beach --
I'm not an engineer, but from reading CIEN's website, it appears the only layer that might be eliminated --- at least in certain circumstances --- is SONET. The fact C&W gave large contracts to both CIEN and NN would indicate they're interoperable. Or at worst one does not negate the other.
The following article is from NN's website where T Matthews confirms that SONET can be by-passed in certain situations:
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[From MainStreet News, Jan 1998]
CHAIRMAN'S Q & A
Broadband Multiservice Networks
Terry Matthews, founder and Chairman of Newbridge Networks, talks to the Editor about some of the recent advancements in multiservice networking.
With Siemens, Newbridge has articulated a vision of broadband, multiservice networks carrying most, if not all, traffic in the very near future. Are Newbridge customers embracing that vision?
They certainly are. One of the most significant endorsements of our vision to date have been by BT and MCI. Others, including major players like Telecom New Zealand, are also coming on board. Once a customer understands the huge benefits of a single broadband core for all services, the choice of our solution is easy. We're offering crucial quality of service capabilities -- you simply can't deliver multiple services effectively without them.
Newbridge made a big splash at Interop + Networld in Atlanta this fall with the announcement of the Carrier Scale Internetworking solution with Siemens and 3Com. What is CSI and why is it significant?
CSI is an open, standards-based architecture for IP networking. It lets service providers deliver managed IP services with different classes of service and it's fully interoperable with the different protocols and standards that carriers and end users have in place now. CSI was initially developed by Siemens and Newbridge and is being implemented by 3Com, which is integrating CSI into its enterprise WAN access and point of presence products.
Why do carriers and enterprises need CSI?
One of the greatest concerns facing CIOs of major enterprises and service provider business planners is the need for integrated, easily provisioned services. CSI will foster the seamless transfer of information across LANs and WANs and carrier and enterprise networks. It provides an integrated, multiservice solution that incorporates IP and other services to meet the growing demand for managed services.
In the massive networks being put in place now, interoperability is critical. What is Newbridge doing to ensure that its products can be used effectively in multivendor networks?
We've always been committed to building standards-compliant products and total network solutions. One of the ways we're keeping that commitment is a state-of-the-art interoperability lab at our corporate headquarters. The lab tests Newbridge equipment in networks with other vendors' products. Our customers and our product development groups determine what should be tested. Right now we're doing successful tests on a network running inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA) with the MainStreetXpress 36170 and products from 3Com.
What about network management?
Network management is a very strong differentiator for us because of our system's ability to manage the variety of technologies, services, and equipment that exist in today's large networks. One of our latest demonstrations of interoperability took place at a Network Management Forum event this fall with the Bull TMN Master and the TCSI SolutionCore network management platforms.
A recent press release announced that Siemens and Newbridge are adding an ATM-based Distributed Service Delivery program for metropolitan area networks. Why is this technology important to the MainStreetXpress broadband strategy?
It's a major advancement in the continuous evolution of our vision of ATM as the core network architecture. Carriers need a migration strategy that cost-effectively addresses increasing demand for multiple services at the edge of the network. But they also need to simplify their networks. ATM-based Distributed Service Delivery lets them deliver frame relay, private line, cell relay and Internet Protocol (IP) services using a scalable and flexible common network infrastructure, and gives them cost saving in capital equipment, transmission facilities and ongoing operational expenses.
How does it work?
It lets service providers eliminate SONET multiplexers for transport, while maintaining the reliability and availability of centralized network resources. Basically, they can take advantage of the full attributes of ATM in a metropolitan area network at much lower costs.
Newbridge has always been a global company but lately there seems to be increasing focus on operations in the Asia Pacific region. What's happening there?
We're seeing tremendous potential in the area for networks supporting a range of services from traditional voice and data to the most sophisticated multimedia services. For example, Korea Telecom is doing some very exciting things with its KT Fiber City network and many organizations are watching to see how it works. We're taking steps to give our customers in the region even better support -- our new Asia Pacific headquarters opened in Kuala Lumpur in November and a sales and support office was opened in Islamabad earlier in the year. We now have more than 20 offices throughout the region. >>>
A couple CIEN press releases show their products enhance ATM, not compete or negate. The first is their contract with C&W.
ciena.inter.net
This shows how two CIEN products are compatable with ATM:
ciena.inter.net
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MultiWave Firefly
MultiWave Firefly was developed specifically to operate point-to-point without amplifiers in routes of up to 65 kilometers. The system multiplexes up to 24 discrete optical channels operating at 2.5 Gbps (billion bits per second) over one fiber pair, allowing network operators to provision on a channel-by-channel basis, up to a maximum of 60 Gbps of traffic on a fiber link.
Like MultiWave SentryT introduced by CIENA earlier this year, Firefly is capable of interfacing either with traditional SONET/SDH equipment or directly with devices carrying ATM or fast IP traffic. This interoperability eliminates the need for SONET multiplexers as interface devices between ATM or IP networks and the transport equipment, thereby simplifying the network and reducing cost.
MultiWave Firefly provides flexible, standards-based, network management to support TL1, Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) as well as being compatible with CIENA's WaveWatcherr network management software.
MultiWave Metro
MultiWave Metro, currently under development, is a ring-based metropolitan network system using DWDM technology with as many as 16 different wavelengths. Metro is intended to provide a cost-effective, modularly expandable network to deliver high bandwidth to end customers.
CIENA's MultiWave Metro system will target interoffice rings and high bandwidth local loop services. Metro is designed to provide high aggregate bandwidth capacity for multiple applications and data rates. The product is expected to simultaneously aggregate multiple traffic types, including SONET/SDH (at both the SONET levels of OC-12 and OC-48 and the SDH rates of STM-4 and STM-16), ATM and fast IP in a ring environment, providing network survivability and the ability to add or drop traffic at various locations around the ring. >>>
I apologize to any engineers who may be pained by my bumbling attempts to understand how all these technologies fit together. Some times I pain myself. :)
Later --
Pat |
