anymore. But it would take a much longer message for me to describe what I mean by QOS. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation