Darren,
I'd like to address your points, one at a time, in my next post. You've given us a lot to consider here. For the moment, I'd like to make a few general observations and comments about what has been evolving over the recent past.
While you made it a point to briefly touch on the influences of several VoIP companies, the major thrust in your message had to do with "Last Mile Technologies," and that's fine with me, since I see no boundaries that need to be erected in networking. To do so would be antithetical.
The press releases of the past several weeks bear this out, with functionality being distributed widely in almost every corner of the network. Every element is, in some way or another, through either a connection or some other indirect means of impact, related to every other element. A G.723.1 packet launched in Brooklyn has an impact on Project Oxygen's cable landing in Africa, and a bank's web-based check imaging system in Canada can influence the performance of a router-based VoIP scheme in San Jose.
A while back I started to 'contaminate' the Last Mile and Ftel Threads here in SI with some academic, what-if, futuristic discussions about VoIP (in the Last Mile posts) and DSL (in the Ftel posts). Although there were a few folks there who had a sense of where I was going with this, or even cared, the Amatians and the Westellians were unphased by it all. The Ftelians did participate in the discussion, tho, I must say. In any event, a few short months later, we see xDSL DSPs married to VoIP technology.
We also posted about the imminent releases of VoIP 'hooks' that would be released enabling VoIP in remote access concentrators and xDSL port cards, as well as in DSL access muxes (DSLAMS). Today, we read about the MAX device from Ascend, 3Com's contributions, and the Cisco RAS (5xxx series), along with many others, incorporating not only xDSL technology variants, but VoIP as well, complete with SS7 link capabilities.
An amazing thing is starting to emerge, IMO, in the remote access device environment. Up until now, the dial-in port assembly known as the remote access server or concentrator (RAS, typically found in ISP POPs and Enterprise dial-in concentrator locations) has been a relatively passive device, as far as network elements go. True, they are active from an electronics standpoint, and in enterprise environments they perform authentication and directory service functions, but they were never pivotal elements in the sense of universal switching or routing devices to the extent that they are beginning to appear, now.
They were usually attached to the ISP's or OLSP's front end to their servers, and that was it. Now, with VoIP and SS7 capabilities, the access device itself can be viewed as a network "node" to be reckoned with, since it can be configured to deliver discrete services on its own, as long as it is linked to a packet cloud through a router.
The router, however, need not be within an ISP's sovereign domain. Instead, it could be the local exchange carrier's "open network environment" router, beginning to fill the role of end office switches in the PSTN sense, with accounting hooks and routes established to the universe. In this sense, the carrier can be viewed as filling the role of an ISP, but not necessarily in the traditional sense.
The carrier can instead be viewed as a logical extension of the nearest NAP, a virtual NAP extender, with remote access devices viewed as peering devices, or one level down in the routing chain. This is not as far fetched as it sounds. What all this does, then, is compact the presence of the heretofore ISP function into a box, or stack of boxes, that are "merely" remote access devices, linked to the larger cloud. The carrier would get its revenue from renting the port, or rights to the port, on a switched or permanently attached basis (as with Cable Modems or ADSL connections), and run their accounting meter on your traffic on a usage sensitive basis.
Just some light points of thought as I rush out to the copper-silica mines this AM. I'll get back to the main points you raised later this evening, or tomorrow.
Ciao for now,
Frank Coluccio |
