January 2000

BY KEVIN MAYER

Go To Sidebars:
Questions And Answers From Industry Experts
A Service Provider’s View
Convergence Technology And The Last Mile
Managing Multi-Service Networks With MPLS
Equipment Providers Represented In This Feature

With all the talk about change sweeping over the communications landscape, we may well wonder how it is that some features of this landscape should resist change so well. Especially curious are those features for which durability is by no means desirable — or, for that matter, inevitable.

One such feature — or redoubt — is the sameness that characterizes the communications services for small to mid-sized businesses. Consider the typical options. Analog phone lines and dial-up Internet access. Or ISDN. Or frame relay service or a partial T1 for faster data communications. Or Centrex.

These offerings are hardly inspired (or inspiring). And yet service providers have had little incentive to offer anything else — nothing, at any rate, within the means of small to mid-sized businesses.

This state of affairs may be due for a change. And the agent of change could be voice over DSL (VoDSL), a technology for transporting voice and data, at broadband magnitudes, over an ordinary analog line, the familiar twisted copper pair.

Whether VoDSL achieves a breakthrough depends, at least in part, on the willingness of subscribers and service providers to think of communications services diferently, to consider the value of novel service bundles. Unexamined attitudes towards communications services may ultimately prove more durable than the circumstances that created the current last-mile impasse.

Subscribers are unlikely to resist the technology. Why should they even care about the underlying transport? They will, however, need to exercise their imaginations, and consider ways enhanced services may benefit their businesses.

Service providers have challenges of their own. They’ll need to enhance their infrastructures, providing for access devices at the customer premises, as well as concentration and gateway functionality within the network.

Already, the access devices, often called integrated access devices (IADs), are available from a multitude of vendors. And many vendors provide concentration devices, sometimes called DSL access multiplexers (DSLAMs). A few vendors provide gateway functionality — which typically accomplishes translation between DSLAMs and class 5 switches. But while there are relatively few gateway vendors, they have multiplied their influence through aggressive partner programs. The many partnership announcements — issued by such vendors as CopperCom, Jetstream, and TollBridge — attest to the popularity of these programs.

Other service provider challenges, besides infrastructure, include unbundling issues, the need to manage diverse network elements, and a willingness (on the part of incumbents) to make room for VoDSL beside T1 services.

Yet VoDSL vendors are optimistic, characterizing the potential market as sizable ($45–53 billion) and — as they put it — underserved. And while current penetration of this market is negligible (VoDSL deployments have just started), some vendors are already pushing the boundaries of the target market at both the high and low ends, to encompass (respectively) larger enterprises and upscale residences.

Will VoDSL break the current stasis? To help us with that question, we’ve interviewed a selection of VoDSL vendors. Most have indicated that while VoDSL is just getting started, early results will be apparent in as little as a year.
— Kevin Mayer

• Please discuss management issues. How might maintaining a VoDSL infrastructure pose a management challenge to a service provider? Do you offer any solutions? If not, do you rely on any specific partners, or are management solutions in some sense standardized?   CLICK HERE TO READ

• What other broadband technologies in addition to DSL does your solution support?   CLICK HERE TO READ

• What about ITSPs and CLECs that lack a Class 5 switch? Are they disqualified as candidates for VoDSL?   CLICK HERE TO READ

• Would you characterize those who will extend VoDSL services to small businesses? What investments are they making in infrastructure? What relationships are they negotiating with higher-tier service providers?
  CLICK HERE TO READ

• Are ILECs interestedin VoDSL? Why?  CLICK HERE TO READ

• Do your products/solutions work in a native IP environment, or in an environment that relies on ATM in some way? Are there any particular advantages/disadvantages with one or the other approach?
  CLICK HERE TO READ

• Several vendors cite cost advantages as a reason why a small business might subscribe to DSL services. Yet some analysts have indicated that they think the service providers would just as soon absorb the cost benefits themselves. Any thoughts on this issue? Are the analysts too cynical? The vendors too optimistic?   CLICK HERE TO READ

• The ultimate target market for VoDSL — small business — has been estimated at $45-53 billion. Does that confirm what you know about the size of the market? How fast is it growing? What sort of penetration has VoDSL achieved thus far? What sort of penetration do you anticipate?
  CLICK HERE TO READ

• Why would a small business that already has, say, a T1 line and existing CPE investments (PBX, IVR, etc.) care to start using VoDSL? What more could VoDSL do for them? Could they end up with redundant functionality? Could they lose some existing functionality? (Is a splitter usually necessary to extract voice lines from the premise equipment, or is splitter functionality typically built into the IAD?)  CLICK HERE TO READ

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Q:Please discuss management issues. How might maintaining a VoDSL infrastructure pose a management challenge to a service provider? Do you offer any solutions? If not, do you rely on any specific partners, or are management solutions in some sense standardized?

A:Management is critical to the success of any new service. We are working with our voice gateway partners to ensure that our products integrate with their management practices for remote provisioning and monitoring. In addition, we are providing industry standard capabilities for SNMP MIBs for DSL, ATM, and IP. SpeedStream NG-IADs will support independent management access for voice and data functions at the customer premises, each with multiple levels of authorization, to ensure that toll-quality voice service is not affected by changes to data functionality.
— Peter Bourne, VP 7000/8000 Series Business Unit, Efficient Networks

VINA’s VoDSL utilizes ATM as its underlying service fabric — an industry-endorsed technology in wide-scale deployment. Our solution provides ATM-standard QoS management with support for toll-quality voice over ATM. For ease of operations and flexible service provisioning, features such as remote management as well as extensive OAM and diagnostics reporting capabilities are provided.
— Josh Soske, executive VP, VINA Technologies

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Q:What other broadband technologies in addition to DSL does your solution support?

A:Our CPX-1000 and IADs also support (and have been proven interoperable with) both T1 and fixed wireless broadband technologies, including LMDS, MMDS, and U-NII. T1 support is critical for carriers when they are looking to deploy a VoDSL or voice over wireless local loop solution, in that it allows them to overcome any difficulties in obtaining a DSL or wireless broadband connection to a target subscriber. For example, in the case of DSL, if a carrier is unable to acquire a copper loop capable of delivering sufficient DSL bandwidth to deliver the desired set of voice and data services to a subscriber, the carrier can always fall back to leasing a T1 circuit and still realize the cost and service flexibility benefits of the gateway and IADs. While the cost of obtaining a connection to that subscriber may be greater than a subscriber served via DSL, the overall profitability of the service is great. More significantly it allows the carrier’s sales force to always tell a customer “Yes, I can deliver the service.”
— Ken Kolderup, director of marketing, Jetstream Communications.

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Q:What about ITSPs and CLECs that lack a Class 5 switch? Are they disqualified as candidates for VoDSL?

A:It is our understanding that those people will not be able to play in VoDSL, as the services being delivered are all done at the Class 5 switch. VoDSL is just an alternate, more cost-effective transport medium for those services.
— Tom Williams, president/CEO, Praxon

Forward-looking access network solutions support voice gateway functionality under “softswitch” (MGCP) control as well as traditional GR-303 capabilities. Such solutions enable carriers to deliver a full service portfolio over an infrastructure, including VoIP and VoDSL, in the absence of a legacy circuit-switch infrastructure. We support TDM and IP voice services on our platform today. In fact, our solution provides a migration path for network operators who have circuit-switched infrastructures in place and plan to move to an IP infrastructure in the future.
— David Gunning, VP marketing, Integral Access

Access to a Class 5 switch is required for telephone service. Access to the switch can come as a result of ownership, or as a result of partnering to leverage strengths.
— Peter Bourne, VP 7000/8000 Series Business Unit, Efficient Networks

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Q:Would you characterize those who will extend VoDSL services to small businesses? What investments are they making in infrastructure? What relationships are they negotiating with higher-tier service providers?

A:Next-gen service providers such as voice and data CLECs and ISPs have been the most aggressive players. It’s a natural extension for such data DSL providers as Rhythms, NorthPoint, and Covad. Capital investments include both head-end equipment (DSLAMs, voice gateways, etc.) and CPE (IADs, routers, etc.). Another important component is labor: the personnel needed to deploy and maintain new VoDSL services. Relationships are being established with higher-tier service providers to enable delivery of bundled long-distance and Internet access services.
— Ron Keenan, CTO, Merlot Communications

Efficient sees several classes of prominent player emerging:

• Pure-play integrated communications providers (ICPs): Young, aggressive carriers focused on providing bundled services to SMBs using VoDSL. A challenge will be in building and maintaining their channel to the SMB community.
• Partnering between voice and data CLECs: Covad has announced a relationship with GST, providing an excellent example of this. Covad brings DSL network infrastructure and a focus on the market, while GST brings Class 5 switching capability and a voice perspective. A challenge will be constructing meaningful business relationships that lead to marketable integrated services.
• IXCs and out-of-region ILECs: These players see VoDSL as an excellent opportunity to provide multi-line residential access to consumers using a single copper pair.
• Incumbent LECs and PTTs.

— Peter Bourne, VP 7000/8000 Series Business Unit, Efficient Networks

CLECs who have built a new regional ATM infrastructure on the premises for Internet access can improve their business case by adding voice service via an incremental infrastructure cost. Example: A typical 10-line business will buy Internet access from a packet CLEC for $200/month, yet spend approximately $2000/month on voice service.
— Nigel Cole, VP business development, Orckit Communications

To play in the VoDSL business, carriers must have (or buy wholesale) a class 5 switch and a DSL network with DSLAMs co-located at the ILEC’s COs. They must also have a sales organization, operations capabilities, billing, and customer care. Several established voice CLEC’s, who currently sell T1 service, have partnered with data CLECs (e.g., Focal and NorthPoint) to deliver VoDSL service. These two entities together possess all the required capabilities.
— James H. Grady, VP marketing, TollBridge Technologies

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Q:Are ILECs interestedin VoDSL? Why?

A:ILECs are being driven by a few key factors to deploy VoDSL: cable company intrusion on their residential market, copper pair shortages, and the beginning of a threat from CLECs in the small business market. At least one prominent ILEC SBC, has publicly announced that they will deploy VoDSL services in mid 2000. — Stefan Knight, director of product marketing, CopperCom

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Q:Do your products/solutions work in a native IP environment, or in an environment that relies on ATM in some way? Are there any particular advantages/disadvantages with one or the other approach?

A:PurePacket is packet based, supports MPLS, and works in a native IP environment. Although ATM provides the QoS necessary to support voice and data applications, its high cost and complexity was only justified for provisioning high-end data services. The introduction of QoS capabilities in MPLS products provides network operators a new, more cost-effective alternative to ATM.
— David Gunning, VP marketing, Integral Access

TollBridge products are designed to work in a native IP environment or ATM or Frame. In each case, TollBridge employs voice trunking to ensure that there is minimum overhead and that the bandwidth is efficiently utilized. TollBridge ensures the performance of the Layer 2 network by QoS, ToS, or DiffServ. The advantage of this approach is that it can be deployed over today’s networks.
— James H. Grady, VP marketing, TollBridge Technologies

CopperComplete supports both ATM and Frame Relay access networks. ATM has been designed into the ADSL and G.lite international standards. SDSL implementations use either ATM or Frame Relay. Frame Relay DSL access networks are moving towards an ATM backhaul model especially for service providers considering VoDSL. The CopperCom Gateway is physically connected to the backhaul network via an ATM connection. This ensures QoS and priority for voice services in a converged network and the lowest overhead for voice. In these respects, this network architecture is well suited to derived voice applications in the access network, versus IP which is best suited for toll bypass and/or trunking applications. IP’s overhead for small numbers of lines, issues with call routing behind customer firewalls, and addressing concerns all limit its suitability for deployment for toll-quality derived voice in the access network. Despite IP’s momentum, it is not best suited to toll-quality derived voice service offerings in the access network.
— Stefan Knight, director of product marketing, CopperCom

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Q:Several vendors cite cost advantages as a reason why a small business might subscribe to DSL services. Yet some analysts have indicated that they think the service providers would just as soon absorb the cost benefits themselves. Any thoughts on this issue? Are the analysts too cynical? The vendors too optimistic?

A:As with all new cost-saving innovations, the innovators start their pricing just under existing pricing (i.e., they absorb the cost benefit). However, as competition increases and service providers look to expand their market penetration, they will begin to pass cost benefits on to the consumers. One additional factor in the SMEs’ favor in this particular instance is that this is not a pure replacement technology. While all SMEs have voice connections, not many have high-speed data connections. As a result, many SMEs may actually be adding expense by adding VoDSL, but it will cost them much less than they would pay for the same functionality without VoDSL. Service providers will encourage SMEs to make this leap through aggressive pricing. The new emerging competitive service providers will be particularly aggressive since they have no existing revenue streams to cannibalize.
— Ron Keenan, CTO, Merlot Communications

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Q:The ultimate target market for VoDSL — small business — has been estimated at $45-53 billion. Does that confirm what you know about the size of the market? How fast is it growing? What sort of penetration has VoDSL achieved thus far? What sort of penetration do you anticipate?

A: The ultimate size of the opportunity is difficult to estimate, but the number that you represent is not unrealistic. DSL is growing at an extreme rate, and is only limited by the physical distance limitations. Market acceptance is immediate and demand is increasing. VoDSL has not really begun, as deployment of the gateway equipment is just now happening. We see VoDSL being very available by Q1 2001.
— Tom Williams, president/CEO, Praxon

VoDSL is still in its infancy and market size estimates vary significantly. Once the DSL infrastructure is in place it makes sense to provide a multi-service offering to exploit the capabilities of the digitized line. However, the carrier in question is most likely providing voice services to the end-customer today over the existing copper loop. Therefore, the success of VoDSL may be tied to the carrier’s desire to move all services to the new infrastructure and to provide additional lines. It’s more “carrier push” than “customer pull.”
— David Gunning, VP marketing, Integral Access

These numbers seem a bit high, depending on the timeframe you are looking at. The problem in coming up with these numbers is deciding what to include in them — ADSL, anyDSL, services, IADs, VoIP gateways…?
— Dick Sterry, VP of marketing, NX Networks

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Q: Why would a small business that already has, say, a T1 line and existing CPE investments (PBX, IVR, etc.) care to start using VoDSL? What more could VoDSL do for them? Could they end up with redundant functionality? Could they lose some existing functionality? (Is a splitter usually necessary to extract voice lines from the premise equipment, or is splitter functionality typically built into the IAD?)

A: A small business that has already invested in the T1 CPE would probably not go to VoDSL. Where we see VoDSL having the greatest growth is with those customers having analog voice lines currently and looking to grow their dial-up/ISDN data access. The only customers with T1 CPE that switch to VoDSL would be those that had a fractional T1, say 12 channels or less.
— Tom Williams, president/CEO, Praxon

According to Orckit’s VoDSL business case, the cost savings that can potentially be passed on by the LEC who has 6 lines or more can achieve payback within only 3 months. Support for legacy office equipment is an issue, and will frustrate some users, but it is not a general show stopper.
— Nigel Cole, VP business development, Orckit Communications

Usually the advantage is a cost issue. Performance is about the same, but cost can be 2–10 times cheaper for DSL than T1. The splitter issue, I believe, is more related to ADSL and supplying services to outlying areas. It shouldn’t be an issue for most small businesses within metropolitan areas that use a synchronous DSL like HDSL2 or SDSL.
— Dick Sterry, VP of marketing, NX Networks

The tradeoff between T1 and DSL is one of cost, bandwidth needs, and circuit quality, depending on SLAs. It is possible for a customer to obtain more value from DSL than a T1. Woodwind envisions a selection of only one technology. It is also possible to support direct connection of the type of CPE investments you mentioned, preserving that investment.
— Jerry Shipley, director of marketing, Woodwind Communications Systems

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To complement the material we’ve gleaned from VoDSL equipment providers, we also posed a few questions to a representative of Focal Communications, a facilities-based communications provider. Focal is currently developing both DSL access and VoDSL services.

To introduce VoDSL services, will Focal rely in any way on partnerships?
Focal has chosen to initially deploy VoDSL services with NorthPoint Communications. Focal will be able to take advantage of NorthPoint’s ubiquitous access network to deliver VoDSL services on a broad scale. And NorthPoint will be able to leverage Focal’s circuit-switched and Class 5 voice expertise. Focal is also developing partnerships with vendors in the DSLAM, CPE, IAD, and gateway spaces, as well as with ISPs that would like to deliver both broadband access and voice services to their end customers.

Could you characterize those who will extend VoDSL services to small businesses?
VoDSL services will be extended to small businesses either by the DSL access provider or by ISPs. Investments will be required to build the access network (DSL) and the voice networks, including investments in gateways and Class 5 switching services. ISPs will either need to develop billing expertise or rely on service providers to deliver billing for the end-customer.

What about ITSPs and CLECs that lack a class 5 switch?
These providers would need to develop a relationship with someone who can deliver Class 5 switching services. Alternatively, they could also develop a network architecture that bypasses PSTN. This would be considered a non-PSTN model and require new technologies such as “soft-switch” and VoIP.

— Responses provided by Carl Steen, director of Data Product Development, Focal Communications. Focal offers data and voice services to large corporations, value-added resellers, and ISPs across the United States.

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BY SAB GOSAL

While the term “convergence” is appealing, and while the need for converged voice and data is increasing, carriers still have to address the challenge and expense associated with the “last mile” access connection. So what’s the answer? Ideally, it’s the ability to deliver converged voice and data services over a single twisted copper pair connection, which is cheap and already widely deployed. This ideal can now be realized using a new technology known as voice over DSL (VoDSL).

The Last Mile Challenge
DSL has transformed traditional, inexpensive copper phone lines into high-speed, high-value access service media. If growth projections hold true, there will be more than four billion DSL lines in the United States by 2002, with DSL access to small businesses growing at a rate of 53 percent annually. On the surface, that sounds like an opportunity, not a challenge. In reality it’s both. Why?

• Local exchange carriers, who own much of the copper today, are not freeing it up quickly enough to allow other service providers, such as CLECs, to meet the increasing demand for lower cost voice and data services.
• Voice services are the main revenue generator for service providers. Today, DSL’s primary application is to deliver low-revenue data services, such as Internet access and remote LAN access. To compete, service providers need to stay profitable while delivering low-cost voice services to business customers.

Meeting the Challenge
One solution to this challenge is VoDSL, which combines voice and data services on the same DSL circuit that once supported nothing but data. This means that CLECs can now maximize the use of available copper lines by offering a portfolio of voice services in addition to the data services. CLECs can increase their profit baseline while at the same time cost-effectively meeting service demands and reducing customer turnover.

Although CLECs are still at the mercy of ILECs to make unbundled copper lines available, with VoDSL service providers can now compete more effectively by providing SMBs with a wider range of services at costs up to 75 percent lower than T1 services.

VoDSL is one way to overcome the challenge of the last mile access connection. The technology for delivering converged voice and data services over low cost copper lines is here.

Sab Gosal is senior product line manager of VINA Technologies.

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BY DAVID GUNNING

Delivering integrated voice/data services requires an intelligent access network that allows carriers to leverage the service-rich capabilities of IP. In turn, sophisticated new management capabilities are needed to tap this network intelligence and deliver guaranteed levels of service fulfillment, assurance, and billing.

The MPLS standard, which effectively embeds intelligence in the network elements, will play a key role in managing multi-service IP networks. MPLS integrates Layer 2 information about network links (bandwidth, latency, utilization) into Layer 3 (IP) in order to simplify and improve IP-packet exchange. This provides the data that network operators need to manage traffic, implement QoS, and meet SLA commitments. MPLS gives network operators a great deal of flexibility to divert and route packetized voice and data traffic around link failures, congestion, and bottlenecks.

GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT
From a QoS standpoint, MPLS allows network operators to manage different kinds of traffic streams based on priority and service plan. For instance, MPLS allows voice calls and premium services to be classified, shaped, and assigned priority status to ensure minimal latency and packet loss. By extending MPLS to the customer premise, network operators can provision end-to-end QoS for voice and data services.

Managing integrated voice and data services also requires a new class of operations management systems. These new systems must leverage the intelligence embedded in a carrier’s network and integrate both network and services management capabilities. This requires a system that provides a “single-system image” of the network and remote management capabilities for the individual network elements.

An integrated network/service management system allows network operators to remotely configure equipment, provision services, create and monitor SLAs, view network performance, and meter traffic for billing purposes. By providing automated service configuration and end-to-end zero-touch provisioning, these new management systems allow network operators to rapidly deploy and activate new services without the need for on-site technical intervention.

BETTER AND FASTER PROVISIONING
This combination of network intelligence and automation enables faster service activation, more reliable service delivery, and more accurate billing. It also provides the opportunity for service providers to extend certain service provisioning capabilities to the end user. By leveraging and linking traffic and services management capabilities in a single operations system, network operators and end users will benefit from faster service deployment, advanced provisioning and billing, and new services made possible by a single network infrastructure.

David Gunning is vice president, marketing, at Integral Access. Dave can be reached at www.integralaccess.com

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