Sprint Weighs ION Access, Technology Options
[This looks like a job for the new TAC IPDC protocol. See the post following this one.]
August 17, 1998
Inter@ctive Week via NewsEdge Corporation : Even as
Sprint Corp. prepares to move from testing to commercial
use of Integrated On-Demand Network for corporate
customers, it still has a long way to go before it has all
the pieces in place to get local services to the mass
market.
The most obvious missing pieces are on the access side,
where uncertainties about the availability and reach of
Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) service from local phone
companies are prompting Sprint to take a close look at
cable and wireless access options.
But Sprint (www.sprint.com) also faces key questions
concerning the internal design of Integrated On-Demand
Network (ION), in particular regarding the integration of
Intelligent Network (IN) capabilities into ION's Internet
Protocol (IP) implementation. IN is at the heart of many
public switched network services, including how the
network sets up and completes calls.
Local Cords
Access issues are front and center right now, in part
because they touch on potential partnership strategies.
William Esrey, Sprint's chief executive officer, told
attendees at last month's Internet World conference in
Chicago that cable is much on the company's mind as it
seeks to find ways to reach into the local marketplace.
The pending merger of AT&T Corp. and
Tele-Communications Inc. has intensified cable
companies' interest in finding major telecom partners.
Gerald Levin, CEO of Time Warner Inc., told analysts
and reporters at a mid-July meeting that "the most
sensible thing" for Time Warner Cable to do in the
telephony business might be to lease access to its lines
to a long-distance carrier.
Levin indicated that Time Warner (www.timewarner.com)
has been talking with a number of long-distance carriers,
including AT&T (www.att.com), but he named no
others. Other cable industry executives, speaking on
background, say they also are exploring a variety of
options, but no one is willing to say who they're talking
with.
Sprint also may explore broadband wireless as a last-mile
delivery option, although that strategy will depend on
when providers put services in place. The new holders
of spectrum licenses for Local Multipoint Distribution
Service (LMDS) could be a good alliance fit for Sprint,
notes one industry insider.
"Many holders of these licenses are start-ups in need of
alliances, so it's an obvious area to look into," says an
executive at a company that is bringing Sprint and some
LMDS license holders together for discussions.
Intelligent Questions
The biggest immediate technology issues on Sprint's
plate concern the importation of IN capabilities into the
IP component of ION. Sprint's plan calls for all services,
including voice, to be delivered to end users over
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connections. To
do that, Sprint must integrate IP technology into the IN
framework that is so integral to the public switched
network. That framework includes Signaling System 7
(SS7), which provides for initial call setup and all the
connectivity involved in tying together other IN features
and services -- such as call waiting, caller ID and toll-free
calling -- across the network.
The challenge of integrating IP with IN now faces all
major carriers as they migrate to packet-switched
architectures, as well as new entrants in the packet voice
arena. These providers aren't likely to get any immediate
help from public network equipment and software
vendors, which only recently started to work out
solutions.
Bellcore (www.bellcore.com), which supplies the network
management components for ION, plans to roll out next
month an IN-over-IP offering that "has important
implications for Sprint," says Jack Simensen, vice
president and general manager at Bellcore's Soliant
Internet Systems unit. But Simensen acknowledges that
it will take Bellcore at least another 18 months before it
can deliver the full suite of capabilities needed for
toll-quality service over IP networks.
Sprint will take what Mike Gettles, Sprint's lead engineer
for advanced technology development, calls the most
expeditious approach to bringing IN to packet
telephony: making as much use of the legacy IN
infrastructure as possible.
"Part of what we need to evaluate is what makes the
most sense to replicate in the way of IN features inside
the IP network, vs. providing the same features on the
life cycle of what's outside," Gettles says. " There are
plenty of service capabilities that already exist in the
public switched telephone network environment that are
useful in a packet network. We have to be careful about
reinventing the wheel."
Gettles says Sprint's strategy involves ensuring not only
that gateway servers between the IP and
circuit-switched components of ION can understand the
IN protocols running on class 5 public network circuit
switches, but also that IP gear is equipped to work off
the same IN elements.
The latter point represents somewhat of a technology
trade-off, because IP technology lends itself to creating
a means of service provisioning and management that
may be more flexible, feature-rich and easier to use within
a pure IP environment.
Sprint also is sorting through where it will locate the
intelligence as it builds out ION, Gettles says. "In the
type of data network we're building, you're not confined
by physically locating the intelligence at a switch, but
we're still in the process of determining how to distribute
it," he says.
One decision already has been made, however: Sprint
won't rely too heavily on endpoints to deliver network
intelligence, Gettles says.
"What I'm trying to do is make the hub at the premises
as efficient a manager of bandwidth as I can and place
the intelligence where it makes the most sense," Gettles
explains. "Some things are better done on a shared or
virtual basis."
Sprint's Gettles: 'We have to be careful about reinventing
the wheel'
<<Inter@ctive Week -- 08-14-98>>
|
