Morning Glenn, This article is dated, but things don't always move as fast as companies expect them too. For this reason I think we might be able to draw a few conclusions of the future based on some of these articles. MarkC.
Interoperability breeds creativity
Vendor alliances pay off in new ADSL, optical networking gear.
By Annie Lindstrom
ntegration, interoperability, Internet Protocol (IP) and increased bandwidth are the buzzwords that boomed from the booths of broadband equipment suppliers at Supercomm. Hot new asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) and optical networking gear inside the Georgia World Congress Center was as scorching as the Southern air that enveloped the building.
However, this year, suppliers did more than brag about their shiny new boxes. They proved their willingness to work with one another, embracing customer demands for interoperable equipment. Several creative products and technologies will enable competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and incumbent LECs (ILECs) to compete without having to send their investors or shareholders to the poorhouse. (Nevertheless, there was plenty of pricey gear for sale, too.)
ADSL vendors united to jump-start the ADSL market, and several newcomers to the dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) arena jumped into the pool with both feet. Nearly all optical networking vendors mapped out their visions of how and when the all-optical future should evolve.
One company said that some supplier booths were set up specifically to catch the attention of the decision-makers from Level 3 Communications Inc. (Omaha, Neb.). A week after the show, Level 3 selected Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. to build a $2 billion, 15,000-mile fiber-based IP network to interconnect its 15 local networks which are under construction. Level 3 also has plans to build a fiber-based IP network in Europe. The total cost of the local, national and European networks will amount to $8 billion to $10 billion, a company spokesman says. Level 3 reportedly will choose vendors by year's end.
This year saw the emergence of an official Supercomm mantra, as IP replaced DSL as the acronym chanted most frequently by the greatest number of vendors. It was as if the Grim Reaper would have wielded his scythe above the booth of any vendor that failed to mention how its product accommodates IP traffic.
All Aboard
ADSL vendors took the “Midnight train to Georgia,” riding into the show on the hot rails of mass-deployment announcements made less than two weeks before show time by Bell Atlantic (New York), BellSouth (Atlanta) and SBC Communications (San Antonio). But movement in the deployment arena wasn't the only thing ADSL aficionados were celebrating. The show floor was packed with solutions designed to solve some of ADSL's stickiest deployment issues, such as providing ADSL to customers served by digital loop carriers (DLCs), lack of interoperability, and lack of equipment to test and qualify local loops.
In addition to announcing the availability of Version 3.0 of its end-to-end ADSL 1000 system, Alcatel Network Systems (Richardson, Texas) debuted its solution to the DLC dilemma, the Mini-RAM remote access module. The self-contained unit, which supports up to eight full-rate or splitterless ADSL lines, will be available this quarter. BellSouth executives voiced their hopes that Alcatel's impending acquisition of DSC Communications (Plano, Texas) will lead to swift integration of Alcatel's DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) functionality into DSC's Litespan DLC. About 82,000 of BellSouth's 8 million customers who are served by DLCs are connected to a Litespan, according to a BellSouth spokesman. Alcatel declined to provide any details on when such integration would occur.
In the meantime, BellSouth has a plan. “We are looking forward to an Alcatel/DSC DLC solution and we want it as soon as possible, but we have three interim solutions in mind,” says John Cahill, executive director-advanced networking for BellSouth and co-chair of the Universal ADSL Working Group (UAWG). Those solutions include the Mini-RAM, remote DSLAMs that can withstand the outside plant environment (a.k.a. hardened), or non-hardened DSLAMs installed inside a controlled environment vault. ADSL deployment at DLC sites will begin by year's end, Cahill says.
Pulsecom Communications Inc. (Herndon, Va.) unveiled a universal remote access multiplexer for use in the DLC environment. The DMT-based WavePacer RAM-1100 accommodates up to eight ADSL lines and ships their data traffic to a carrier's backbone asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network using point-to-point protocol (PPP) over ATM. The device interoperates with Alcatel-compatible ADSL modems, according to Sassan Babaie, vice president of marketing for Pulsecom. The RAM-1100 will be available for trial and commercial deployment later this year.
Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC; Petaluma, Calif.) demonstrated interoperability between its UMC-1000 Third Generation DLC (3GDLC) and ADSL modems made by 3Com (Santa Clara, Calif.), Aware Inc. (Bedford, Mass.), Cayman Systems (Stoneham, Mass.), and Efficient Networks Inc. (Dallas). The modems pass voice and data traffic to new UMC-1000 line cards, which allow the DLC to serve as a DSLAM. Each card supports six voice circuits and two ADSL circuits. A single shelf accommodates 24 ADSL lines and 72 voice circuits, according to Philip Yim, director of product line management for AFC. The DLC links the data stream to the carriers' ATM network via an OC-3c (155 Mbps) connection.
In addition to working with AFC, 3Com added its name to the growing list of ADSL vendors teaming with the RedBack Networks Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) to ensure their products interoperate with RedBack's Subscriber Management System 1000 (SMS 1000) and to sign a distribution agreement with the company. The SMS 1000 streamlines ADSL installation and provisioning process. It collects data traffic from multiple DSLAMs (of multiple vendors, if needed) and translates all of the input traffic to IP. It then routes specific end users' traffic to their chosen Internet service provider (ISP). Other RedBack alliance partners include AFC, Diamond Lane Communications (Petaluma, Calif.), NEC America Inc. (Herndon, Va.) and Westell Technologies (Aurora, Ill.).
3Com also demonstrated interoperability between its new OfficeConnect Remote 811 ADSL router and Lucent Technologies' (Murray Hill, N.J.) AnyMedia Fast ADSL Application Pack integrated into Lucent's 5ESSR-2000 AnyMedia switch. The vendors will continue to work together to ensure interoperability between current and future products. 3Com also announced it is working with Newbridge Networks (Kanata, Ontario) to facilitate interoperable network and service management ADSL solutions for each other's gear. Newbridge announced an ADSL interoperability effort with Efficient Networks.
In addition to 3Com, Lucent also is working with Westell to integrate Westell's SuperVision ADSL DSLAM capability into its widely deployed SLC 5 and SLC 2000 DLCs. The first generation of line cards will support two ADSL lines per card. The cards will convert the data traffic into ATM cells and statistically multiplex them onto an OC-3 linked to a carrier's ATM network. The DLCs will support up to 22 ADSL lines, or 11 cards per statistical multiplexer, according to Linda Manchester, director of DSL for Lucent. The DLC cards will be ready for beta testing by year's end and be available early next year.
Westell also is working with Lucent to integrate its SuperVision DSLAM with Lucent's 5ESS. The DSLAM will be physically collocated in the equipment bays that house the switch. It also will be integrated with the switch's wiring and operations support systems (OSSs) to provide seamless provisioning and operations and to minimize wiring, says Bill Rodey, vice president of channel sales for Westell. Initially, one bay will support 250 ADSL lines. The 5ESS integrated DSLAM will be available this quarter, he adds.
Lucent's Microelectronics Group (Berkley Heights, N.J.), Analog Devices Inc. (Wilmington, Mass.), and Aware demonstrated interoperability between a prototype Universal ADSL (UADSL) modem based on Lucent's DSP 1690 WildWire DSL G.lite chipset and an Aware router containing an Analog Devices AD20msp910 DSL G.lite chip set. Both chips will be upgraded to the Universal ADSL (UADSL; also known as G.lite, both of which connote splitterless, sub-rate ADSL) standard once it's been approved by the UAWG and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The UAWG reported that the first draft definition of UADSL has been completed. After releasing the document to members this month, the UAWG will pass it on to the ITU for adoption as a global standard, according to Mark Peden, marketing committee coordinator for the UAWG and senior technologist, xDSL for Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.). Peden expects carriers to begin deploying UADSL-compliant prototypes by year's end. More than 10 ADSL equipment vendors and chip makers displayed working prototypes of G.lite gear at Supercomm.
“Having a common definition of G.lite will open up all kinds of development opportunities,” Peden says.
Siemens Telecom Networks (Boca Raton, Fla.) demonstrated the capabilities of full-rate ADSL by running the same high-bandwidth applications on two separate platforms—its ATM-based XpressLink ADSL system, which supports 8 Mbps downstream transmission rates, and a 10 Mbps Ethernet connection provided by its FastLink next-generation DLC in a fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) configuration. The demo showed carriers that customers' needs can be satisfied either way, so the choice of which technology to deploy can be left up to the service provider, says Steve McTeague, senior product manager for Siemens. Siemens made another point about its ADSL by transporting the ADSL traffic across 12 kft of copper cross-connect wire, which offers less performance than copper loop that's used in the public network, he adds.
In other ADSL news, NEC America Inc. (Herndon, Va.) introduced its DataWave ATM-based DSLAM and announced its general availability. NEC is OEM-ing Diamond Lane's Speedlink DSLAM and Efficient Networks' DSL modems, says Bryan Monaghan, product marketing manager for NEC.
Ericsson Network Systems (Richardson, Texas) unveiled its version of splitterless ADSL for its ANxDSL multiservice access system. ADC Telecommunications (Minneapolis) announced that it has integrated full-rate and splitterless ADSL functionality into its Cellworx Service Transport Node (STN) platform. ADC recently began working with Efficient Networks to facilitate interoperability among each other's ADSL products, reports Karl Rookstool, vice president of marketing for ADC's ATM Transport Division.
Paradyne (Largo, Fla.) launched a program called the private copper partnership which will strive to connect ISPs, CLECs, value-added resellers and Paradyne with the owners of multitenant buildings. The partners will help each other recognize opportunities to deploy ADSL and team with one another to make them real, according to Paradyne officials.
The Vision Thing
Optical networking vendors came to Georgia with more than just DWDM on their minds. Nearly all of them mapped out their plans to evolve their product portfolios to support the all-optical network.
Future-minded carriers dream of building, or already are building, networks that will allow them to transport the most data, the fastest, the farthest and the most cost-effectively. Those fiber optic networks will be equipped with DWDM systems and ATM switches that will make them capable of meeting the burgeoning demand for more bandwidth as data traffic continues to increase exponentially and as more and more voice traffic is stuffed into data packets. These networks will pump IP and other data traffic via fiber across the nation, around the globe and eventually across the street. They will allow carriers to stop treating data as an afterthought and give it first-class attention.
The show floor was riddled with optical networking gear that carriers can use to start building those networks. Naturally, as the breadth and width of a marketing opportunity has expanded, so has the number of vendors offering solutions.
Commercial Technologies Corp. (CTC; Culver City, Calif.) introduced its CodeStream optical network system which it claims can simultaneously transmit up to 128 OC-12 (622 Mbps) signals across a single fiber using optical code division multiple access (O-CDMA) technology (“Bar-coding fiber,” July 1).
Siemens also made its entry into the optical transmission arena with the introduction of the TransXpress ALine multiservice fiber optic transport system. The device uses cell-based multiplexing to feed ATM and circuit-based traffic onto Sonet rings, says Michael McLaughlin, vice president of transport networks for Siemens. It consists of two components: the RingNode, which handles subscriber access, and the MasterNode, which controls ring traffic, concentrates it and passes it on to the core network. Subscribers can connect to the system via copper or fiber. “The system allows service providers to carry voice and data on an integrated transport platform,” McLaughlin says.
The DWDM arena welcomed a few new players. Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (Richardson, Texas) introduced its first DWDM products, the Flashwave 320G 32-channel, OC-48/OC-192 (2.5 Gbps/10 Gbps) DWDM long-haul system and the Flashwave Metro 16-channel, OC-48 short-haul system. The systems are available now, says Jay Prichard, marketting manager for Fujitsu. The equipment is in lab trials with several undisclosed carriers.
In addition to making DWDM news, Fujitsu and Hitachi Telecom (USA) Inc. (Norcross, Ga.) announced the addition of four-fiber bidirectional line switched ring (BLSR) capability with forward error correction (FEC) to their synchronous optical network (Sonet) OC-192 products: the Flash-192 add/drop multiplexer (ADM) and the AMN 5192 Sonet node, respectively. NEC will introduce a four-fiber BLSR OC-192 next year, according to Steve Cortez, manager of product marketing for NEC.
Hitachi also made its DWDM debut by announcing the first of several products to come in an emerging suite of ultrahigh-speed optical gear. The vendor made its case that 10 Gbps time division multiplexed (TDM) systems with DWDM are “the way to go” for carriers that want to achieve high bandwidths by unveiling the AMN 6100, 32-channel, OC-192, 320 Gbps DWDM system.
Why did Hitachi decide to make an OC-192 system first? “That's like asking Mercedes why they don't make Yugos. Nobody is building a new network today with OC-48,” quips Scott Wilkinson, manager of account marketing for Hitachi. Just in case a provider wants to fire up on OC-48 channel, however, the AMN 6100 allows customers to mix and match OC-48 and OC-192 channels on the same shelf, he notes.
Hitachi clearly outlined its plans to move its customers to the all-optical network. Wilkinson says Hitachi will roll out a commercial version of the AMN 7000 optical cross connect (OXC), which performs cross-connects for restoration purposes, in the second quarter of 1999. In late 1999, Hitachi will add optical ADMs (OADMs) and wavelength cross connects (WXCs) to the AMN 6000 DWDM portfolio. Within the next three to five years, Hitachi expects to be offering OC-768 (40 Gbps) Sonet nodes.
“We are trying to offer our customers products that will enable them to build a complete network,” Wilkinson says.
Driving Miss Data
Bellcore spinoff Tellium Inc. (Oceanport, N.J.) also stepped into the DWDM spotlight. Tellium debuted the Aurora OXC optical cross connect and Marathon and MetroXpress 64-channel long -and short-haul DWDM systems, all available this quarter, according to Richard Barcus, vice president of marketing and product management. The company's products provide “Sonet-like” survivability and configurability at the optical layer. This allows carriers to bypass the Sonet layer and connect IP routers and ATM switches directly to the optical layer. Nevertheless, both systems are OC-3 to OC-48 programmable.
Tellium's first customer for the Aurora OXC (and the MetroXpress) is the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The agency will use a 16x16 wavelength version of the device. The first non-DARPA version of the Aurora, which will be available this quarter, will accommodate 32x32 wavelengths. Tellium plans to make a 64x64 wavelength OXC commercially available in the first quarter of 1999, Barcus says.
An OXC's ability to streamline transmission is not the only reason carriers are eager for this type of equipment to become commercially available, Barcus notes. “Today, digital crossconnects [DCSs] are getting too big for the CO. That's because each Sonet ADM puts out 48 DS3s [45 Mbps], each of which connects to a port on a DCS. The increasing amount of ADMS in service is [exponentially] increasing the size of DCSs. They now scale from 512 ports up to 10,000 ports, which means carriers have to use up to 20 bays of equipment to terminate their Sonet traffic,” Barcus says. “Service providers are running out of room and we are basically hitting the wall.”
On a related note, Alcatel introduced its Optinex 1680 OGX optical gateway cross-connect. The device is not a true optical cross-connect, because it switches traffic electronically, not optically, explains Dana Hartgraves, director of business development. The OGX receives interoffice traffic via an asynchronous transponder with a multiple bit-rate drop-side interface. It then grooms the traffic using a Sonet matrix and cell-based matrix for more efficient transport across the longhaul network. Alcatel is targeting the OGX at carriers that want to sell wavelength services and/or hand off OC-48 or OC-192 traffic to long-haul networks, she notes.
Alcatel also debuted the 1640 OADM optical add/drop multiplexer. The 400 Gbps, 40 channel, OC-192 system supports direct ATM and IP connections to the optical layer. It features forward error correction and 100 GHz channel spacing.
“Our vision of the future is end-to-end wavelength services,” Hartgraves says. “For that to come true, we will need DWDM optical rings that can pick up ATM and IP traffic and transport it optically in the access part of the network.”
Within the next 18 months it will be possible to grow the 1640 OADM to 240 OC-48 channels, and it will be possible to use those channels to transport OC-3 or IP traffic. The system also can be used on a four-fiber BLSR OC-192 Sonet ring which Alcatel will introduce about a year from now, Hartgraves says.
Alcatel also staged an interoperability demonstration involving the company's 1633 SX cross-connect and ATM equipment provided by Alcatel, Cisco Systems (San Jose, Calif.) and IBM (Armonk, N.Y.). Alcatel's 1100 LSSR ATM switch performed IP switching between sub-networks hosted by IBM's 2216 Nways multiaccess connector on one side and a Cisco 12008 GSR router on the other side. Other equipment involved in the demo included IBM's 8265 Nways edge switch and Alcatel's ATM-based Maxxis switch and the 1000 ADSL remote and CO units, which worked with IBM's 8265 ATM edge switch. The demo showed how corporate IP/ATM traffic can be merged into the traditional voice network, according to Hartgraves.
Data also got its due from Pirelli Cables and Systems North America (Columbia, S.C.) when CEO Giuseppe Morchio announced the 128-channel Tera-Mux. At full capacity, the TeraMux offers 128 channels of transmission capacity at 10 Gbps, or the rough equivalent of 16.5 million simultaneous phone calls, over a single fiber. Unlike previous DWDM systems, TeraMux uses Soliton transponders to convert non-return to zero (NRZ) pulses, of light into Soliton pulses, whose special shape allows them to travel up to 6,000 km over conventional fiber without regeneration, he explains.
“Internet 2 is going to have to accommodate a huge quantity of bandwidth. And we've prepared a platform for it, not on paper, but with product,” Morchio says. “TeraMux is a new platform, not an extension of an older one. It is the right solution for customers looking to go longer distances, with higher channel counts, and at speeds beyond the OC-192 TDM range.”
And That's Not All
NEC introduced the latest version of its SpectralWave DWDM system, a 64-channel, OC-48 160 Gbps system, available now. In about a year, NEC will deliver cards that use 50 GHz instead of 100 GHz spacing, which will allow the system to deliver another 64 channels for a total of 128. NEC also announced the Vista intelligent Sonet access multiplexer, which features T1 and xDSL interfaces. Carriers can use the Vista to provide loop access via copper or fiber to Sonet rings. The device costs about 50% less than a competitive Sonet multiplexer, says Steve Currence, manager of product planning. A Vista with an OC-3 output and 28 DS1 inputs costs less than $10,000, he adds.
Nortel (Brampton, Ontario) introduced the advanced Multiwavelength optical repeater (MOR) plus system. MOR plus allows carriers to add or drop traffic optically, and offers optical layer control and monitoring. Corning Inc.'s (Corning, N.Y.) FiberGain erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) module provides the optical amplification for the MOR plus. Nortel's booth featured MOR and MOR plus amplifiers configured on hundreds of kilometers of Corning's recently introduced Leaf optical fiber. The fiber features a large core area which makes it particularly suited for use with more powerful amplifiers.
Ericsson teamed with Bay Networks (Santa Clara, Calif.) to transmit high-speed local area network (LAN) traffic over a “Sonet-less” DWDM network. In the demo, two Bay Networks Accelar 1200 gigabit Ethernet routers pumped data at Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and gigabit Ethernet rates across Ericsson's Erion DWDM point-to-point DWDM network at a record-breaking distance of 650 km. Ericsson optical line amplifiers provided signal protection in the optical layer. The demo proved that very high-speed LAN traffic can be cost-effectively transmitted across a distance three times as great as had been spanned previously, according to an Ericsson spokesman. Ericsson plans to continue its initiative by demonstrating the same capablity with ATM and IP, he adds.
Cambrian (Kanata, Ontario) and Lucent also embraced interoperability. The vendors linked Lucent's WaveStar OLS 40G 16-channel OC-3/OC-48 point-to-point long haul DWDM system to Cambrian's OPTera Metro 32-channel OC-48 DWDM system. Cambrian and Lucent are exploring unified network management as well as interoperable applications for specific customers, says Solomon Wong, assistant vice president of marketing for Cambrian.
Positron Fiber Systems Corp. (Montreal) announced that its line of Osiris Sonet multiplexers can be upgraded in the field from OC-3 or OC-12 rates to OC-48 rates, with a new OC-48 plug-in line card. With the new capability, carriers can directly access Ethernet and FastEthernet LANs and DS1 applications without having to use external bridges, routers and low speed Sonet muxes, which are usually needed to provide such a mix of services on OC-48 platforms.
July 15, 1998 table of contents
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