ftth, the person,
re: "How about you? Which flavors (of voice) and fragrances (of server) do you think the RBOCs will go with?"
Hard to say. If they were to deploy within the next six months to a year, I feel assured that they would go with a circuit-switched model for voice, employing the DSO PCM format to a Class 5 end office switch.
But given a time trajectory of anywhere from two, maybe three years before any appreciable number of end users actually begin to come on board, they have some time to come up to speed with a VoIP offering, possibly employing a softswitch architecture. They have to be real careful in this regard, because the end user may elect to purchase their own Vonage-like adaptor (actually made by Cisco) and roll their own voice. We've covefed Vonage's offerings here in the past, at the following:
Message 18106447
Message 18074936
newtelephony.com
Although, with speeds ranging between several meg and 10 Mb/s it really doesn't matter if the tlco rolls out a VoIP- or circuit-switched- offering, because the end user can easily bypass the incumbent's voice offerings, anyway. If - and this is an interesting issue - if, the delivery of Internet access is done in such a way as to avoid the single virtual circuit ATM design that was used for DSL. You'll recall from one of Tom Nolle's articles in BCR that the ILECs DSL offerings were specifically designed to limit the number of virtual circuits per loop to only one, and that was to be used for data, only.
The strategy that the incumbents use to thwart the cannibalization of their own cash cow voice offerings is going to be a very interesting thing to follow.
So here's what I think they'll ultimately do: By the time they reach a critical mass of homes on line, they will begin rolling out VoIP. And aside from all other considerations, this would represent an ideal set of circumstances for experimenting with VoIP technology during early pilot stages, thus allowing them the necessary real-life experience and familiarity with VoIP to begin addressing their other Class5-bound captive customers who reside in areas that are not going to receive FTTP.
Servers? Again, I don't know. What comes to mind almost immediately is a couple of the fundamental criteria that central office hardware vendors must meet: OSMINE and NEBS. OSMINE being the acronym that stands for Operations Systems Modification of Intelligent Network Elements, and NEBS for Network Equipment Building System. I'll describe each of these briefly, below, by pointing to Telcordia's own wording.
From the Telcordia site:
telcordia.com
OSMINE Services gives your network products interoperability with Telcordia developed Heritage OSSs. OSMINE Services comprise the systematic Telcordia method of analyzing, monitoring, and modifying Telcordia software to support the interoperation of systems for a multivendor environment.
As the industry-recognized method for attaining compatibility with Telcordia software, OSMINE Services maximize the value of your network products. You are fully prepared to promote your products to all service providers who mandate their network equipment to be OSMINE Ready. Once you complete the OSMINE Services process, your products are intended to:
- Meet the flow-through requirements specified by service providers
- Integrate with embedded OSSs when the product is deployed
- Have greater marketability and salability
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And here's what Telcordia has to say about NEBS:
telcordia.com
Equipment Suppliers know that compliance with NEBS (Network Equipment Building System) criteria is the passkey for getting products into a Central Office and other network facilities. Compliance demonstrates the equipment has been thoroughly tested for safety and functional criteria for use in telecommunications networks.
Pioneered by Telcordia, these rigorous standards -- NEBS GR-63 and GR-1089 -- have been the de facto benchmarks for the industry for more than two decades. They have been used to verify that products are truly carrier-class, installation-ready, and equipment compatible.
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I'm not sure how many of the host digital architecture element vwbsiea (video servers and associated peripherals) meet these combined criteria. But I'm sure there are a number of outfits out there with enough foresight who are on their way to achieving them.
A quick scan of nCUBE shows that their high-end servers meet NEBS, but not OSMINE.
A search on te CCUR site shows that their search engine never heard of either standard. At least that's what a cursory scan showed me.
Aside from these minor digressions, above (I just had to get those two buggers in here, somewhere), I've not come across anything in the way of a transmission terminal/ video server architecture yet that would represent even a remote form of de facto standard for the host digital terminal, or HDT. Surely there must be a reference model that the ILECs will be using, but I'm not sure I know what it is. The HDT envirnment, incidentally, can be likened to the cable operators' head end environment, made up of their combined CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) and RF modulation/demodulation fields. Have you heard or seen anything resembling a digital head end standard?
What I have seen are a relatively few number of all-digital offerings using proprietary equipment and software, however, and the one that sticks out most prominently in my mind is the platform that FastWeb of Milan cobbled up for their FTTH/FTTB network. FastWEB is perhaps the most advanced of all triple-play-like FTTH networks, anywhere, at this point in time. From IPTelephony.org, a brief description, albeit date, on FastWeb:
"FastWeb SpA, an Italy based service provider, has deployed Cisco's Ethernet to the X [fAC: equiv to FTTP] solution to offer business and residential customers a collection of services including H.323 based VoIP, broadcast television, VOD, storage backup, video surveillance, VPNs, and videoconferencing. Services are currently being offered in Bologna, Genoa, Turin, Milan, Naples and Rome. At the end of the year, FastWeb's services passed 35,000 buildings." Note: According to DSLPrime.com , FastWeb now boasts upwards of 290,000 subscribers.
They employ a variety of different vendors products - those that they consider to be best in class for each of their service offerings. On the video server side they use a product by Minerva Networks out of Santa Clara, CA.
minervanetworks.com
By the way, I attempted to do a site search for OSMINE and NEBS on the Minerva page, but I couldn't find a search feature there. And when I used Google the search also turned up empty. But my cursory searches and findings in these regards should not be considered conclusive, by any means.
FAC |
