NGN 99: SONET… WIRED OR TIRED?
Rafat Pirzada of Cyras Systems, a start-up based in Fremont, California observed that the first generation of SONET equipment has not kept up with Moore’s Law, offers no LAN support, is rack-spaced limited, is bandwidth optimized for the rigid telco hierarchy, has poor granularity, and is strictly a Layer 1 device with no statistical multiplexing capabilities.  Nevertheless, metro area SONET deployments are skyrocketing.  Sales for 1999 will be well ahead of expectations.  Because SONET is very well established in carrier networks and supports their revenue generating services, Pirzada believes that carrier will strongly prefer an evolutionary upgrade to their systems rather than their elimination.  Already some start-ups have been wildly successful with next generation systems combining limited ADM functionally with statistical multiplexing of data over SONET (up to OC-12).  Cyras envisions a next-next generation M-BOSS system that will serve as the ultimate traffic aggregator for pulling voice and data traffic onto SONET rings.  The target is a 10 to 40-fold increase in price-bandwidth efficiency over current optical solutions.

SONET sales are driven by the tremendous demands of data, said Bijan Khosravi of Siara Systems, a start-up based in Mountain View, California and it is the wrong tool to handle the explosion of Internet traffic.  We are moving toward an all IP network, according to Khosravi, where Layer 3 control of the network is desired.  Siara is betting the network transmission controls can be provided in an ASIC, drastically reducing the cost of the network.  A smart, multiservice platform at the edge of the network would handle protocol termination, CoS/QoS, SLAs and all traffic aggregation onto the optics.
Converge! Network Digest, November 4, 1999

NGN KEYNOTE: ITXC, IP TELEPHONY TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC NET
So far, Internet telephony is based on substantial cost savings over intercontinental long distance, said Tom Evslin, founder and CEO of Internet Telephony eXchange Carrier (ITXC).  However, soon he expects enhanced telephony features to make Voice on the Net a real threat to the PSTN.  ITXC carried 42.5 million minutes of voice traffic over its network in Q3, up 73% over the 24.5 million minutes carried during the preceding quarter.  By Bell standards the numbers are not yet large, but more gateways are coming online, interconnection agreements are being signed and the Internet is getting better every day.  Evslin claims most users are not even aware that their discounted phone-to-phone conversation is carried over the Net, as ITXC operates by providing the lowest cost interconnection between affiliated long-distance companies and international gateways.  Evslin said the biggest quality problem for Voice on the Net is not latency, but rather post-dial connection time – the interval it takes for the IP telephony gateways to connect with the PSTN.  Integrating SS7 capabilities into the gateway, a process already underway in some of its hubs, should alleviate this problem.  Congestion is avoided whenever possible by continuously sending out test packets as “traffic helicopters” and then re-routing when problems are detected.  Private IP connections and/or the PSTN can serve as a backup.  ITXC is not competing on voice quality for now, but by end of next year, Evslin expects his network to be capable of “pin-drop” quality by moving packets at greater than 64 Kbps.  Because of Internet dynamics, he expects a rich set of voice services and applications will emerge, making Internet telephony far more useful and changing its market.  When the last mile problem is corrected and high-quality connections become available, Evslin is betting that the floodgates to voice on the Net will be opened.
Converge! Network Digest, November 4, 1999

NGN 99: MPLS, QOS AND TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
The emerging standard for multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) will address several challenges for scaling really large IP networks, according to Peter Joy of Lucent Technologies, including packet forwarding, packet filtering, policing, IP flow classification, BGP peering, multicasting and virtual routing.  MPLS will combine IP and ATM, enabling a spectrum of QoS levels through the core of the network.  It will make ATM invisible in the network and provide the traffic engineering benefits of a connection-oriented core.  Joy also said that MPLS would open the door to VPNs based on virtual IP routing, with vendors providing their own value-added enhancements to a baseline spec.

MPLS is not a magic solution for the problems of large scale networking, said Ian Mashiter of Ennovate Networks, and in fact does not address the pressing need for a standard for building carrier-grade VPNs.  MPLS does not address the technical challenge of how to identify members in a VPN, how to determine end-points, how to advertise availability, or how to provision a virtual service.  The useful of MPLS, according to Mashiter, will be in tunneling, providing appropriate security (like Frame Relay), and in making connectionless IP look connection-oriented and thus supporting QoS.

MPLS is just another tool for building out the Internet, said Louis Mamakos of UUNET.  Speeding up routers was the original problem MPLS was designed to solve, but that challenge has already been overcome by faster equipment.  Now traffic engineering is the killer app for MPLS because it permits the Layer 2 transmission network to respond to Layer 3 routers.  UUNET will use this capability to monitor bandwidth of traffic flows, to automatically map certain of these flows to the transmission layer and to do capacity planning.  Mamakos stated that the use of MPLS for VPNs is a non-starter for ISP backbones.  He does not believe MPLS VPNs will be scalable and that their usefulness presumes an end-to-end MPLS deployment, which is not feasible on the UUNET infrastructure.
Converge! Network Digest, November 4, 1999

WILLIAMS SELECTS CIENA’S INTELLIGENT OPTICAL CORE SWITCH
Williams Communications awarded a three year contract to Ciena Corp. to supply intelligent optical core switches, pending successful trial completion and certification early next year.  The contract is valued at up to $40 million. 

CIENA said its MultiWave CoreDirector switch will use an Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP) to enable dynamic status information exchange between switches.  The intelligence would allow the switch to select the best path across the network. Williams will use a mesh-based protection scheme to provide its restoral capabilities.  Ciena’s CoreDirector also supports simultaneous ring, linear line and path-level fast mesh protection, allowing multiple concurrent protection mechanisms including software-defined rings (VLSR), standards-compliant linear APS protection, and FastMesh path-level restoration.  The initial release of CoreDirector supports 256 OC-48/STM-16 or 64 OC-192/STM-64 interfaces in a single bay.  Optical interfaces include OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, OC-48/STM-16 and OC-192/STM-64, accommodating switches and routers without requiring standalone SONET/SDH multiplexers.  Ciena plans to support OC-768/STM-256 transmission in the future.  The optical interfaces are software configurable for full wavelength switching or channelized STS-N granularity, down to STS-1.
http://www.ciena.com/news/archive/1999/11/11.04.1999pr.html
CIENA, November 4, 1999

In March, Sycamore announced an initial $24.5 million order from Williams Communications for its SN 6000 Intelligent Optical Transport Node platform, which provides wavelength conversion and optical multiplexing of OC-48 lightpaths onto OC-192 trunks..

GLOBAL CROSSING’S IP – OC-192 TEST RUNS OVER PIRELLI DWDM
Global Crossing’s recent IP over OC-192 field trial used Pirelli's WaveMux Hyper-Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (HDWDM) fiber optic transmission system.  The test transported production IP traffic between Chicago and Cleveland.  Pirelli’s WaveMux is installed and currently carrying both OC-48 and OC-192 SONET traffic on North American Crossing network (formerly the Frontier network).  Global Crossing expects to deploy permanent production IP over OC-192 in the first quarter of 2000.  http://www.globalcrossing.com/pressreleases/pr_110499a.htm
Global Crossing, November 4, 1999

Global Crossing used Lucent Technologies' NX64000  Multi-Terabit Switch/Router for the IP over OC-192 test. 

THE ATM FORUM INITIATES WORK ON MPLS, REPORTS UTOPIA 3 AND 4 PROGRESS
The ATM Forum has established an ATM-IP Collaboration Working Group to coordinate MPLS interworking issues.  The group will build upon on-going work with the IETF to map ATM Quality of Service (QoS) to DiffServ.  The ATM Forum’s Technical Committee also recently finalized the UTOPIA Level 3 specification and a PHY/MAC Identifier Addendum to UNI 4.0 Signaling.  UTOPIA Level 3 enables 32-bit wide data transfers, allowing for full duplex bidirectional data transfers of 3.2Gbps between a (single or multiple port) physical layer chip and an ATM layer chip.  The PHY working group reported continuing progress on UTOPIA 4, which addresses OC-192 rates.  The PHY/MAC Identifier Addendum to UNI 4.0 Signaling spec, which was passed to final ballot, provides the binding between an ATM virtual circuit (VC) and the appropriate PHY path in residential broadband access networks, such as IEEE 802.14 or dual latency ADSL.  The specification can be used to optimize multi-service ATM over ADSL .  http://www.atmforum.com
The ATM Forum, November 4, 1999

JDS UNIPHASE TO ACQUIRE OPTICAL COATING LAB FOR $2.8 BILLION
JDS Uniphase will acquire Optical Coating Laboratories, a developer of optical thin film coatings used for wavelength separation, for $2.8 billion in stock.  The companies have been involved in a successful contractual joint venture since 1997, under which OCLI contributed expertise in optical thin film technology and products for DWDM applications.  JDS Uniphase said the acquisition would add optical filter design and manufacturing capabilities to its product design, manufacturing and market positions.  OCLI is based in Santa Rosa, California. http://www.jdsunph.com/corpinfo/press-no0013.htm
http://www.ocli.com
JDS Uniphase, November 4, 1999

BECHTEL TO BUILD EQUINIX’S E-COMMERCE FACILITIES UNDER $1.2 RAPID EXPANSION PLAN
Equinix announced a $1.2 billion rapid expansion plan under which Bechtel Corporation will build or expand more than 30 Internet Business Exchange (IBX) facilities around the world over the next four years.  The Equinix concept is to provide neutral interconnection and financial grade security at common exchange points for ISPs, carriers, content providers and application service providers (ASPs). Equinix has received funding from Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Benchmark Capital.  Its customers include MCI WorldCom, Akamai, Teleglobe, RemarQ, NaviNet, and Concentric.  http://www.equinix.com  http://www.bechtel.com
Bechtel, November 4, 1999

INFINEON AND SAVAN ANNOUNCE VDSL CHIPSET
Infineon Technologies and Savan Communications Ltd. announced a second-generation VDSL (Very high bitrate Digital Subscriber Line) chipset based on QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), which the companies believe better suited than DMT (Discrete Multitone).  The VDSL chip set consists of a programmable digital transceiver that can be programmed to perform 26/3 Mbps asymmetric and 13 Mbps symmetric data rates.  The device includes all physical layer functions (including QAM modulation and equalization, interleaver, reed-solomon coding, etc), a UTOPIA interface for ATM and a universal data-and-clock interface for a variety of high-speed modem applications.  The companies said the sweet spot for VDSL appears to 26/3 Mbps asymmetric and 13 Mbps symmetric transmission rates over up to 5000 feet.  http://www.infineon.com   http://www.savan.com
Infineon Technologies, November 4, 1999