techweb.com
July 13, 1998, Issue: 723
Section: Bandwidth Boom: The Present 1998 To 2000
Carriers, Service Providers Gear Up For Demand Blitz
Salvatore Salamone
Demand for access is skyrocketing. And that will have an immediate
impact on central offices during the next two years.
To meet the insatiable demand for access, carriers and network service
providers face a dual challenge. Companies want both faster and more
dedicated links. Probe Research Inc., which tracks the
telecommunications industry, predicts that the number of dedicated
access lines needed for corporate Internet access will nearly quadruple
to 480,000 in 2002, compared to the approximately 140,000 in use last
year.
This combination of more Internet users and corporations outsourcing
remote access to service providers is fueling a demand for modem ports
within central offices.
For instance, a study on virtual private networking (VPN) conducted
last year by consultancy Infonetics Research Inc. found that the
worldwide market for equipment, integration services and service
provider VPN services will grow by more than 100 percent per year,
topping $10 billion by 2001. The bulk of the growth will be in VPN
services which require dial-access ports in central offices in order to
work.
To meet this range of demands, central office equipment vendors are
approaching the market in many ways. For instance, traditional telecom
switch vendors Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom each
acquired a remote access concentrator vendor in the past year. Lucent
snapped up Livingston Enterprises Inc.'s PortMaster line, and Nortel
acquired Aptis Communications Inc. for its CVX family of remote
access concentrators and its VPN expertise.
Other switch vendors have partnered with internetworking companies
to get the necessary technology into the central office. For example,
Siemens AG is working with 3Com. And many vendors are working
with Ascend Communications Inc. and Cisco.
"For a while the standard line was that data mucked up central offices,
causing switch congestion," says Raymond Lopez, a consultant at
Rosewall and Associates, a consulting firm that designs and installs
remote access systems. "Now the strategy is 180 degrees different. It's
'Let's get this equipment as tightly integrated with the [central office]
equipment as we can.' "
That point rings true. In May, when Lucent announced its own
high-performance IP switch, the PacketStar IP Switch, the company
was making a statement that it could compete directly with the major
internetworking vendors when it comes to dealing with the growing
volume of data being handled in central offices. "We own this market,"
Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent Technologies Data Networking
Systems said at the press briefing.
Not to be outdone by the central office supplier crowd, access
equipment vendors such as Adtran Inc., Advanced Computer
Communications Inc. and Assured Access Technology Inc.-which
traditionally have serviced the carrier market-introduced equipment
that will offer higher dedicated line-port densities than ever before.
The new equipment also supports a broader range of services-including
DSL, frame relay, ISDN, T1 and ATM-from a single chassis.
At the same time, the traditional data networking companies aren't
sitting idly by. Anticipating the demand for remote access ports for
both dedicated lines and dial access in the next two years, Ascend, Bay
Networks, Cisco and 3Com jumped on the bandwagon, announcing
higher port-density products.
The upshot for carriers is more ports in less central office space. And
these equipment companies are not just offering more ports, they're
also offering more types of service from the same device. For instance,
most of the equipment companies support DSL, frame relay, ISDN and
ATM from a single chassis-based system.
The move to support more services in a port also applies to dial-access
ports. Many vendors are using software-based modems based on digital
signal processors, which can automatically detect the nature of the call
and load the appropriate software. Such software modem port
July 13, 1998, Issue: 723
Section: Bandwidth Boom: The Present 1998 To 2000
Carriers, Service Providers Gear Up For Demand Blitz
Salvatore Salamone
Demand for access is skyrocketing. And that will have an immediate
impact on central offices during the next two years.
To meet the insatiable demand for access, carriers and network service
providers face a dual challenge. Companies want both faster and more
dedicated links. Probe Research Inc., which tracks the
telecommunications industry, predicts that the number of dedicated
access lines needed for corporate Internet access will nearly quadruple
to 480,000 in 2002, compared to the approximately 140,000 in use last
year.
This combination of more Internet users and corporations outsourcing
remote access to service providers is fueling a demand for modem ports
within central offices.
For instance, a study on virtual private networking (VPN) conducted
last year by consultancy Infonetics Research Inc. found that the
worldwide market for equipment, integration services and service
provider VPN services will grow by more than 100 percent per year,
topping $10 billion by 2001. The bulk of the growth will be in VPN
services which require dial-access ports in central offices in order to
work.
To meet this range of demands, central office equipment vendors are
approaching the market in many ways. For instance, traditional telecom
switch vendors Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom each
acquired a remote access concentrator vendor in the past year. Lucent
snapped up Livingston Enterprises Inc.'s PortMaster line, and Nortel
acquired Aptis Communications Inc. for its CVX family of remote
access concentrators and its VPN expertise.
Other switch vendors have partnered with internetworking companies
to get the necessary technology into the central office. For example,
Siemens AG is working with 3Com. And many vendors are working
with Ascend Communications Inc. and Cisco.
"For a while the standard line was that data mucked up central offices,
causing switch congestion," says Raymond Lopez, a consultant at
Rosewall and Associates, a consulting firm that designs and installs
remote access systems. "Now the strategy is 180 degrees different. It's
'Let's get this equipment as tightly integrated with the [central office]
equipment as we can.' "
That point rings true. In May, when Lucent announced its own
high-performance IP switch, the PacketStar IP Switch, the company
was making a statement that it could compete directly with the major
internetworking vendors when it comes to dealing with the growing
volume of data being handled in central offices. "We own this market,"
Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent Technologies Data Networking
Systems said at the press briefing.
Not to be outdone by the central office supplier crowd, access
equipment vendors such as Adtran Inc., Advanced Computer
Communications Inc. and Assured Access Technology Inc.-which
traditionally have serviced the carrier market-introduced equipment
that will offer higher dedicated line-port densities than ever before.
The new equipment also supports a broader range of services-including
DSL, frame relay, ISDN, T1 and ATM-from a single chassis.
At the same time, the traditional data networking companies aren't
sitting idly by. Anticipating the demand for remote access ports for
both dedicated lines and dial access in the next two years, Ascend, Bay
Networks, Cisco and 3Com jumped on the bandwagon, announcing
higher port-density products.
The upshot for carriers is more ports in less central office space. And
these equipment companies are not just offering more ports, they're
also offering more types of service from the same device. For instance,
most of the equipment companies support DSL, frame relay, ISDN and
ATM from a single chassis-based system.
The move to support more services in a port also applies to dial-access
ports. Many vendors are using software-based modems based on digital
signal processors, which can automatically detect the nature of the call
and load the appropriate software. Such software modem ports can
often support analog phone calls, an ISDN BRI call, or a call from any
one of the three types of 560-Kbps modems (x2, 56Kflex or V.90). |
