<title>Metropolitan area networks: a corner stone in the broadband era</title>

Abstract

Deployment of Broadband ISDN is being influenced by both a market pull and a technology push. New broadband service opportunities exist in the business and residential sectors of the market place. It is envisioned that some customers will need connections directly to broadband switches because of the high bandwidth needed for their applications. At the same time Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) systems will serve those customers with bandwidth requirements less than or equal to 150 Mbps. A given MAN will have a geographical domain to serve where it will carry out the switching tasks within this domain. While MANs couldbe designed using differentarchitecturalconcepts the setofservices expected tobeprovidedby MANs could be equivalent to thelist ofservices thatwillbe supported by the targetbroadband network. This paperpositions MANs as a major building block for Broadband networks. It also examines the evolution process ofMANs as a needed step to assure the successful deployment of these new broadband services. 2. BISDN - OVERVIEW Broadband ISDN (BISDN) is being driven into existence by both a market pull as well as a technology push. Opportunities for new valueadded services are the prime market pull for future broadband networks. These services opportunities extend beyond simple voice and low speed data applications and cover both the residential and the business sectors of the market. It is noted for instance that business customers have growing needs for sophisticated telecommunication vehicles to support their