June 1999

MEETING IN THE CLOUD:
Enhanced Services For Next-Gen Networks

BY PAULA FOSTER

The carrier community has been either blaming or praising deregulation for the incredible changes that have taken place over the past fifteen years. In 1984, deregulation put an end to an era in telephony when you could count on the phone system to do one thing very well - carry voice between two parties. Deregulation (or liberalization, as they call it internationally) has taken hold virtually all over the world, generating incredible competition among traditional carriers, wireless providers, and new entrants. These companies can no longer compete by simply offering plain old telephone service; they must offer new, differentiating services in order to gain and keep market share.

So, what will capture the minds and hearts of subscribers as we enter the new millenium? Dreamers claim that subscribers will want a single "pipe" into the home that provides a menu selection of voice, data, and video services on demand, and dreams are the stuff reality is made of! But there are several steps that must be achieved before that dream can be realized. An integrated enhanced service offering enabled by the convergence of IP and circuit-switching technologies will provide the foundation for market success in the early 2000s.

In order to get there, we need to understand the requirements for an integrated solution, and identify the best vehicle. So let's do a little "dreaming" ourselves.

THE SCENARIO
Let's say that you and I have been hired by a next-gen service provider to conduct an analysis of market needs, and we are expected to deliver a clear direction that the developer should follow to achieve market leadership. Let's start by identifying some of the subscriber services that are anticipated and then identify the other resources that we will need to build this solution.

Subscriber Services
Today, subscribers can get voice mail, interactive voice response, one-number services, conferencing, prepaid and calling card services, international callback, various Class services (such as caller ID, etc.) and other enhanced services via the phone company. Subscribers can also obtain e-mail, fax services, e-commerce, and a myriad of other data-based services via their Internet connection. Subscriber services of the year 2000 and beyond must be able to integrate voice-based services with IP-based services.

The ability to support unified messaging, combining voice mail, email and fax services is the first step. Multimedia conference calling will emerge in the next few years. Conducting e-commerce by combining voice and IP-based services in a single, integrated application will be expected in the next decade. And to the subscriber, it must look like one seamless service offering, not a conglomeration of disparate services.

The Networks
So, how can these independent services be combined? Voice services traditionally use our landline backbone networks and/or the cellular networks. They include T1 and E1 communications, SS7 and ISDN for common channel signaling, and wireless standards including CDMA, GSM, and others. While each country or region may support different protocol standards, the networks evolved from regulated origins, thus, rigorous compliance specifications must be met to guarantee reliability and quality of service (QoS).

And then there's the Internet, which evolved from government agencies and academic institutions, and which was originally intended to support the sharing of data for research. Driven by the need to support large quantities of data over a series of interconnecting proprietary networks, the Internet was not limited by regulation, nor was it designed to meet QoS minimums. If the service was dropped during transmission, it was a nuisance, but not a critical failure.

Media Resources
The enhanced service marketplace has created a wide array of offerings for voice-based applications, which in turn has driven the market for the wide variety of media resources that are available today. These media resources are usually designed to adhere to industry standard bus architectures, so that they can be easily integrated into CTI apps. Today, the H.110 standard prevails.

THE CHALLENGE
Our client now sees that the company needs to support a family of integrated services, networks and media, operating seamlessly among both circuit and IP networks. And it needs to remain "open" to enable the introduction of new services, new networks, and new media as the market continues to evolve. The challenge for the next-gen carrier will be to integrate these networks so subscribers can avail themselves of integrated voice and data applications. The challenge for the new world carrier will be to integrate these media resources with emerging voice/data applications.

A Little Tape/A Little Glue
One way to solve the problem is to cobble together multiple, disparate systems and build additional layers of software to provide the logical "glue" to improve the user interface. Circuit-switching companies acquire data communications companies, or vice versa, to buy the technology. The resulting product will support the circuit-switched services and the IP-based services of the two former products. The challenge is to create a product that looks like a single, consistent offering to the subscriber. However, this approach does not serve the long-term need to enable new services, networks, and media quickly in response to market demand.

A Fresh Coat Of Paint
Another way suppliers attempt to solve the problem is to re-tool their existing systems, retrofitting the ability to add in new functionality, and then porting selected enhanced service apps to the legacy platform. Traditional suppliers are doing this because they have such a considerable investment in their legacy systems that to do otherwise would mean abandoning years of effort and starting from scratch. Unfortunately, this approach falls short of providing a truly open system where the carrier can choose his apps and his suppliers. It also does not support the long term need to adapt to market trends and to offer new services, networks, and media as the industry evolves.

An Open Solution
The third alternative is to begin with a system that is designed to enable the integration of virtually any service, network, or media device in a single platform. Programmable switches have been doing this for years in support of the circuit-switching industry, and now they are expanding their open design to include the hardware, standards, and software necessary to support multimedia services and multimedia networks. The concept behind programmable switching is that the platform is not designed for any particular service or device - it is designed to enable the attachment of any application, network interface, or media resource. Thus, it is "open" in design.

With an open design, the system of choice will support a combination of enhanced services running on one system. The system supports an open application programming interface (API), enabling developers to migrate their apps quickly and easily. It may also support CompactPCI standards and the H.110 bus architecture to allow the integration of apps and media resources already available in the market. Since the open design enables the support of circuit-switching and IP-based network interworking, IP-enabled applications can be implemented.

What this means to the carrier is that services can be selected from a variety of third-party vendors, freeing them from being limited to one supplier's service offerings, and relieving them of their dependence on the large switch supplier for new services. It also means that, just as we have seen in the computer industry, an increasingly rich and diverse variety of IP-enhanced services will be available to the marketplace. The carrier will be able to pick and choose a family of differentiated services based on quality, price, time-to-market, and customer service. With an open API, carriers can select multiple services from different vendors to run on a single platform.

Benefits of choosing an open solution include:

Scalability: An open system is designed to scale from entry-level configurations to support tens of thousands of subscribers in a single system. Scalable systems can be deployed to meet any carrier's requirements, and can expand (without interruption of service) to meet growth in the subscriber base. Typically, new service providers want to start small and grow their networks as the subscribership evolves. On the other hand, carriers with large subscriberships can benefit from the capacity of these systems to support very large user populations.

High Reliability And Performance: By starting with a circuit-switched platform, all of the years of effort invested in adherence to standards for telco-grade reliability and quality of service are preserved. Redundancy, hot swapability, and automatic switchover services are expected in circuit-switched offerings. Performance on the order of 100,000 busy hour calls for voice services is not inconceivable in today's circuit-switched environments. An integrated platform will also be able to support the high bandwidth requirements of IP-based networks, providing a total solution that meets today's - and tomorrow's - performance requirements.

Programmability: Open platforms are only as good as their development environments. A well-designed open platform provides the API and development tools that enable developers to bring new services to market quickly. The development tools must give developers maximum control over the call processing environment to enable them to deliver unique, competitive services.

These systems can be delivered with standard OAM&P (operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning) services so that developers can focus on the application while the system handles operational considerations, and so that all apps share a consistent OAM&P interface. Some systems provide numerous standard subscriber services such as call waiting, so that developers can offer these services without reinventing the wheel. And some support network services such as tandem, end-office, and IP gateway switching, enabling the service provider to support network infrastructure, IP-enhanced services, and media resources all on a single system.

THE RECOMMENDATION
You've completed your analysis. Now it's time to evaluate the suppliers. Look for the platform that can integrate enhanced services with IP-based services. The one that supports today's markets while remaining open to support the services of the future. A system that is not limited to a single supplier's offerings. A system that can scale to meet evolving needs. One that will meet the bandwidth requirements of IP-based networks while assuring the quality of service that's always been demanded of the circuit-switched marketplace.

And one that is open for new networks, new media, and new apps as the new century unfolds.

Paula Foster is director of marketing open networks platforms for Excel Switching Corporation. Excel Switching Corporation is a leading provider of open switching platforms for telecommunications networks worldwide. Excel develops, manufactures, markets, and supports a family of open, programmable, carrier-class switches that address the complex enhanced services and wireless and wireline infrastructure needs of network providers. For more information, please visit Excel's Web site at www.xl.com.