The Final Day (sigh…)
Turth be told, I’m glad the Embedded Systems Conference has ended. I’m worn out and I miss my wife. Still, there’s a little bit of wistful sense of loss. Perhaps it has something to do with the 70+ degrees and Sunny weather that we’ve had out here all week long! Hah!!!
Anyhow, the last day proved to be pretty interesting. Not so much in a direct technical way. We attended (I keep saying “we”. That’s ’cause I’m out here with Tim, a co-worker and friend) a session this morning on the so-called “Triple Play” and the challenges associated with it…technical and otherwise. For those who may not know, the “Triple Play” refers to the delivery of voice, video and data in a converged package of network services. It’s what the providers are drooling over as the technologies are starting to coalesce. The truth of the matter is that there are a *ton* of challenges that need dealing with and it’s no small matter to get it all plahying together nicely. Not that it can’t be…it’s just a large set of challenges.
The other session of significance was the discussion of WiMax. That subject plays nicely with the other session, ’cause being able to deliver ubiquitous broadband has become quite a holy grail. I’m glad I attended because I was most certainly influenced by the media in what I thought it was capable of versus what the truth is.
What’s become ever more clear as the week has progressed is that there won’t likely be a truly dominant delivery vehicle for consumer broadband. Cable, copper-based DSL, wireless and fiber will all have their place and there will very likely be overlaps for a long time to come. Getting 25-20 Mbps to your residence will be a challenge for many folks. That’s about the data rate that appears to be required (today) for the kinds of services that people are shooting for today. Notice that though the phrase “triple play” seems only to refer to those three items, in reality there are many more applications that will be in the mix as this stuff moves forward. Managing it all and getting satisfactory performance amongst them is going to provide some nice business opportunities.
“The future’s so bright, you’ll need sunglasses!” — ok, that’s overstating it. But the kinds of things that these companies are dreaming up are gonna be pretty cool…if un-necessary. That remains to be seen. The “killer app” still ain’t been dreamt up yet!
So the week was both good and bad. I had some very useful sessions and some total losers. Was it worth it? Overall, yes. However, the next time I attend I should have a better notion of how to select what I want to learn about and what to expect when I choose. Overall, I’d say that what I learned most was how much I have to learn…
And yes, it was still cool to have met Steve Ciarcia…