June 1998

BY ROB MORAN AND TONY ROUG

As the public network becomes increasingly competitive, it is important for service providers to differentiate themselves from their competitors through enhanced services. To do so, providers are looking to the booming success of the computer telephony (CT) industry. The open, standards-based CT industry provides technology that once was only available from large telco equipment providers -- opening a new, global market to a growing number of vendors.

THE TIME IS RIGHT
The market for enhanced services in the public network is explosive, driven by three key factors. First, global deregulation is increasing competition among existing local, long-distance, and other service providers. It is also spurring a new set of global service providers to enter the market. New service providers buy infrastructure to build new networks, and existing service providers buy new services to compete. In fact, market research firms estimate this competitive environment drives up to two and a half times more equipment purchases than a regulated environment. As competition grows, enhanced services set one service provider apart from another.

The worldwide telco infrastructure is also expanding, due to a growing number of developing countries laying their initial network and the escalating growth of wireless technology. By 2000, there will be 90.4 million wireless subscribers worldwide (Source: Venture Development Corp.). This works out to more than 25 new subscribers being added every minute. Once again, as competition heats up, enhanced services differentiate providers. For example, a key enhanced service for both the wireline and wireless markets is prepaid phones. In developing areas, most of the population does not have credit. Prepaid phone service gives service providers a way to deliver basic service without worrying about bill collection.

Finally, the Internet is accelerating the growing demand for enhanced services by providing subscribers with another way to access them -- making enhanced services more attractive to end users. These services range from simple enhancements such as Internet browser-based administration of follow-me service, to letting a subscriber pick up voice mail messages using their Internet browser, and e-mail using their phone.

All of these changes are driving huge growth in the IP/SN (intelligent peripheral/service node) enhanced services market. Venture Development Corp. estimates this annual growth at about 25 percent on average, from about $2 billion today to more than $6 billion by 2001.

CONNECTING TO THE NETWORK
When you are deploying outside the network, your options range from simple analog lines, to T1 or E1 call-associated signaling, to ISDN PRI. Inside the network, ISDN and SS7 are essential to satisfy performance and intelligent network needs.

Out-Of-Band Signaling Protocols
ISDN and SS7 boost performance because both are out-of-band signaling protocols -- unlike analog lines or older T1/E1 signaling, which are call associated. Call set-up with associated signaling protocols can take as long as 5 to 20 seconds -- and that's just to signal call information to the network. Out-of-band signaling protocols like ISDN or SS7 support call set-up times well under one second. Faster call set-up times give you two advantages: lower facilities costs and less equipment. Service providers save on space, power, copper, fiber, and more. By moving from in-band to out-of-band signaling, the service provider can save more than $100,000 a year on large systems processing thousands of calls a day.

Out-of-band signaling also provides access to basic call control features not available with in-band signaling protocols. On an in-band trunk, typically the only call information passed is the dialed number (DNIS) and possibly the calling number. ISDN and SS7 out-of-band signaling carries additional information required for enhanced services like calling number, billing number, calling name, call progress information, and call forwarding number. Direct access to these features makes it possible to seamlessly and efficiently implement services such as follow-me, prepaid calling, and messaging in the network.

ISDN Versus SS7
Once you understand the value of out-of-band signaling, the next issue to explore is ISDN versus SS7. Both are options for the traditional public network. The difference is that SS7 is the basis for the intelligent network. The intelligent network is a standards-based effort to provide advanced services in the public network. A typical example of these services is 1-800 calls, now estimated to bring in up to 50 percent of some service providers' revenue. Intelligent network features in wireless networks also enable very simple services such as the message waiting indication on a cellular phone, as well as more advanced services such as finding the location of a phone subscriber when the user is out of their local calling area.

If you are deploying in a wireless network, SS7 is usually your only choice for out-of-band signaling protocols. Wireless switches typically do not support the ISDN interface simply because they do not provide ISDN services. In a wireless network, building your application with SS7 is the only way to take advantage of the performance and features enabled by out-of-band signaling.

GLOBAL INTEROPERABILITY
PTT (Public Telephone and Telegraph, the general term for European telephone companies) certifications ensure product compatibility with international telecommunications networks. To receive a PTT certification, products must adhere to multiple governmental regulations and safety requirements. There is no single worldwide standard, so vendors must make hardware and software modifications to ensure compatibility with each country's telecommunications network. Products may not be sold or integrated abroad without such certifications.

Develop applications you can easily extend to work in global markets without worrying about costly, time-consuming revision and maintenance. Choose vendors who understand the international approval (homologation) processes and regulations of the countries whose markets you want to enter. Some countries grant approvals at the component level regardless of the server or application used. Once a product receives this component-level approval, you can use it with confidence without having to deal with regulatory officials on every installation. Some countries, such as Japan, may require platform-level approvals. Other countries require system-level approvals.

There are multiple global considerations as you expand your market presence. Aside from PTT and other homologation issues, you may need speech recognition technology in a particular language or dialect. The technology used for call control may vary from place to place. For example, you may rely on SS7 ISUP in the U.S., and find that you need to support ISDN in certain parts of Europe. Finally, be sure to choose a supplier that has these approvals and products before you need them.

MANAGING YOUR NETWORK
For standards-based maintainability, deployability, and supportability, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is becoming a preferred choice for public network service providers. As CT application providers migrate to the public network space and compete for their share of this promising market, CT network component suppliers are quickly developing features and capabilities to cater to the growing demand and reduce the total cost of ownership. These CT network component suppliers work with their customers and partners to strive towards making CT as natural to the service providers as buying a central office switch. These component suppliers are providing a structured framework for three key system management functional areas: fault management, configuration management, and performance management.

Fault Management
Fault management services like detection, isolation, and recovery are delivered with CT products that support today's public network demands. As part of fault isolation, many companies offer system diagnostics such as power-on self test (P.O.S.T.), online system diagnostics, and offline system diagnostics. P.O.S.T. provides details on a board's control processor, signal processor, RAM memories, coded-in flash memory, and T1/E1 pattern tests. Online system diagnostics run non-intrusively in the background, providing detailed status on message sets, memory dumps, streams, and a background check sum on all code. Offline diagnostics, controlled by the host, check global memory paths, front-end audio paths, and transport mechanisms. Fault recovery extends the architecture to include recovery through a combination of live insertion technology, flexible device drivers, and callable loaders.

Configuration Management
Configuration management provides provisioning, status, and control at a board, DSP, or port level. CT is built on a comprehensive framework for plug-and-play configuration. By using the plug-and-play configuration and integrating individual board-type validation, download facilities, automatic addressing, and automatic configuration of that board, suppliers lower the risk of error in board replacement.

Performance Management
Performance management provides detailed activity monitoring at different levels. For example, at the board level, message throughput and audio data throughput can be monitored. At the T1/E1 level, information is provided regarding alarms, call traffic, and peak loading statistics. This information can be used to determine service interruption duration, load balancing, and capacity planning.

SNMP provides multiple options for deploying a platform in the network. Service providers have the option of integrating with an existing management infrastructure or deploying a standard, off-the-shelf SNMP management platform. Today's SNMP-enabled CT components lower the cost of ownership by providing a no-development or low-development solution, enabling service providers to remotely monitor and configure their network element on the board, T1/E1, or port level. Look for flexibility in how this is implemented by your component supplier. Technology developers who port their algorithms for automatic speech recognition or text-to-speech, for example, should be able to extend these administrative features into their technology. Also look for easy-to-use tools for configuration and administration.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITY
Global deregulation, the expanding worldwide telecommunication infrastructure, and the high growth associated with new technologies like wireless and the Internet combine to make migrating applications from the enterprise market into the public network an attractive opportunity. But entering the public network market means adapting to more stringent requirements for reliability, serviceability, supportability, and scalability. As more application developers begin the move from the enterprise to the public network, CT technology suppliers are responding by offering their customers tools and technologies to make the process smoother. Application developers are using these new technologies to quickly reap the benefits of this explosive market, and service providers are leveraging the diverse services pioneered and exploited by the open CT industry.

Rob Moran is product manager, Telco Core Products, and Tony Roug is director, Networks Services for Dialogic Corporation. Dialogic is a leading manufacturer of high-performance, standards-based computer telephony (CT) components. Dialogic products are used in voice, fax, data, voice recognition, speech synthesis, and call center management CT applications. The company is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with regional headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and Brussels, Belgium, and sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit Dialogic's Web site at www.dialogic.com.

Wireless technologies have been successfully deployed for voice and low-speed data communications in point-to-multipoint applications like cellular telephony or PCS. Now point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access promises network connectivity at up to 155 Mbps, previously the sole domain of fiber optics or point-to-point radio.

Broadband wireless networks operate at frequencies ranging between 20 and 42 GHz and use substantially more spectrum than a cellular network. Canada was the first country to license broadband wireless spectrum for the system called LMCS (Local Multipoint Communication System).

In the U.S., the system is called LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution Service). The FCC has just completed auctions for the two LMDS bands: the A band has 1.15 GHz of spectrum, and the B band has 0.15 GHz of spectrum. By comparison, a PCS block in the U.S. has 0.01 or 0.03 GHz. Other countries are in the process of allocating LMDS spectrum for two-way high-speed communication.

HOW IT WORKS
Business and residential users connect to the high-speed LMDS network using NIUs (Network Interface Units). The customer premise-located NIU connects to the customer's network or computer using standard interfaces such as T1, T3, or Ethernet. The NIU is typically placed in the customer's building and connects to an outdoor radio frequency unit which houses the high-frequency electronics and the antenna -- similar to the popular DBS (Direct Broadcasting Satellite) antennas, but with two-way capability.

The antenna located at the customer location beams traffic to the nearest LMDS base station. The base station covers "cells," areas of typically 10-30 km2, and aggregates high-speed traffic between 45 Mbps to 5 Gbps. The LMDS cells are interconnected using fiber optics or point-to point radio; together they make up the LMDS network. The LMDS network is then connected to the PSTN, the Internet, and other networks.

ADVANTAGES OF LMDS NETWORKS
The extremely high capacity of Gbps per cell makes it optimal for high-speed data and video services. The low initial capital cost to deploy the network is also a plus: The base stations are deployed first, but the majority of the investment is at the customer's site which is made only when the customer buys the service. There is also the ability to combine multiple types of business and residential services on a single, multi-services network. Wireless networks are quick to deploy compared to deploying fiber, coax, or copper-based networks. LMDS operators can target customers and direct high-speed data to selected customers. LMDS provides "last mile" broadband access capability to competitive access providers. LMDS also enables the creation of new networks without the legacy of existing voice or transmission networks.

LMDS LIMITATIONS
However, LMDS technology is still relatively new. The customer's antenna needs to have line-of-site visibility with the base station, and with the current technology, the base station can serve customers only up to 2-8 km away. Therefore, the residential, single-family home market for voice, data, and video may need to wait for the technology cost to be reduced.

CONCLUSION
LMDS operators' primary target are businesses which need high-speed interconnection between buildings or high-speed Internet access. LMDS is also a solution to interconnect other networks, such as PCS/cellular base station locations. For residential use, LMDS will first address multiple dwelling units and, at a later stage, single family homes. Broadband wireless access is emerging as a strong alternative to fiber optics to deliver high-speed data, video, and voice services. Aggressive deployments and licensing are commencing worldwide.

Bernard Herscovich is assistant vice president, Wireless Networks at Newbridge Networks. He has global responsibility for Newbridge's broadband wireless program, including current deployments in both North America and Asia Pacific regions. For more information, contact the company at 613-591-3600, or visit their Web site at www.newbridge.com.