Migrating to an Ethernet-centric Infrastructure

This is one of the most important questions that a service provider must answer before deciding to converge their voice and data networks. If Operational Expense reductions cannot be achieved through convergence and/or improvements in staffing efficiency, then convergence probably doesn't make sense. Though possible, I am not aware of any large scale plans in the US to fully decommission the voice network and replace it with a converged voice and data network. Any carrier that would implement such a plan would require a period of transition to migrate the services so that the need for staffing levels may in fact increase for the short term. The only way to mitigate such increases is to counteract such migration with additional operational efficiencies in the network. Techniques such as automated provisioning, mesh networking and programmable devices can help. Generally speaking, though, the large US ILECs are extremely efficient in the staffing levels of their voice networks and their legacy data networks leverage automation.


The large challenge US-based ILECs now face is how to move beyond voice and legacy data services in order to transition to a true next generation networks that additionally support video services, wireless-wireline integration and end-user mobility. This is a huge challenge that will take many years. To be successful the next generation network will have to make very efficient use of staff through automation of all parts of the network. I'll address a few aspects related to next generation optical transport networks.


The introduction of video services, especially IPTV, has the potential to increase the transport bandwidth requirements by a factor of 10 to 100 in metro networks. Carriers can no longer manually provision a few DS-3s and feel confident that they've handled traffic growth for the next six months. They will need to have both more scalable and more automated optical transport solutions than their current statically provisioned SONET rings offer. One of our experiences with the automation of large optical networks resulted in savings of several hundred staff positions.


Introduction of Ethernet interfaces and Ethernet transport is also a focus of activity in next generation optical transport networks. Ethernet needs to be as reliable and manageable as SONET, and our solution achieves this goal through encapsulation in a digital wrapper, based on ITU standards. As many carriers face the challenge of migrating from SONET to Ethernet interfaces on DSLAMs, the software programmable interfaces on our scalable metro DWDM systems allow ports that carry OC-3 or OC-12 interfaces today to be remotely reprovisioned to support Gigabit Ethernet interfaces tomorrow. This results in both substantial capital and operations savings.