penetration, EBITDA-positive status in one year, $100 thousand in equipment for every building brought on net, $1 in annualized revenue for every $10 invested, or an unsustainable fire-sale price for services, it is tautological that these startups will not generate positive returns for venture capitalists. 4.2 Features of Next-Generation SONET As a technology, next-generation SONET systems are not revolutionary, but rather are evolutionary. At the network topology level, these systems are generally similar or identical to traditional SONET/SDH systems. Basi- cally, next-generation systems are data-aware SONET network elements (NEs) that enjoy one or more of the following characteristics: They have direct 100-Mbps, 1-Gbps, or 10-Gbps Ethernet handoffs in addition to traditional handoffs. Data interfaces such as ESCON, FICON, and Fibre Channel are supported. They are cheaper than traditional SONET NEs because of advances in technology and because they do not support voice-originated capabilities such as a complex virtual tributary (VT) mechanism. Next-Generation SONET and Optical Architectures They support full Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning (OAM&P) while enjoying Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) access to the management information. They support new trunk-side architectures (for example, they support a packet-based mechanism such as, but not restricted to, Resilient Packet Ring [RPR]) and have OC-x handoffs. They support IP routing functions, including perhaps multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). They obviate the need for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), but employ framing based on Packet over SONET (PoS) or the Generic Framing Procedure (GFP). Next-generation SONET is not supported by a standardized definition by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Rather, it is a collection of vendor- advanced approaches to improve the cost-effectiveness of traditional SONET in a broadband data context. In 2001, vendors appli