Second, there's the Internet. The world has never seen such a bandwidth driver, whether you consider the capacity it generates, its scale, or its spontaneity. While voice traffic grows at rates of about 4 percent per year, ISP backbone suppliers cite growth into the triple digits. No longer does the 80-20 rule hold, in which 80 percent of traffic stays local and 20 percent of traffic goes long haul. Predicting those traffic patterns is incredibly difficult, precisely because Internet access is so ubiquitous.
Traffic can shift on a dime, depending on mass events.
The Starr Report, for example, was released on a normally quiet Friday. OUT WITH THE OLD Coping with unpredictable traffic requirements demands a dynamic network with the ability to accommodate huge capacity requirements, exactly what today's network is not. The public network of today is built around equipment designed over 20 years ago to handle voice traffic. At the other end, more TDMs are needed to reverse the process and distribute the DS0s. Plus, TDMs are expensive and often must be configured manually, which slows down provisioning time and increases costs.