Hi Ray, this is from Feb 7th,2000 Telephony:
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Companies have to be agile enough to understand a customer's needs that quarter, Donnan says. And with the Nexxia network, IP promises far more staying power than time division multiplexing (TDM) networks. This is because the high-bandwidth applications that IP networks are capable of handling are encouraging the migration from TDM networks. Companies are moving from private networking to public networking, Donnan says. "IP is very well-suited for companies that need to get to their partners and suppliers in an extranet model."
To meet the customer demand Nexxia knew existed and get revenue-generating traffic on the network, the company tried to move quickly to deploy the network. Nexxia uses a combination of fiber and DSL-based technologies to provide access to its IP, ATM and frame relay networks, Condon says. "We had Sonet coast-to-coast in a remarkably short period of time," he says. "We bought fiber in April [of 1998] and lit it in March [of 1999]."
While many U.S. providers are just beginning their migration to OC-192 speeds, Nexxia was able to install OC-192 Sonet rings as the foundation for the transport network from the start because Nexxia started the network from scratch (Figure 1). The network employs wave division multiplexing (WDM) technology from Nortel to transport up to eight wavelengths per fiber strand on the backbone, which tops out at 160 Gb/s.
Nexxia has two overlay networks, the first consisting of frame relay and ATM and the second using IP (Figure 2). So while the company can offer frame relay, ATM and Internet-related services to its customers, its dual-network backup system offers reliability.
The Sonet/WDM transport network gains its reliability from diverse fiber routes, backup points of presence (POPs), redundant switching and transport equipment and optical and electrical protection switching. Those capabilities are attractive to enterprise customers and service providers, Condon says. The transport network's backbone Sonet rings use Nortel's OC-192 4-fiber bidirectional line switching ring and OC-48 2-fiber BLSR architecture, which provide protection against fiber cuts and laser failures.
The backbone POPs are protected by a redundant, physically diverse POP connected to the primary facility through an OC-48 Sonet ring. And to eliminate any single point of failure in the Nexxia network, the IP and ATM and frame relay overlay networks are housed in a redundant configuration at both POPs (Figure 2). The high number of POPs in major cities also helps speed customer provisioning, Condon says.
In addition to the security benefits of its network, Nexxia offers a breadth of services such as wireless access from its parent company Bell Canada. "It lets [Nexxia] gain leverage from [unbundled network element] differentiators," Donnan says. The company therefore can package its own broadband and IP-based offerings with legacy services and toll services through its affiliation with Bell Canada.
Nexxia also launched remote access over an IP-based virtual private network, and with that access the company is pushing IP security over a public infrastructure. In addition, Nexxia is offering value-added applications such as messaging and hosting that will run over the IP network.
For the content element of the network, Nexxia has added "seven peering arrangements with content providers," Condon says. "We are definitely seeing a rise in data center business." And similar to most U.S. providers, Nexxia feels the need to "drive more services" across its network. "The need for more services and the driving of content is snowballing," he says.
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