360Networks scraps ATM in US$60m turnaround
By Simon Marshall, Total Telecom
10 October 2000
U.S.-based carrier 360Networks said it would perform a remarkable about-face and decommission its five Marconi ATM switches, effectively writing-off at least US$50 million in the process.
It plans to banish ATM technology from its global network plans by the end of this year, becoming one of only three carriers which are entirely native IP-based.
Talking exclusively to Total Telecom, 360's vice president of European network operations Steve Lake said these will be replaced by optical networking equipment from Sycamore Networks, IP edge routing equipment from Nortel Networks and Fujitsu, and backbone routers from Cisco Systems.
The aim is to avoid deploying relatively expensive ATM equipment and to migrate 360's global network to one where Quality of Service (QoS) is now guaranteed by Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS).
Lake told Total Telecom, "Our intention is to run MPLS over our network using a switched optical backbone. Our original plan was to use ATM switches, but Sycamore's optical equipment caught up with [our build-out], so we made a decision about five months ago to decommission [ATM switches] and put in a complete Sycamore system."
The ambitious decision calls for 360Networks to migrate its entire global network to accommodate optical IP and the MPLS protocol, which sets up virtual pathways across networks in order to prioritize time-critical packets such as voice or streaming applications. Lake said 360 will do this in its North-American and European networks by March next year. A roll-out in the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions will come next.
Lake said, "We're doing a native IP beta trial now in our network in North America covering Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago and Seattle. We're also doing one in Europe, where we hope to put [native IP] into production by the end of Q1 2001." He added that transatlantic link testing between Network Operation Centres in Denver, U.S. and Maidenhead, U.K. locations would closely follow the lighting of the U.K. ring in December.
The European network will be lit with an initial capacity of between 50 and 80Gbps, although scalability provided by optical multiplexing will be to Terabits.
360Networks' scrapping of ATM, and investment instead in a deployment which marries intelligent optical transport with packet routing and QoS guaranteed by MPLS, shows technologies still on the drawing board last year are maturing fast.
"On a technical level, we wanted a cutting-edge network, not a 'me too' network," said Lake. "Going with native IP and MPLS gives us the potential to differentiate our products using QoS, and to develop entirely new services to the market. But the bottom line is we have a policy of not building-out any new technology until it's ready for us to monetize."
The announcement follows similar plans from Interoute's I-21 venture and QoS Networks, both of which aim to launch native IP backbones next year.
"The biggest competitive edge we have over them is we're not just doing the inter and intra-European connectivity thing, but truly global connectivity. We've a wholesale focus and a low cost base which means our prices will be lower than capacity offered over a SONET network," explained Lake.
The largest immediate problem 360 will have to overcome will be the first commercial implementation of the yet-to-be standardized MPLS protocol.
Lake responded, "I have to trust my engineers on that one, and they tell me MPLS is ready for prime-time."
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