TABLE OF CONTENTS A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a packet-based, wide area data network that is specifically designed for interconnecting separated local area networks (LANs) across a limited geographic area. The area may be as small as the financial center of a large city or as large as several cities and the suburbs around them, but it is not a service designed to be continental or international in reach. The MAN core is the larger intracity network connecting central offices (COs), carrier hotels, and other points of presence (POPs) within an urban area. The access part of the MAN consists of the last-feet links connecting the customer premises to the core. Don t misunderstand the term last feet these last feet could be hundreds or even thousands of feet long.
Network service providers face a variety of challenges as they seek to capitalize on the opportunities resulting from emerging technologies, advances in network standards, and more demanding user requirements. Telecommunications industry deregulation has resulted in increased competition, has certainly stimulated innovation, and has helped to reduce service prices. At the MAN level, there is now tremendous pressure for expanded capacity to support broadband local access and high-speed wide area networks (WANs), especially the Internet. All of these factors suggest that a flexible, proven MAN architecture combined with multivendor compatibility is urgently needed so that new services can be introduced by local carriers.
Metropolitan networks are undergoing a radical transformation. Combined with...
