Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!ucsd!nosc!tetra!budden
From: budden@tetra.NOSC.MIL (Ray A. Buddenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Rumors about the death of the ARPANET
Message-ID: <670@tetra.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 25 Mar 88 00:55:23 GMT
References: <20786@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <[A.ISI.EDU]23-Mar-88.07:47:08.CERF>
Reply-To: budden@tetra.nosc.mil.UUCP (Rex A. Buddenberg)
Organization: USCG, Washington DC
Lines: 15


Maybe I'm missing something, but:

- we are getting 10-20 km between repeaters on fiber links these days,
perhaps somewhat more with high clarity and laser transmitters.

- FDDI rings accomodate 512 nodes before we have to split the net.

- FDDI starts life at 100 Mbits.

Looks to me that 500 nodes times 20 km multiplies out to a pretty
decent regional backbone -- internet a half dozen of these and you've
got the country covered.  Why are we fiddling around with ISDN?

Rex Buddenberg