[LINK] National Broadband Network - except it's not national.

Paul Brooks pbrooks-link at layer10.com.au
Fri May 7 13:21:13 AEST 2010


On 7/05/2010 11:48 AM, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>
> Just because it exists and is cheap doesn't explain how it gets
> integrated into the NBN and how it gets used.
>
> If an ISP in Perth wants to connect to the NBN locally in WA - no problem.
>
> How do they provide a national service? How does that ISP connect to
> Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Broken Hill etc?
>    
Exactly the same way they do now - using the existing providers of links 
to those locations. NBN Co is not going to duplicate routes that are 
already contestable.

> Is the NBN, as seen by the users (ISPs and Joe Sixpack) a single virtual
> network or not?
>    
As seen by the users, its "The Internet" and the NBN is the port on the 
wall that they talk to their ISP and (through the ISP) the Internet through.
There might be another port on the wall that they plug their phone into, 
and another port on the wall where they plug their TV into.

As seen by the ISP, its a totally different beast - a disjoint 
collection of 200+ finger-networks providing access from each POI 
location to the houses/businesses/schools/traffic-lights close to that 
POI location. The ISP has to figure out from the normal non-NBN sources 
how to link their systems and infrastructure to each of those POIs that 
they wish to serve - there won;t be anything in the middle.

(Interesting problem - NBNCo will presumably need to lease low-bandwidth 
capacity from the existing long-haul transmission suppliers to carry 
their network management traffic at the very least from their NOC 
locations to their equipment at each of the 200+ POIs )

P.









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