WiMax Operator's Manual

152 CHAPTER 6 ■ BEYOND ACCESS
MPLS functionality can be partially or completely disabled in a router, and since ISPs and
long-distance service providers are loathe to tax capacity to support QoS, delay-sensitive traffic
is apt to encounter such a disabled router in its journey across the Internet to its final destination.
If that occurs, it does not matter how stringent QoS provisions were in the path already
traversed. The transmission essentially returns to best effort.
Some ISPs and long-distance carriers are willing to negotiate service-level contracts with
local broadband access providers that will provide end-to-end QoS over an MPLS backbone. If
broadband wireless operators want to launch transmissions outside their own network that
require more than best effort, then such agreements are essential.
The Central Office As War Room
This chapter’s intent has been to induce the potential network operator to view the central
office and central network hub as a dynamic and evolving entity whose evolution will reflect a
changing service model. Any network operator who survives and succeeds is going to have to
retrofit the central office on a fairly frequent basis, and these operators should obtain facilities
that will easily accommodate growth and change. While the basic network elements are not apt
to change significantly within the foreseeable future, the operator will probably require greater
and greater computing power and storage capacity to run the new applications that will surely
emerge in the marketplace. I cannot emphasize enough that broadband services no longer
constitute a utility business. Rather than providing some fixed offering, the network service
provider is increasingly called upon to provide solutions to individual communications problems.
In a real sense, the ability to innovate is becoming a core capability for the last-mile
service provider.