January 2003
Resilient Packet Ring: Enabling VoIP Delivery
BY KEN LANCASTER
Service providers are faced with increasing demands from enterprise
customers to reduce costs for transporting their voice and data services.
While voice over IP is growing as an expedient solution to streamline
enterprise and carrier networks, Resilient Packet Ring is a key enabling
technology for rapid delivery of VoIP.
For years, voice and data services have existed on separate, dedicated
networks, resulting in added costs and resource inefficiencies. Further
complicating matters for the carrier, network equipment, such as traditional
Class 5 voice switches, is costly to maintain and inflexible for adding new
services or customizing features. To address these problems, next-generation
technologies like voice softswitches are now emerging.
By bridging legacy signaling systems like ISDN (Integrated Services Digital
Network) and SS7 (Signaling System 7) to new protocols such as MGCP (Media
Gateway Control Protocol), SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), and H.323 for
packet-based services, softswitches enable carriers to migrate from circuit
to packet architectures. Softswitches are now being deployed in several
carrier applications including long-distance, tandem switching, Internet
offload, PBX access, and IP voice. Gartner
Group predicts that 75 percent of new voice switch shipments will be
IP-based systems by 2005, bolstering the view that this is growth market.
As voice services migrate to packet switches, carriers are challenged to
incorporate IP/packet-based services into the transport systems used in the
public network. The current transport systems used for connecting Class 5
end offices to tandem offices are inefficient for delivering IP-based
services in metro area networks. Current metro connections, commonly called
Inter-Office Facilities (IOF), are typically SONET OC-48/192 spans
connecting Class 5 voice switches to each other and to a local tandem
switch. Since most IOF links use circuit-based SONET transport, there is now
significant focus on packet transport architectures that are better suited
to carry IP traffic. Softswitches, combined with packet transport elements,
optimize carrier networks with a single multi-service platform that
accommodates both circuit and packet requirements.
A significant new approach for packet transport is the emerging IEEE
802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) standard. RPR is optimized to support
packet-based services such as Voice over IP (VoIP). Key advantages of RPR
include the ability to support Quality of Service (QoS), survivable ring
topologies for Inter-Office Facilities (IOF), and synchronization to ensure
the critical latency and delay requirements for voice traffic. RPR elements
can either operate as standalone, or can be integrated into current legacy
SONET networks for added carrier flexibility.
NETWORK MIGRATION
Softswitches interact with the existing public telephone network via
standard interfaces such as DS1 and DS3 links, and via standard systems,
including SS7. These new softswitches also support key telephony functions
such as directory assistance, numbering plans, and custom calling features.
A packet backbone enables direct IP interfaces to the network elements.
Class 4/5 switches evolve to become media gateways (GW) that utilize a
centralized softswitch for such functions as call control and feature
access. Carriers can evolve to a packet network by migrating their TDM-based
Inter-Office Facilities from a SONET to a packet transport solution such as
RPR that supports timing and synchronization. RPR enables a convergence of
both legacy circuit and emerging packet technologies over a common transport
facility -- thus assisting the migration of the inter-office network from
circuit to packet. The result is that Gigabit Ethernet will now be used to
interconnect the VoIP Gateways to the IOF network rather than DS1, DS3, or
OC-N circuits. This provides improvements over circuit-switched transport in
areas such as resource utilization, since the IOF facilities no longer must
be allocated by traffic type or constrained by inherent circuit limitations.
Since IOF facilities are traditionally engineered for busy hour call
volumes, the actual usage can be as low as 50 to 75 percent of the link
capacity. In contrast, RPR opens the entire link is for any type of traffic
-- voice or data -- for transport as needed to accommodate network traffic.
RPR provides for oversubscription of services, such as Internet data traffic
for maximum link utilization and efficiency.
IOF links based on RPR network elements allow complete utilization of the
transport facility, with more efficient use of bandwidth than SONET/SDH. By
packing these IOF links more efficiently, metro service providers can
significantly increase network efficiency and reduce overall transport
costs.
WHY RESILIENT PACKET RING
For carriers desiring to offer new packet-based services like VoIP, RPR
is an ideal solution due to its unique capability to support current legacy
interfaces, such as TDM circuits, as well as softswitch interfaces such as
Gigabit Ethernet. RPR provides a seamless evolution to this next-generation
architecture by supporting Quality of Service, TDM transport, and traffic
management.
Quality of Service
RPR matches the reliability and quality of service provided by SONET and
ATM technologies. This includes QoS support for various traffic types, such
as voice and video. RPR supports a survivable optical ring topology and
sub-50 millisecond restoration times in case of fiber cuts, on a par with
SONET. RPR supports classification of traffic packets according to priority.
For example, voice packets are classified at the highest priority among the
different traffic classes, thus ensuring minimal delay and jitter when
congestion is encountered on the network. By utilizing Class of Service (CoS)
to classify packets and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) for traffic
engineering, an RPR/MPLS solution provides an all-packet transport and
switching solution in a softswitch network with complete quality of service
and full survivability.
TDM Transport
Migrating from current circuit-switched architecture to a packet-based
architecture is simplified by RPR�s ability to support both traffic types.
T1 or DS3 voice circuits, such as Inter-Machine Trunks (IMT) from a Class
4/5 switch, can be packetized and transported over an optical RPR ring,
along with VoIP, data, and video traffic. Carriers can migrate voice trunks
from existing transport solutions such as SONET to an RPR solution during
their evolution to a softswitch architecture. With RPR, these voice trunks
provide the same level of quality and reliability as legacy SONET equipment.
By using wavelength division multiplexing, RPR elements can transport SONET
transparently over a new RPR ring, adding more design flexibility during the
transition to softswitch architectures.
Traffic Management
Traffic management on the RPR-based VoIP network is improved with its
ability to monitor and process traffic on a �per-packet� basis. Service
Level Agreements can be monitored for specific service class and bandwidth
usage. Powerful bandwidth utilization tools enable carriers to perform trend
analysis to pinpoint both service problems and potential revenue
opportunities. Network efficiency is improved via the bandwidth monitoring
capabilities of the RPR ring management system. Traffic can be rerouted and
bandwidth increased in real time to accommodate changing customer
requirements. Customer service is improved by exposing potential bottlenecks
before they occur.
CONCLUSION
The ability to carry multiple traffic types, such as voice and data, over
a common transport solution is optimal for emerging softswitch-based VoIP
networks. Resilient Packet Ring transport solutions enable service providers
to extend RPR from the metro core to the enterprise edge, over a common
packet-based network. RPR allows the carrier to transition Inter-Office
Facilities from expensive and inflexible circuit transport to more efficient
packet transport. This allows carriers to deploy all-packet softswitch
networks for VoIP using Resilient Packet Ring optical solutions.
Ken Lancaster is on the marketing team at Luminous Networks, Inc., a
leader in packet-based solutions for metropolitan area networks. For more
information, visit the company online at www.luminous.com.
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