The evolution from narrowband to broadband customer access

The author uses a simple model of customer access to gain insight into long-term architecture. He then argues from the nature of concentrating devices that the customer access network (the network dimensioned for individual customers) will eventually shrink to a very much shorter arrangement than at present. The author considers several transitional arrangements toward the long term and suggests that the metropolitan-area-network architecture provides the most graceful evolution. He concludes by identifying the types of service which will drive this evolution to the ultimate broadband network