The squeeze continues

Since the dot-com crash, the communications industry has suffered from underused capacity. To increase usage, service providers have finally figured out that they need to lower subscription rates. Case in point:

Verizon recently lowered its monthly DSL subscription rate by $10 to $34.95, although that's still too high for many people. While lower prices should bring more subscribers, they also result in lower revenue per bit. Thus, network providers must reduce costs, which puts price pressure on network components, subsystems, electronic components, and test equipment—from network testers to bench instruments.

Price pressure from network operators finds its way to test equipment. Courtesy of Synthesys Research.

The revenue squeeze has changed the way network operators buy test equipment. Huettemann notes, "We used to talk to network planners, but now we talk to CFOs about purchasing test equipment."

To compensate, network operators look to build and operate lower-cost networks. Mock points out that network-equipment manufacturers have responded by combining functions. Their products now perform tasks formerly performed by two or more pieces of equipment. Test equipment makers have also combined functions such as eye-mask tests and bit-error-rate tests because "the cost of test is now a key part of procuring network components," according to Tom Waschura, CEO of Synthesys Research (www.synthesysresearch.com). "Network operators and their equipment suppliers will buy test equipment only if it reduces the cost of test, which often means saving time."

Bruce Hembree, VP at Acterna's Workflow Solutions Group (www.acterna.com), says that automation can cut a 30-min manual test to 5 min. These productivity increases mean that network operators and their suppliers can get more work from the people they employ, which goes directly to cost savings.

Automation of tests extends to bench-level and system-level tests on the systems and components that make up today's networks. Scripting languages let test engineers automate testing of network switches and routers and their subsystems.

When subscription costs come down, network traffic will increase, and providers will need to increase network capacity and buy new network and test equipment. We just don't know how long it will be until that occurs.

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor, m.rowe@tmworld.com