Ascend's Soup-To-Nuts Plan
Saroja Girishankar
Ascend Communications Inc. is tying together its backbone and access switches, along with network management software, to offer all-in-one IP and ATM systems for Internet service providers and carriers.
According to Ascend president and CEO Mory Ejabat, the goal is to offer simpler, faster and less expensive multimedia services for business and individual customers.
Ascend's forthcoming product portfolio comprises a new multiservice access switch for terminating diverse high-speed access services; a variety of DSL concentrators for high-speed access; upgrades to its Navis management software; quality-of-service (QoS) upgrades to provide flexible service levels; higher-capacity versions of its MAX-TNT multiplexer and GRF backbone router; and SS7 signaling and circuit-switch-quality voice additions to all Ascend products.
"In order for service providers to move their voice traffic over data networks and improve existing services, they need the reliability, availability and high voice quality of circuit switches combined with QoS capabilities and easier and cheaper operational tools," Ejabat said.
For Uunet WorldCom, Ascend's largest customer, such improvements would be welcome.
"Scalability and bandwidth control from all our vendors are critical to us because our traffic demand doubles every three and a half months, and our customers want the tiered services that come through bandwidth control," said Alan Taffel, Uunet's vice president of marketing.
Taffel added that Uunet installs about 1,000 T1 lines every month and would appreciate any help in shortening and automating the provisioning chores.
The DSL, SS7 and Navis upgrades will be the first ones delivered, beginning next month and continuing in December. Others will follow in the next few quarters, Ascend said.
Ejabat said the integration of SS7 signaling-a technology that provides call control and setup for voice calls-will be available starting in November across Ascend's line of core ATM, frame relay and access switches, as well as across its routers and other access devices. (Ascend gained SS7 capabilities in its acquisition of Stratus Computer. Thus far, service providers have had to use Ascend's Signaling Gateway to separate data from voice traffic.)
Ascend's DSL products, which include a dedicated DSL Multiplexer, another DSLAM with IP routing and other unspecified DSL devices, will be announced in November, according to Kurt Bauer, vice president of product and marketing for Ascend's Access Switching Division.
But Ascend expects the next-generation Multiservice Access Switch to capture the industry's attention. Both Ejabat and Bauer said the product, which is under development, will let service providers terminate analog modem, DSL, cable and wireless services in a single box, reducing the need for additional points of presence for ISPs. It also will benefit carriers by simplifying management of access devices.
Bauer said the new switch will use Ascend's Time Access Operating system, which combines IP routing, ATM and frame relay switching with SS7 signaling, voice-over-IP and VPN features, plus terminations of all access services.
Ascend also is increasing the capacity of its OC-3 MAX-TNT multiplexer by four to five times to offer aggregated speeds equal to the 622-Mbps OC-12 interface for ISPs and carriers with high-volume traffic. Bauer said new ASICs and software for MAX-TNT also will make it more reliable. The new TNT will ship in the first half of 1999. An upgraded version of Ascend's GRF router, capable of handling terabit speeds, is due sometime next year.
Ascend in December will roll out upgrades to its Navis management software that will let service providers automatically provision, bill and manage services, Bauer said. Other tools will add service management capabilities to Ascend's access products. Administrators will get a graphic, real-time view of the status of services and feed that information into the Navis software, which manages the core ATM and IP devices.
Industry analysts were upbeat about Ascend's ambitious plans.
"In the end, it will mean more choices in services and competitive pricing for business and individual customers," said Liza Henderson, director of consulting at TeleChoice Inc.
Henderson added that Ascend's new products should further strengthen its market position, whereas competitors such as Cisco have only lately geared up for the growing demands of service providers.
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