What Is a Metro Network?

As the Internet continues to grow in chaotic and unexpected ways, and as the Internet user base becomes more technologically informed and focused on applications, those very applications undergo innovative evolution as they place growing demands on the network for very high speed, scalable, flexible, and protocol-transparent bandwidth services. At the same time, advances in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology are allowing new network models to be created. Once found only in the long-haul network, DWDM is now evolving so that it provides tremendous bandwidth granularity in the metropolitan and access networks. The result of DWDM s incorporation in the metro has caused the industry to refocus on applications, with a goal to offer the same benefits in that environment as those that have long been available in the long-haul space.

The current literature defines MONs as those that provide connectivity and transport to large metro areas that have a high concentration of business customers and that span distances of no more than 10 miles. As we stated before, they provide the bridge between the long-haul environment and the access environment, and interconnect a wide array of protocols from both enterprise and private customers on...