Nortel initiates broadband coalition
By Craig Matsumoto
EE Times
(04/04/00, 12:09 p.m. EST)
SAN MATEO, Calif. ? Nortel Networks is hoping to jump start delivery of broadband data to the home by spearheading a coalition to create and standardize a means for accessing services and entertainment via the Web.
Nortel so far has attracted 30 members to the Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF), launched Tuesday (April 4), including Qwest Communications International
Inc., AT&T (represented as a service provider) and the National Broadcasting Co.'s NBCi entertainment service. Nortel rivals Cisco Systems Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. "have been invited, but they have not responded," said Keerty Melkote, director of product management at Nortel.
Nortel has laid out an architecture that redefines delivery of Web-based content to the home, and the company is prepared to add or delete steps depending on members' reactions.
The coalition would institute quality-of-service (QoS) for the last mile, but first,
Nortel believes the BCDF should define a new type of network access where a user logging on would see a list of services available, possibly from multiple ISPs and/or content providers. Using a Web browser, the user would select a service, be it a movie download or regular Internet access.
At that point, Nortel wants to create a "personal content tunnel," a circuit set up between the home and the appropriate content source, with a guaranteed QoS level depending on the type of service offered ? video feeds, for example, would be delivered unhindered by congestion elsewhere in the network. The coalition also
may try to develop protocols for the advertisements that are likely to be delivered along with broadband services.
Technology requirements
Multiple new technologies would need to be developed for this architecture, including a way to categorize types of content, probably by defining them as
standardized objects or by applying XML tags. Also required is a QoS-like standard for creating the "tunnel" of guaranteed bandwidth.
The coalition also might tackle the bottlenecks created by the peering process, which today is ad hoc and rife with politics, Melkote said.
The BCDF's first meeting is schedule for May 25, 2000, at the ISPCon trade show in Orlando, Fla. Nortel's Melkote said the agenda is likely to include election of board members and submission of suggested modifications to Nortel's proposed architecture.
eetimes.com |
