It seems that everywhere you look, be it a trade magazine or a mainstream
network television advertising campaign, you find yourself hearing about
the next generation of communications. Weve all seen the Cisco ads and
have found ourselves humming the Beatles Come Together after
watching a Nortel Networks spot. Were still not necessarily sure where
Microsoft wants us to go today but we may be interested in knowing what
particular thing Lucents going to make to make communications
work, so rather than simply believe the open-ended commercial hype, I
decided to speak to a couple of people who are actually involved in
next-generation networking. Below, youll see the results of several
conversations and further correspondence with Dennis Jennings, vice
president, NGN, at Telcordia
(formerly Bellcore) and John Edwards, CEO of I-Link.
Both gentlemen point out that regardless of the hurdles that have to be
overcome, a next-generation converged voice/data/multimedia network is
certainly the wave of the future. And that future is already upon us. As
Mr. Jennings points out, those vendors who refuse to accept that future
will end up as fodder for a game show question that asks, What company
used to be a communications leader, but no longer exists?
If youre a service provider, please heed those words. If for no
other reason than getting Regis Philbin to stop asking me, Is that your
final answer?
A final note: Id like to thank Andrew Fingerman of BSMG Worldwide
and Andy Meltzer of FitzGerald Communications for their assistance in
calling up, setting up, and following up.
Question List For
Dennis Jennings
Question List For John
Edwards
Please list some of the driving forces behind the
current push to evolve circuit-based networks to packet-switched networks.
- The rapid growth of data versus voice dictates that next-generation
networks (NGN) should be optimized for data (e.g., should be packet),
not for voice. Estimates suggest that half of all traffic today on
core networks is comprised of data and that within five years, fully
90 percent of the traffic may be data.
- Typical telecom operators today have at least five overlay networks
NGN holds the promise of integrating these disparate networks into
one, drastically cutting infrastructure and operations costs.
- The rate of decline in packet network equipment costs is much faster
than for circuit switches (i.e., Moores Law).
- Future services must go beyond data and voice to include all kinds
of video, multimedia, etc. Packet networks offer more flexibility for
handling these and other (as yet unknown) services.
- New carriers are using their claims of building a packet-based
network as an advantage to the extent that customers believe this,
the incumbent carriers may feel the need to respond by claiming that
they are building packet-based networks too.
- Vendors with extensive experience in packet networks (e.g., Cisco)
need to gain market share in the carrier market to maintain and grow
their market cap. Thus, they are a potent force persuading carriers to
implement new networks.
- Carriers are becoming convinced that circuit switching is a
technology that will not significantly evolve and improve over the
next five years and that it is a poor place to invest new capital.
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
What is it that users are demanding of their service
providers? What are some of the applications driving the transition to
next-generation networks?
What are some of the challenges faced by carriers
when considering evolving their offerings to include next-generation
services?
The challenges faced by carriers are many and include the following:
- The need to continually meet customer expectations of quality over a
network built from new technology.
- Continuing to support the rich feature set of voice services
available today while evolving towards a new network structure and new
services based on voice, data, and multimedia.
- Seamless interworking (transparent to customer) between new network
and old (e.g., making sure features like calling line ID work in the
new network).
- Lowering development cycle time for new services.
- Achieving operations savings.
- Finding the right business strategy and approach to evolve away from
a multi-billion dollar investment in a network with strong support of
a rich set of voice services, but weak in data and multimedia.
- Develop an infrastructure that enables the carrier (and their
partners) to develop new services and applications with a
simple-to-use application programming interface (API) using well known
and industry standard programming languages (e.g., Java).
- Carriers will need to develop new partnerships. It is unlikely that
carriers will develop all the applications that they offer to
customers. That means that they will have to enter into business
relationships with third parties that will develop and offer these new
applications and services to customers. Most carriers do not currently
have these relationships and they will have to develop innovative
financial arrangements that encourage application developers to use
their network and infrastructure as the vehicle for offering
applications and services to customers.
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
What are some of the key elements of a
next-generation network? What are some major concerns facing service
providers when selecting equipment/-architecture/etc.?
- Routers.
- ATM switches.
- Hybrid ATM/IP devices e.g., the MPLS (MultiProtocol Label
Switching) products that are now being developed. As these evolve and
mature, they may be the first choice of carriers for their networks.
- Gateways (trunk, signaling, residential, business).
- Call Agents/Media Gateway Controllers. These are software-based
service creation platforms that duplicate the functionality of a class
5 switch but can also be used to develop new data and video services.
- Servers and databases.
- Optical transport and switching devices. Carriers and many
vendors believe that new optical technologies will displace the role
of SONET and SDH in the carrier networks. When connected with
high-performance switching equipment (e.g., routers, ATM switches),
these provide a cost-effective and massively scalable basis for a
network.
- Operation systems that enable a carrier to manage and operate this
network with high availability and at a reasonably low cost (this
implies massive automation of the operation systems and business
processes). This area is likely to have larger variability than the
actual physical networks.
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
What about interoperability? How important is it for
carriers to consider how their new networks will interface or talk to
their legacy networks? What are some of the things that can be done to
ensure such interoperability?
- Interoperability is crucial, a killer issue. On day one of turning
up your NGN, every call wants to complete to a phone not on the NGN.
- NGN architecture must interwork with SS7 and facilitate use of
existing Intelligent Network databases, and must appear to the PSTN as
though NGN is a peer switch.
- Need to converge to a common set of features, functions, and
interfaces that can be supported across networks of different
providers, for network infrastructure, services, and operations.
- Another important aspect of interoperability is that the network
must interoperate with other carriers networks. It is unlikely that
a customer is going to want to communicate with only those customers
who happen to be on the same network. This interoperability will
require both technical interoperability (information transmitted from
one network to another) and business interoperability (financial
arrangements so that it is in the best interest of all carriers to
connect to one another).
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
Please describe the role of the OSS in operating,
managing, and maintaining a scalable, reliable network.
- An OSS is the glue that makes a network work. Without an efficient
and effective OSS, a carrier will not be able to operate a reliable
and high-quality network. The OSS is essential for enabling a carrier
to quickly provision new services, anticipate and identify faults in
the network (e.g., was it a router or a server that caused an
application not to work properly?), bill for the services, and so on.
- Without an OSS, carriers will have to use manual processes (prone to
error, very expensive) or rely on the element management systems
provided by their vendors. These systems, while useful, do not give
the carrier a picture of the entire network that will involve multiple
types of products from multiple vendors. This means that the staff
would have to monitor multiple element management systems (not easy),
and when a problem occurs it would be very difficult to determine the
cause (a fault on one device could generate errors on other devices
even if they are working properly).
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
What is the state of the next-generation network?
And, what in your opinion does the future hold, both for the
carrier/service provider and end user?
- In 1999, carriers were experimenting with the vision of NGN. They
were deciding how these new technologies would fit into their
networks. While there are a number of open questions, most carriers
have at least decided on the initial steps they must take. And I think
all carriers have decided that NGN must be part of their network
future.
- In 2000, carriers will be testing the new technologies in trials and
front-office applications. They may also begin offering services based
on these new technologies to commercial customers. For example, a
number of carriers will offer DSL services to customers. However,
these services will be focused on transport (e.g., DSL connections) or
will offer basic functionality (e.g., basic voice services).
- In 2001 and beyond, carriers will move into mass deployment and will
begin offering new and sophisticated applications and services to
their customers. This is also the year that these new networks and
services will have a significant impact on their revenue growth.
- Overall, any carrier that fails to move forward with NGN in the next
three years will be a good candidate to be the subject of a quiz show
question, What company used to be a communications company but no
longer exists?
[Back To The Question List For David
Jennings]
John Edwards, CEO of I-Link, gave me some insights into I-Links
network. Below are his responses and his views of the next generation of
networking.
Provide a brief overview of your network
infrastructure.
- I-Links network has three core components: An IP network layer, a
logical network layer, and a service layer.
- The hardware that underlies all of these components consists of
normal wide-area networking (WAN) intranet and internetworking
components including: Layer 2 and Layer 3 Ethernet switches, routers,
CSUs, and remote management and maintenance equipment. The network is
built using off-the-shelf components and is engineered to provide the
quality of service (QoS) required to deliver telephony applications
and services.
- The gateway platforms provide telephone access to the application
servers logically and physically connected to I-Links network.
I-Links enhanced service applications, such as V-Link 3.0, are
housed on industry standard servers running Windows NT as the
operating system.
- I-Links network is readily scalable, due to the logical
architecture and distributed nature of its platforms and applications,
while entirely avoiding the use of telecommunication switches and
other computer-telephony integration platforms commonly used to
provide similar services at much higher costs with less features.
[Back To Question List For John
Edwards]
Please describe the separation of the network layer
and service layer in your network. How does this help I-Link achieve its
goals of delivering next-generation services to its customers?
The network layer is built so it digests the signal and does all
the work required by a telephony application (tone detection,
speech/silence activity, fax demodulation and modulation, etc.). It does
it in a way that is not tied to any specific application or service, so
any port in the network layer can offer any service within the network at
any time. The service layer takes advantage of this and needs to provide
only the intelligence to deliver the service/feature. This offers a
scalable, low-cost environment for telephony applications.
The network layer allocates all of the resources available over the
entire network, including the enhanced services platform (V-Link) or the
features themselves like conference calling and unified messaging.
Contained within the network layer is a softswitch, a programmable
software-based switch and operating system. I-Links softswitch
architecture includes resource allocation, routing, and failure rerouting
of devices within the network. The company adds a brand-new benefit to
softswitch architecture with its operating system layer, which provides
services such as uniform billing, monitoring, troubleshooting, and
resource use mechanisms within the softswitch environment. As a result,
carriers have an exact record of each IP telephony call or service without
requiring additional equipment for network efficiency.
The service layer contains the intelligence of the overall system but
doesnt handle most of the workload. Whatever resides in the service
layer requires basically no knowledge of the network. If you place an
enhanced service call over the network, its the network layer and the
softswitch technology that take care of all of the troubleshooting,
locating a signal and routing the call to the appropriate place. When a
call comes in, its the network layer that formats the signal into one
that the service layer is able to read. The service layer takes advantage
of that work and just looks at the signal packets and makes the decision
as to which service it should offer the user to provide the service
without need for further signal processing.
[Back To Question List For John
Edwards]
Describe the service creation environment in place in
the I-Link network.
The I-Link service creation environment is known as GateLink API.
GateLink is a software library acting as an easy-to-use API. Essentially,
GateLink is to VoIP as Windows is to personal computing. In the beginning
of personal computing, all applications were originally limited to
mainframe computing platforms and then, due to Microsofts standardized
libraries and easy-to-use API, rapidly evolved in the Windows environment.
GateLink is I-Links application development environment for the
real-time IP network. The GateLink API provides the connections required
to place or transfer a call or play and record voice and fax messages. It
also allows the use of any of the resources available on I-Links
network such as generic interactive voice recognition response (IVR),
conferencing, text to speech, voice recognition, and paging. GateLink
allows worldwide deployment of any new services simply by building a
software application that interfaces the API with at least one IP network
connection (including a simple Internet connection) to the I-Link
real-time network.
[Back To Question List For John
Edwards]
Having successfully deployed a nationwide IP network,
whats next for I-Link?
To capitalize on our nationwide IP network, well continue to make
strategic partnerships in two areas. Corporate portals and Web sites can
partner with I-Link to enhance a Web visitors experience with real-time
IP communications. In addition, well partner with service providers
that are looking for next-generation IP services.
Services News
Convergent Networks, Marconi Build New Public Network
Marconi and Convergent Networks have announced a strategic partnership to
offer ATM voice/data solutions in North America. The agreement forms a
powerful combination to promote new, highly scalable, and economical
solutions for service providers as they respond to increased demand for
dial-up bandwidth caused by the rapid growth in Internet access.
Specifically, the joint solution will allow service providers to offload
Internet traffic from their Class 5 voice switches. The agreement covers
Convergent Networks Integrated Convergence Switch (ICS2000) and Marconis
core ATM switching solutions.
No. 540, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Tenor Networks Unveils Optical Service Switch
Tenor Networks has introduced the TN250G, an optical service
switch (OSX) designed to slash the complexity, capital costs, and
labor-intensive management of delivering highly differentiated services
over the optical network. As the centerpiece of Tenors Optical Service
Architecture, the TN250G combines the IP awareness of routers, the quality
of service of an ATM switch, and the TDM functionality of a digital
cross-connect, which allows service providers to deploy a new class of
highly profitable, customized services tailored to the specific needs of
each customer. The TN250G enables network service providers to transform
the raw capacity created by DWDN-based optical transport networks into
services that are precisely refined, distributed, and metered according to
the specific needs of each customer.
No. 541, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Ignitus Communications Announces Integrated Access
Switch
Ignitus Communications has announced the introduction of the
Ignitus 3500 Integrated Access Switch a high-density, high-speed SONET
and ATM edge device designed for hybrid, metropolitan networks. The
Ignitus 3500 combines the best elements of SONET, ATM, Passive Optical
Network (PON), and DWDM technology in a high-speed, carrier-class
platform, creating a more cost-effective and manageable approach for
delivering enhanced carrier services. The Ignitus 3500 enables
metropolitan service providers to increase the range of support for
emerging, high-bandwidth customer applications, while preserving
investment and robust service levels inherent in their legacy
infrastructure.
No. 542, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Lucent Launches IP Configuration Tool
Lucent Technologies has announced the launch of the Internet
Protocol Network Configurator (IPNC), a Bell Labs-designed software tool
that simplifies the configuration and management of IP-based networks. The
IPNC provides a centralized, automated solution for accurately and
efficiently configuring protocols for network routers. Configuration
errors and inconsistencies in routing protocol parameters are a leading
cause of network outages. IPNCs automated process can improve
configuration accuracy by eliminating time-consuming and error-prone
manual configuration. This can also help companies avoid costly network
downtime due to faulty routing protocol configuration.
No. 543, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Spring Tide Launches LightShip
Spring Tide Networks has announced a wide-ranging network
management solution that enables providers to reliably and profitably
deploy a rich set of next-generation IP services. LightShip, a
feature-rich element management system (EMS), serves as the centerpiece of
SpringTides comprehensive network management offering. LightShip offers
a highly scalable, directory-enabled, policy-based provisioning approach.
Leveraging proven lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) technology,
LightShip scales policy management to millions of network users. LightShip
is designed to address all functional areas of the telecommunications
management network (TMN) framework including fault, configuration,
accounting, performance, and security management.
No. 544, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Shomiti Systems Upgrades Its VoIP QoS Product
Shomiti Systems announced that it has upgraded its VoIP QoS
software product Multi-QoS to provide call and channel table summarization
of Ciscos SSP protocol. Multi-QoS is a plug-in application to Shomitis
seven layer protocol analysis software Surveyor, that provides VoIP QoS
measurement and verification in the enterprise, carrier backbone, and
local PoP. Shomitis Multi-QoS supports H.323 with full ASN.1 detail,
SIP, MGCP, SGCP, Ciscos SSP, and many others including codecs, and
provides call and channel table summarization of the H.323 decoded calls.
No. 545, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
ipVerse Adopts Tekelecs TALI Interface
ipVerse announced that it will support Tekelecs Transport
Adapter Layer Interface (TALI) on its ipVerse Control Switch. The
incorporation of TALI into the ipVerse ControlSwitch enables
interoperability with SS7 equipment vendors that incorporate TALI,
including Tekelecs IP7 Secure Gateway. This product interoperability
will accelerate the migration from traditional circuit-switched networks
to next-generation packet networks, while protecting service providers
investments in existing SS7 networks.
No. 546, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Marconi Intros Next-Gen WAN Access Solution
Marconi has announced the availability of the Universal Inverse
Multiplexing for ATM (IMA) Network module. This low-cost solution enables
enterprise and service provider customers to deploy ATM network solutions
tailored to their specific WAN bandwidth needs. The new module permits
customers to deploy cost-effective fractional T3/E3 services throughout
their entire WAN by consolidating numerous T1/E1 (1.544 Mbps/2.048 Mbps)
lines into a single ATM connection, making the most efficient use of the
T1/E1 lines.
No. 547, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Cisco Delivers Multi-Function Access Platform
Cisco Systems has announced the Cisco 6700 Series Multi-Function
Access Platform (MFAP) is a carrier-class family of products that
integrate voice and data traffic and consolidate multiple network elements
and services into a single easy-to-manage platform. The platform
simplifies network deployment and enables service providers such as CLECs,
IXCs, and ICPs to reduce network costs and expand and deploy new service
offerings quickly. In addition, the Cisco 6700 Series enables service
providers to easily migrate to New World packet-based solutions while
maximizing existing circuit-based offerings.
No. 548, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Enron, Sycamore To Extend Optical Network
Enron Broadband Services (EBS) has announced an agreement with
Sycamore Networks to utilize Sycamores switching and transport products
in construction of new long-haul and metropolitan area routes on the Enron
Intelligent Network (EIN). The three-year contract could be worth up to
$200 million. Enron may also incorporate SILVX, Sycamores Optical
Network Management System (ONMS), directly into the EIN management system
to manage the Sycamore products in the Enron network.
No. 549, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Digital Broadband Enhances Network Backbone
Digital Broadband has announced that the next phase of its
broadband network expansion will include developing and managing its own
state-of-the-art optical fiber backbone to provide customers with a higher
quality of service and customer care. Digital Broadband is purchasing $20
million worth of next-gen optical networking gear from Cisco Systems, to
be used to light pre-existing dark fiber (unlit or dormant
links), which Digital Broadband is acquiring from Bell Atlantic. This
investment allows Digital Broadband more direct ownership and control of
its growing network, translating to greater cost-efficiencies for its
customers.
No. 550, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
Dynarc Delivers Service-Optimized Optical Access
Solution
Carriers and service providers can now offer a robust network
solution with integrated high-speed Internet access and secure IP-based
VPN services to business customers. Dynarc has announced the Dynarc 50, a
multiservice access router based on a broadband architecture known as
Dynamic Transfer Mode (DTM). The Dynarc 50 enables carriers and ISPs to
deliver IP-based services with guaranteed QoS and provide detailed service
level agreements (SLAs) to subscribers. The result is an easily managed
multiservice platform that offers revenue-generating telecom and datacom
services.
No. 551, www.itmag.com/freeinfo
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