However, for any given ring, you are locked into a single technology and you have to put active electronics out in the field.
Correct, but you can have many layer 2 rings riding your physical ring. In a normal install you're going to have over a hundred fibers in your physical ring, I'd personally build it with over two hundred, but that's just me. Here's the Graybar catalog with a good breakdown of the kinds of fiber you can choose from, though you have to have a rep to get pricing: http://www.graybar.com/documents/graybar-sps-osp.pdf
You can't, given a ring architecture, provide dark fiber leases.
That's incorrect, you simply don't have as many available but in a current "normal" build you could easily provide 100+ dark fiber leases that extend from your MDF (still don't like using this term here) all the way down to the home or business.
I realize it is your argument that one doesn't need to do so, there's no market for it, etc. However, I don't agree with you.
No, my argument is that the demand for dark fiber is very low and so building your network so you can provide every single connection as dark fiber is wasteful.
Sure, but, you're ring only works with things that do L2 aggregation in the field with active electronics in the field. This means that for any L2 technology a particular subscriber wants to use, you need to either already have that L2 technology deployed on a ring, or, you need to deploy another ring to support that technology.
First, exactly how many and what Layer 2 technologies BESIDES Ethernet do you think you have a market for?
VPNs are popular today (whether MPLS, IPSEC, or otherwise) because L1 connections are expensive and VPNS are (relatively) cheap.
If dark fiber can be provided for $30/month per termination (we've already agreed that the cost is $20 or less), that changes the equation quite a bit. If, as a business, I can provide corporate connectivity and internet access to my employees for $30/month/employee without having to use a VPN, but just 802.1q trunking and providing them a router (or switch) that has different ports for Corporate and Personal LANs in their house, that changes the equation quite a bit.
First, there are very few businesses in the size town we've been discussing that even have this scenario as a wish list item. Second, how many businesses that need/want remote connectivity for their workers at home AREN'T running Ethernet on their corporate LAN and at the employees' home? Another thing to remember is that many businesses run VPNs because of the encryption and controls it provides, not because they can't get or afford direct connectivity. You have a vanishingly small set of potential customers IMO.
Admittedly, this only works for the employees that live within range, but it's an example of the kinds of services that nobody even imagines today because we can't get good L1 services cheap yet.
This is the key point. IF someone was able to put together a nationwide or even regional offering to allow inexpensive Layer 1 connectivity things would be different. However, that's not going to happen AND we already have good cheap solutions to deal with that. Most commonly VPLS over GRE or VPN whose only real cost beyond the basic home Internet connection, is a ~$350 CPE that supports the protocol. So, if you're running a company with regional or nationwide offices and home workers would you be attracted to a more limited method of connection that is only available in certain areas as opposed to the solution that works everywhere? Which is easier for your IT staff to support?
Sure, but elsewhere you've pointed out that the last 20 yards are where most of the problems occur… Guess what… The last 20 yards should be the service provider, not the L1 in this case. If you're worried that the tech will blame problems in the last 20 yards on the prem. loop, that's a matter of teaching them where to plug in the box for testing the L1 loop.
MMR-------[B-Box]------[Customer Patch]------[IW Termination]
1. Plug into IW Termination If it works, great, you're done. If not:
2. Plug into Customer Patch. If it works, problem is isolated to the IW side of things, not the muni's responsibility.
If it doesn't, contact the muni and schedule a joint visit to troubleshoot. Muni will provide an OTDR. Any modulation-specific diagnostic gear to be provided by the service provider.
I'm willing to bet that I could teach this to the average installer in a matter of minutes.
I'm not gonna argue the troubleshooting point anymore, far be it for me to deny you the opportunity to hit your own thumb and learn the lesson that way. -- Scott Helms Vice President of Technology ZCorum (678) 507-5000 -------------------------------- http://twitter.com/kscotthelms --------------------------------